Zia walked around camp, looking for Ike. They were supposed to be meeting Arch for their daily reports, but she couldn't find him anywhere. She looked by the cooking tents, the training arena, the latrines. But he was no where to be found. He wasn't even out playing tricks on the other Thieves! Where was that boy?
Much had changed in the past twelve years. Zia was now eighteen, and the hidden place where Arch had brought her when she had been attacked by Daxtor had now grown to its own little community of sorts. It had become the new Headquarters for the Thieves of Otar, and they had grown much stronger over the years. The hidden town was a near-home to more than three hundred Thieves, and that was only for the Thieves without a home. There were some men in the surrounding towns who still had families to look after, so they stayed with them, but they always showed up for the weekly meetings.
Some things, though, hadn't changed very much at all. Ike was still as cheery as ever, but in his teenage years he had become more mischievous. Zia was still strong-willed and stubborn, but through the years she had learned when to relent when the situation called for it. Arch and Ike were still Zia's family, and Arch was still the Thieves' fearless leader.
One of the things that hadn't changed at all, though, was the threat of Daxtor Myrna. Many nights Zia would relive the moments when he had tried to kill her, and would wake in a fit of cold shivers. She hadn't seen him in person since the night Arch had brought her here, but she knew that he was still out there looking for her, plotting to kill her in ways that would cause her the most pain.
Zia walked passed a large aspen tree with low-hanging branches. The leaves rustled in the wind as she passed, and she was just about to call Ike's name when a someone jabbed quickly at her sides with their fingers.
Zia didn't think before she reacted. She went into action. She quickly crouched down low and swept her foot behind her, knocking the person over. Then, before he could get up, Zia leaped onto him, pinning his arms and legs wide with her own and looked down at the person sprawled out on his back.
Another thing that had changed: Zia had learned to fight.
"Ike!" she said furiously when she saw who she was pinning. She pushed angrily off of him to get to her feet.
Ike exploded into a fit of laughter which, was joined by another voice belonging to a man walking towards them from the trees.
"Oh, that was funny!" Heath said, his face turning red with laughter.
Heath's parents had passed from starvation a few years after Ike, Arch, and Zia had taken to the woods. Heath hadn't realized it then, but they had both been giving him all their food. So, when his parents were dead, Arch took him in and raised him alongside Zia and Ike.
Heath walked over to Ike and offered him a hand up while Zia glared at them.
"You owe me two copper coins, Ike," Heath said once Ike had gotten to his feet.
Once he had gotten control of his fits of laughter, Ike said, "I'll give them to you at dinner."
"You two were betting I would almost kill you?" she asked Ike.
"Well, not really kill me, but that I could get a fighting reaction out of you," Ike said with a shrug, as if to say, It was nothing really.
Zia stared at him. "You really should've seen that one coming, Ike. I've spent nearly my whole life training to fight."
"Yeah, and me alongside you," Ike pointed out.
Zia shrugged like it didn't matter. "Maybe, but I've done better than you." She smiled, knowing what his reaction would be.
"Puh-lease," Ike said, rolling his eyes with his infamous crooked grin reading on his face. "I think we all know who's the best fighter."
"It's time for our daily reports with Arch," she said, changing the subject. She knew that once Ike got going he would never stop.
Ike groaned while Zia and Heath grinned at him. "Why does he have to keep tabs on everyone?" Ike whined. "I'm tired of being a spy."
"Because he doesn't think you're mature enough to handle anything else," Zia said teasingly.
"Oh, really? Then why doesn't he let you stay out for guard duty?" Ike shot back.
"Because she's a girl and she needs her beauty sleep," Heath answered.
Zia folded her arms and stared at them. She didn't like it when people pointed out that she was a girl. She had grown up with men her whole life, and she hated when they tried to compare her to other girls. Like she had anything in common with them!
"Come on, Ike," she said.
"Oh, alright," he sighed.
Zia could tell that Ike really did not want to go, so she thought of ways she could make it more bearable for him. She then smiled mischievously and said, "Race you!" She took off running through the trees, weaving in and out to avoid hitting the trunks. Ike was right behind her, putting on speed to catch up.
Zia broke from the trees into the clearing where most of the life in the Thieves' Headquarters took place. She ran past the latrine, plugging her nose as she did to block out the awful smells of waste. It was placed a little further away from the camp for obvious reasons. Close to the center of the camp were about twenty small campfires, each with four or five people huddled next to them. As Zia whizzed by, she saw that Cook had an over-sized pot hanging over the biggest of the fires. Thieves were milling about, doing chores and practicing in the training arena.
Zia sprinted past fires and tents, heading for the largest tent in the camp that was reserved for Arch and his guests.
Ike was catching up and Zia was almost there. He drew even with her and gave her a smile. "Tired yet?" he asked.
She smiled back. "You wish!" She increased her speed and reached the tent, smacking it with her hand as she passed inside.
Ike ran through the tent himself just after and she smiled at him. "Beat you."
"Maybe, but you got a head start, and I caught up with you. Besides, I almost won." Ike's breath was deep and heavy from their run.
"'Almost' being the key word," she panted.
Ike was about to reply when Arch said, "Are you two going to continue fighting like children or can we get on with this?"
Arch had also changed over the years. His once blonde hair was now white, and his once clean-shaven face was now showing some stubble that matched his hair color. His eyes were still as icy blue as always, and the corners of his eyes held wrinkles that showed he had spent his life smiling and being happy even though most of what he loved had been taken from him.
Arch sat behind a large, polished, wooden desk with parchment and empty ink bottles littering it. It was a large desk, but it fit easily inside the even larger tent. In front of the desk were two wooden chairs that were in good condition that people sat in for extended visits to Arch's tent. There was a small cot in the corner where Arch slept and a few wooden trunks in the other corners. It was quite simple, quaint, really, and it suited Arch perfectly.
"What do you want to know this time?" Ike asked as he sat down in front of his father's desk.
"How are they all getting along?" Arch suggested.
"Fine," Ike said simply.
"Just 'fine'?" Arch asked. "Any arguments breaking out today? Any attempted murders?"
"Well, unless you count Zia's hilarious instincts, no." Ike sounded disappointed.
Arch looked back and forth between the two of them. "What did you do, son?" Arch asked, that old jolly twinkle in his eyes.
"He crept up on me," Zia said as she sat beside Ike in the other chair, "so I attacked him." She said it like it happened everyday and she was used to it, which, now that she thought about it, it mostly did.
Arch laughed heartily. "How badly did you beat him? Any bruises or broken bones?"
"No, I'm still in one piece," Ike said gesturing to his frame. Ike had gone from the small little boy Zia knew from her childhood to a handsome young man. His brown eyes were more focused, but still had the childish gleam in them, and his hair had grown out shaggier, giving him an I-woke-up-like-this look. He was much taller than Zia, who had stopped growing around age sixteen. She had been taller than him then, and she had teased him mercilessly because of it. But her teasing days were over... at least over their height. She didn't think she'd ever be done teasing her brother.
Arch smiled. "What about you, Zia? Anything new?"
"No, sir," she said. "Same as always. The Thieves get along just fine."
"Good," Arch said.
"I don't know why you have us spy on everyone, Pa," Ike complained.
"This is a group of skilled killers and fighters," Arch explained for what must have been the fifth time that week. "Any one of them could kill another person with ease; and I'll not have people like Daxtor Myrna- people who think of nothing but themselves- in my company. It would be too dangerous for all of us."
"I know that," Ike said. "What I don't know is why you have Zia and me do it."
"It's good training," Zia answered before Arch could. "Noticing things is the first and most important thing that anyone- warrior or not- can learn."
Arch smiled proudly. "That's exactly right."
"I know that," Ike said again. "It just gets a little bit tedious after a while. I'm getting bored of playing tricks on Cook."
Zia gasped dramatically. "You? Get bored of playing tricks? Who are you?"
Ike smiled his crooked grin, rolling his eyes as he did so. But his grin disappeared. "I'm just saying, there's never anything new to report, so why waste time watching for nothing?"
Arch sighed, but did not reply. he and Zia both knew there was so use talking to Ike when he was like this. He always seemed to have a counter-argument for this particular subject."
"Well, if that's all you have to report, then you can go. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to meet with someone." Arch gestured to the flap of the tent, excusing them.
"Wait, what? I know you're busy and all that, Pa, but you're usually the one making us stay."
"We have some new recruits that I need to discuss plans with. I'm expecting them any minute now, so we can cut this meeting short." Arch spoke to his desk as he looked over a piece of parchment in front of him.
"Good enough for me," Zia said. She rose and walked out the door, Ike right behind her.
"I wonder who the new people are," Ike said as they walked.
"Could be anyone," she agreed. "Maybe it's the old goat man from the Aubarn Valley," she said.
"From the south?" Ike said. "Nah, it's probably someone from out west. They've been having food shortages there and people will be desperate to join so they can feed their families."
Zia shrugged. The recruits could be anyone at the moment. A war had started between the kingdoms of Otar and Skilae a few years ago, and this one was the bloodiest yet. The two kingdoms had been rivals ever since they were formed, and any ties of peace between the two had been unraveled when King Holen of Skilae had accused the King Donathan of Otar of kidnapping his daughter. At least, that was the official story. Zia had heard rumors from the other Thieves that King Holen was invading Otar looking for magic. Either way, it was bad news for the people living in poor villages. Many men from every village decided to join the armed forces, leaving no one to work in the fields, thus the food shortages.
"Well, I'll see you later. I'm going to go throw a few knives at the trees before dinner." Ike waved farewell and trudged off into the woods. Zia watched him go. She felt bad for him. Ike was a very energetic person, and while training was a good outlet for that energy, it wasn't enough. Zia knew that Ike wanted to feel like he was doing something important, something that would help other people, and he felt that "spying" on the Thieves, as he put it, was not helping anybody.
Sighing, Zia decided to head to the training arena. It was by far her favorite place at Headquarters, and it helped give her something to focus on. For she felt the same as Ike did, though she never said. She wanted to help people- she wanted to do something useful. But most of all she wanted to be out hunting for Daxtor. Now that she knew how to fight, she was convinced that she could end the job the executioner started.
When Zia entered the arena she saw Coral training in the corner. Coral was very pretty, and being one of the only girls in the Thieves, she was both beauty and beast. With her steal billhooks, she was a deadly enemy to have.
"Hello, Zia," she said happily as she spotted her and stopped to chat.
"Coral," Zia smiled.
"Have you seen the new men yet?" Coral asked. "They are both so tall."
"So there's two of them are there?" Zia asked, ignoring Coral's comment on their looks. It was normal for Coral to do this, and it always made Zia feel uncomfortable.
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"I was just talking with Arch and he said there were new recruits but he didn't say how many. Did you talk to them?"
"No, but I can tell you, they have got some huge arms; they must be miners and blacksmiths. I saw them ride in, and I have to say, I think they'll make a great addition to the team."
"Did you speak with them?" Zia asked.
"No, I didn't," she answered.
They fell into an awkward silence, which Zia quickly found a way out of; she hated awkward silences. "Any word on dinner?"
"Oh, Cook's making some rabbit stew... again," Coral groaned. "We're trained Thieves, aren't we? Why can't we get something decent to eat?"
Zia wanted to point out that because of the war most people were more than fortunate to get one rabbit to share between six hungry children, much less enough to feed over three hundred hungry men, but she kept her mouth shut. She would just let Coral rant until she ran out of steam.
"And don't even get me started on the clothing they give out!" Coral said. "I know you may not mind, Zia, but I don't like dressing like a man."
Zia wanted to point out that most people would do anything to get their hands on some new, sturdy clothes, but again she held her peace on the matter. "To each his own," she said.
Coral was about to reply when Heath came over, his brown hair messy and his muddy green eyes twinkling mischievously. "Have you ladies seen Ike?" he asked.
"Why?" Zia asked suspiciously. He had a look that she had come to know far too well to in good conscience let him come anywhere close to Ike- or anyone else for that matter.
Heath smiled. "That's for me to know and for you to find out. Have you seen him?"
Zia folded her arms casually and leaned her weight onto one leg. "Well, that depends on your intentions."
Heath's grin grew wider, stretching from ear to ear. "Let's just say he may or may not become good friends with the squirrels."
Coral smiled evilly. "Sounds like fun. Need any assistance?"
"Thanks, but no thanks," Heath said. "I've got this one. I need to repay him for the time he put my hand in warm water while I was sleeping."
Zia grinned at the memory. It had been a few weeks ago, and Heath had stayed up late the night before on guard duty, so he was sleeping away well into the day. Zia had decided to wake him up using the water that had just been heated for the Thieves to bathe in. Heath didn't know it had been Zia of course; no one would suspect her of something like that next to Ike. Anyway, Heath and Ike had gotten into a large argument about it, and now they were trying to get back at each other by waking the other up with the most creative plots.
"Anyway, do you know where he is?" Heath asked.
"He just went to practice with his throwing knives," Zia told him. She decided that maybe a little prank would cheer Ike up. He really did seem upset when he left her.
Heath started to walk off and he disappeared to cause some mischief.
The girls talked on for another twenty minutes or so about weapons, fighting techniques, and sparred against each other a few times.
"I've got to go," Coral said after a particularly fierce match. "I promised Ivy I'd help her tend her garden. I don't know why she keeps that sort of thing here."
Ivy Stone was the third and final member of the female trio of Thieves. Ivy was more of a lover than a fighter, but her parents had died in a fire that the Thieves saved her from, so she had nowhere else to go. Even though she wasn't good at fighting, Ivy loved everyone and everything, and her garden offered a welcome addition to the Thieve's diet.
"Well, we do get a lot of spices and herbs for our food from it," Zia pointed out.
"True, but still, it's a waste of time!"
Before Coral could spend another half hour talking and complaining about everything, Zia said, "I think you'd better hurry. Ivy will be wondering where you are."
"I guess you're right. Good-bye." And with that, Coral disappeared.
About an hour later, Zia sat near a campfire, a bowl of rabbit stew in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other. The meat was tasty and filling, and the spices and herbs from Ivy's garden added a wonderful amount of flavor into the stew.
"Mind if we join you?"
Zia looked up to see Ike and Heath standing above her, bowls and spoons in each of their hands."Is there a point in asking?" she said. "Either way you'll still sit."
They smiled as they sat across the fire from her.
"So, Ike," Zia said to spark conversation- the awkward silence was killing her. "How many knives have you lodged too deep in a tree to get out this time?
Ike glared over at Heath who smiled at Zia. "I was doing just fine, but then someone jumped me!"
"I didn't touch you!" Heath protested.
"You didn't have to! You threw a rock at me."
"Oh, you're such a baby. And it wasn't a rock, it was an acorn."
Zia choked on her stew with a laugh. She coughed a few times while Ike pounded her back. She wanted to yell at him to stop because it wasn't doing anything except for giving her a bruise, but she couldn't. She was starting to get worried that she would suffocate until Heath handed her a cup and she eagerly drained the contents, the rabbit chunk going down with it.
"Thanks," she gasped.
Heath shrugged. "Don't mention it."
Changing the subject, Ike said, "Have you seen our newest recruits?"
"No," she answered. "Have you? What are they like?"
"Yes, we met them on our way here."
"What are they like?"
"They're... interesting," Heath said slowly.
"Interesting how?" Zia asked. She had a feeling she wasn't going to like the answer.
"Let's just say that they're..." Ike's voice drifted off and his eyes were trained on something behind Zia.
"What is a girl doing here?"
Zia looked up to see two young men, hardly over the age of twenty, staring down at her in disgust. They were obviously brothers. They had the same noses and small black eyes and mops of mousy hair on top of their heads. They were both incredibly tall and had broad shoulders with arms and hands the size of small boulders.
Great, Zia thought sarcastically. They're one of those people.
Knowing that she'd get mad if she replied to them, she turned back to her food and pretended that she hadn't heard them.
"What are you doing here?" one of the boys asked. His voice was rough as sandpaper and harsher than a winter wind.
"This is no place for a woman," the other agreed. His voice was very different from his brother's. It was comically high, and Zia almost choked on her stew again when he spoke. But she managed to hide her laughter, thinking it might not be a good idea to anger these men.
Heath, on the other hand, apparently felt none of the reservations that Zia did and laughed heartily. Zia could feel the men behind her staring at him like he had just fallen from the sky.
"What's so funny? Do you think the Thieves of Otar is some sewing party or something?" the one with the high voice asked.
Heath shrugged and tried to wipe his face of his smile, but he seemed to be struggling.
Giving up on Heath, the men turned back to Zia. "What are you doing here, girl?" the deep-voiced one demanded.
"What does it look like I'm doing, boy?" She put as much venom into the word as she could, as if the very sound of it made her stomach retch. "Haven't you ever seen someone eat before?"
Ike coughed as he tried to hide back and laugh, and Heath was fighting hard to hold back his smile, though he was losing.
"This is no place for a woman," the high-pitched one said. "People can get hurt in this business."
"Why don't you go back to the kitchen?" the other one suggested.
Zia hated when this happened, and it happened often. She had been training to fight for twelve years, yet she never got any respect for it because she was a woman. People judged her abilities by her gender, not her skill. She was just as good a fighter as any of the men here! Actually, she was probably better! With her sword, she could hold her own against Arch, who was without a doubt the best fighter among the Thieves.
Heath finally lost it and laughed so hard he dropped his stew. "Zia... cook?" he said between laughs. "She... would burn... down... the entire... camp!"
Zia glared at him, but he didn't notice because he was still laughing.
"The battlefield is no place for a woman," the deep-voiced one insisted, ignoring Heath.
"It may have escaped your notice," Zia said, "but this is a camp, not a battlefield." Not yet anyway.
"Come on, brother," the high-pitched one said, placing a hand on the deep one's shoulder. "We should go. Obviously our presence is not welcomed here."
"Finally figured that out, did you?" Zia muttered.
She thought she had been quiet enough for the brothers not to hear, but the deep-voiced one must have had super hearing, because he growled and said, "I'll teach you to show some respect to a real warrior, girl."
A mad rage took over Zia. Slamming her food down hard in the dirt, she turned and tackled one of the men's legs and they tumbled down to the ground. She spread his arms and legs wide, using her weight to hold him down. Unfortunately, Zia's weight wasn't very much, and the man pushed her off of him and she rolled back up onto her feet.
"Fighting is not a skill for a girl," the high-pitched one warned her. "Why don't you go home and bake a few pies instead?" Unlike his brother, the squeaky one didn't seem to be trying to provoke her. Instead, he seemed almost like he was truly concerned about her.
But that enraged Zia all the more. Sure she wasn't the strongest looking person in the world, but she didn't look helpless!
Zia put her hands into fists and launched one at the high-voiced man's face. When her hand met his flesh, she heard a loud crunch that told her she had hurt something- probably his nose.
The men stared at her, stunned. Then, both faces turned to rage and the deeper-voiced one said, "That's it. I am going to put you in your place, woman."
Zia smiled coldly. "Why don't I put you in yours? I'll teach you to respect a real warrior, boy."
His face turned a deep maroon. "You're lucky I don't hit girls."
"So are you."
"That's it!" The man attacked, his face scarlet with rage. He brought his fists the size of boulders towards her face, but she ducked and sidestepped them easily. He threw a hook shot at her head, but she quickly ducked down and planted an uppercut on his large body.
He doubled over and Zia danced behind him and slammed her elbow down hard on his back. He fell over flat on his face.
The other brother attacked her in defense of his brother, but Zia was ready and hopped out of reach every time he made a swipe at her. This just infuriated him more, and his punches became more sloppy and less coordinated. Finding herself getting tired of just dodging and sidestepping, Zia decided to end it and she brought her leg up in a roundhouse kick, pain shooting through her leg as her shin made contact with his shoulder. The man lost his balance and fell over.
Zia thought it was all over and was about to return to her food when she heard both brothers stirring and getting up.
Zia found herself right between the two brothers, and they charged forward at her at the same time, both completely unaware of the other. She stood still until they were just a few feet away from her, then she ducked down, used her legs to swipe at one of the men's, and prepared her body to become a tripping stone.
The man whose legs she had swiped fell to the ground, and the other one tripped over her, his feet slamming into her body, and he fell on top of his brother.
Zia stood slowly, expecting them to get up and attack again, but they were both groaning and panting.
She made her way back over to her seat, trying to calm her pulse when she noticed Heath and Ike's eyes on her. Trying to ignore them, she sat down and began to eat her food again. She knew they would be laughing at her instinct to fight again.
Heath laughed. "I never get tired of seeing that."
"Seeing what?" Ike asked. "She does that to every man here who speaks to her."
"Only to the ones who deserve it," she said, taking a spoonful of stew.
"You haven't attacked me," Heath reminded her.
"That's because I'm still waiting for the perfectly moment to strike," she told him.
"Is that a threat?" he asked, looking slightly concerned.
"What do you think?"
They all laughed and Zia felt it easier for her to breath; she still had stage fright, and she felt like she had just preformed for them in some way. Even though she trusted both Heath and Ike completely, it was still uncomfortable for her. She didn't like being something used for others' entertainment.
The two brothers groaned as they started to get up, but they did not engage Zia in a fight. Instead, panting, the deep-voiced one said, "Watch your back, girl. I don't care how good you are, this is no place for a woman." Then Zia heard their footsteps walk away.
"Well, it looks like you're going to be disappointed," Heath called after their retreating backs. "Because we've got three of them!"
Ike laughed and Zia felt the tension she had felt since the brothers had arrived leave. But the peace Zia felt was soon broken twenty minutes later when a young boy of at least fourteen came up to their fire breathless, and panted, "Arch wants to see you in his tent."