I shook my head at him as we continued into the city square.
Much of the bustle in the streets wasn’t from the warriors themselves but the people who helped them to prepare. Anyone with any crafting skill had come out onto the streets to help sharpen blades, sew uniforms, or rivet pieces of armor together. Bakers brought steaming piles of flatbread as provisions while fishermen retrieved heaps of preserved fish from smoke shacks behind their houses.
This was side of the Qihin that had not revealed itself before—a proud and closely knit community ready to give whatever they had for the greater good. They were a people drawn along by the tide their revived king had summoned. But there were too few warriors to take on a prepared force of Augmenters in a magical fortress. Not when most of them had to be left behind to defend the city.
“Are there others you can gather?” I asked Kumi. “Surely, there are more able-bodied men and women to fight.”
“Father’s influence is only so wide,” she said. “It’s been nearly a generation since we fought in earnest, and the number of our subjects who know how to fight is limited. Take away those we need to guard the city, and…” She sighed. “We simply don’t have the numbers for an all-out assault on the guild house. I know it’s what Father wishes, but it seems a task destined to fail.”
“Couldn’t we take the cellar tunnel again?” Vesma suggested.
“Labu will have warned them about it,” I said. “He let us in last time. It’s too risky to try a second time.”
They weren’t reassuring words, but if we were going to win, then more troops would be vital. A handful of fire Augmenters from across the mountains wouldn’t be enough to tip the scales. But where could we get more seasoned Augmenters and more troops to fight them in close-quarters?
“You told me there are Wilds living outside the city,” I suggested. “Could we persuade them to fight?”
“I doubt it,” Kumi said. “They hate us almost as much as the guild.”
“So, the Qihin are still the lesser evil, then.”
“The Wilds detest the Resplendent Tears,” Kumi agreed. “but they might be happy just to leave us to rip each other apart.”
“Who leads them?” Kegohr asked.
“Chief Jonnik. He lives on Shredded Scale Isle and commands most of the Wild bandits working up and down the coast.”
“There’s your army,” I said. “All we need to do is convince him that it’s in his interest to help the Qihin remove Horix from the Resplendent Tears Guild. Any shot at help has to be worth taking right now.”
“They sound like the type to slit throats and ask questions later,” Yo Hin protested.
“We’ve had plenty of experience with the Wysaros,” I reminded him. “How much worse can it be?”
“I’ll go with you as an emissary,” Kumi said.
“We’ll join you,” Kegohr told us. “You’ll need someone to back you up.”
“Too many people will look like a war party, big guy,” I pointed out. “Leave it to me and the princess here.”
I didn’t like bringing Kumi into a meeting with a bunch of bloodthirsty bandits, but I needed her there. I wouldn’t know how to act or what to say. Even my time as a security agent wouldn’t prepare me for such a meeting. I knew when I needed help, and now was the time for it.
Kumi gave our companions instructions for who to report to at the palace before she and I headed down to the docks. The seahorse-boat we’d taken from the guild island was still tied up at the quay. After we boarded the boat, Kumi laid her hand on the carving at the stern, and together, we slipped out into the waves.
It was a clear day with a few fragments of fluffy white clouds scattered across a blue sky. The ocean sparkled all around us as our boat raced through the waves to the south.
“The storm has passed,” I said. “Doesn’t that mean—”
“Yes,” Kumi cut me off. “Horix will find tapping into the power of the trident much easier. Let’s hope Chief Jonnik hears our request.”
The water was much stiller than it had been on my last crossing and it made for a far more comfortable ride. The salt spray brushed my cheeks as I watched the world pass by around us. The marshlands of the Vigorous Zone climbed over the shore. Seabirds wheeled overhead and turtles bobbed in the gentle currents. It was a whole lot better than tidal wyrms crashing in and out of the water.
Thoughts of Horix and what he could do with the trident invaded my mind, and I pushed them aside. I had to focus on the mission, and that was speaking with the Wild Chief. I decided some casual conversation with the princess would help loosen me up before we arrived at the Shredded Scale Isle.
“How’d you sleep last night?” I asked.
Kumi laughed, all somberness vanishing. “Never slept better. You’re quite the talented lover.”
“Don’t undersell yourself. I’ve never seen a pool of water Augment itself before.”
She blushed and turned the boat without a reply. I settled on a less salacious subject.
“Tell me about the Wilds we’re about to meet. Why don’t they live with the clan?”
“There have always been some outsiders,” Kumi said. “Those who prefer a lonesome life to keeping the company of others, or who don’t like the idea of being told what to do by a king. But they were few and far between until Horix took over at the guild.
“When Horix took charge, things changed. It became impossible for people with Wild powers to get the training they wanted in Augmenting. The guild’s crusade against Wilds upset and angered everyone, but it also riled some up against the clan. Men like Jonnik didn’t think that my father and his advisers were doing enough to stand up for them against this oppression.”
“Given how King Beqai was when we arrived, I can’t blame
