“Braichad!” I yelled, and not for the first time. I’d probably woken up half the street.

I rounded the corner in full sprint, and so had to pull up short and swift in time not to collide with the big blue door opening in spite of my face. But I managed it, the years of training from my mercenary father paying off.

So I sidestepped the door and frowned up at the big young man who likewise frowned at me, his bottle green eyes narrowing.

“What?”

He was only half dressed and sounded annoyed. Well, it was early morning… but that didn’t matter. Kite was missing. Taken. Taken by Slavers, and I wanted him back.

“I need you.” I said, somewhat out of breath.

“What?!” He stood up straighter, confused shock on his tanned face. “Ria, please, you’re like a sister to m-”

My eyes widened.

“What?!” What the hell did he think I wanted? Scratch that, I knew what he thought I wanted… but the hell with it, that was preposterous. Still, I thought it best to correct him. “No Brai, I don’t need… that.”

I shook my head, trying not to let my anxiety creep into my voice.

“The Slavers took Kite. They took my little brother.”

His relief at my earlier words was replaced with startled anger. He motioned me inside, closing the wooden door quietly behind me. His brother, the arrogant pig, would have slammed it.

“I need you, Brai. I have to go find him, get him back before my father returns. This should never have happened. I should have looked out for him better! Locked him in his room at night so he couldn’t go sneaking out…”

“Calm down Ria. Tell me what happened.”

He motioned for me to sit, and I did. Plonking heavily down onto one of the kitchen chairs as he grabbed a clean white shirt and shrugged it on. He always left things laying around everywhere when his brother and father were away, and then ran about like a headless rooster when their approach into the town was seen, trying to put everything away. The boy never learned.

“I was asleep. And then Kite’s ferret, Pan, woke me. Tapping and screeching at my window. So I checked on Kite, I was going to scold him for not looking after Pan properly. But Kite wasn’t there. His window was open, and he was gone.”

I took a deep breath, this part was the daunting part. Braichad pulled a chair out and sat in front of me, his thick wavy hair falling over his eyes. He brushed it aside, not taking his eyes from me.

“I tracked him with Pan’s help, and his tracks led me into the woods. And… and, there were unhidden careless tracks. Cart tracks, and horses. Food scraps, and fingers…”

I frowned slightly at Braichad. The two fingers had been still bloody, and clearly had belonged to a man. No doubt some fight over a woman or ale had gotten out of hand and the man’s stubby fingers had paid the price.

“Slavers.” Braichad agreed. “Damn pricks never even try to hide.”

“I need to find him Brai, he can’t be sold to some seedy lecherous man… he’s only thirteen!”

“I know, and he wont be.” He reassured me.

“I can’t go alone, if I could I’d already be gone. I need a man with me.”

A woman riding alone was an easy target for the more unsavoury type of men in D’Arman, and I wasn’t young enough to pass as a boy anymore when I dressed in a boy’s breeches and shirt. It would be obvious with the tight fitting male attire that I was a woman, regardless of whether I hacked off my long coffee braid or not.

“I need you. And I need to leave now.”

Braichad nodded, tousling his own brown hair in frustration as he did it. Just as I was like a sister to him, my little brother was like his own little brother.

“Don’t worry, I’m bloody coming with you. Go home and get provisions for at least a week, and saddle your horse. I’ll meet you in a bit.”

I nodded, giving my best smile and hugging him tightly before running back outside and down the dusty street to my father’s empty house.