**I don't think I have anything particularly important to say, so... just enjoy!**

Chapter 10

As far as bedrooms went, Lyla thought, theirs was not the worst.

As she tentatively perched onto her bed- it was smaller than the one at home, but it was soft and heaped with colorful quilts- Lyla decided that if she ever figured out this mess and returned home, she wanted to travel.

Preferably not in this creepy inn, though. It gave her the jeebies.

Aveline and Ari had taken to pacing the room and bickering with each other while Lyla unpacked and began placing each of her dresses neatly into drawers.

"You can't possibly have that many gowns. How can you run?" Ari wondered aloud, grimacing.

"They're proper," Lyla told him, not knowing what another answer to give.

"And they're pretty," Aveline added. "You know, Captain, now that I think about it, we should be fancying up our wardrobe a bit now that we're living among the high and snobby."

"But I like my clothes," Ari whined.

"If we're going to find any information here, we need to blend in," his first mate instructed, joining Lyla to pull out her own dressing gowns.

Lyla quickly learned that Ari was very particular about his own wardrobe, as she discovered while he spent nearly ten minutes explaining each of his different shoes to her.

He finally settled on an embroidered cravat that he had stolen from some Lord, apparently, and a somewhat finer pair of shirtsleeves. Lyla quickly remembered as her companions dressed that they knew how to disguise themselves as dignified. Until they opened their mouths, of course...

"Oops, this one has blood on it," Aveline said cheerily, tossing another gown to the side. For the past hour she'd been pacing the room in her undergarments, but neither her or Ari seemed to notice or care.

Lyla fought a grin as she stooped to pick up the dresses that Aveline had thrown on the floor.

"What is the plan, exactly?" She wondered, neatly folding one of the skirts into a neat square.

Ari leaned against the dresser, a pensive expression settling across his face. "We'll have to talk to the princess. The little one. What's her name?"

"Princess Leilani," Lyla supplied. She approached Aveline to help her tie the laces of a sophisticated pink gown she had chosen. "I highly doubt we'll be able to find her, even if she is staying here. I imagine they have tight security on all the princes and princesses right now."

"Still, someone here will know something. This was the last place anyone saw your prince. That has to be significant," Aveline piped up.

"I look like a pretentious clod," Ari complained, grimacing at his reflection in the table mirror.

"Perfect. You'll fit right in," said Aveline pointedly, winking at her friend as she straightened his collar. "Are you ready?"

-

Lyla scurried down the stairs, straining to keep up with Ari and Aveline, only to bump into Ari as he stopped abruptly at the bottom of the steps.

"Oof!" She absently rubbed her head and peered around his shoulder. Eli from the marketplace was waiting at the end of the stairwell, contemplatively examining his cuticles as he stood.

"Well well well," Ari gloated as he jumped down the last step. "Look who it is."

Eli crossed his arms and ankles at the same time, almost obstinately slanting himself against the wall.

"So, I assume the three of you are also here for the princess?"

Aveline straightened her spine and surreptitiously glanced at Ari. "Maybe. What are you here for?"

Eli looked up from his engrossed study of his nails. "Fine. You really want to know, sweetheart? I'm from Kaidia. Princess Elaina went missing, and some of the guards volunteered to leave their posts and help find her. Myself included." Without averting his gaze he pulled his invitation from the pocket of his waistcoat and held it up. Lyla's eyes curiously snatched at the parchment.

"Elias James Moraine, heretofore on business from the King," Ari read aloud. He glared at Eli's smug expression. "It could be fake."

Eli's mouth dropped open. "Are you calling me a liar? The official seal's right there!"

"Probably forged," Ari sniffed.

Aveline waved both of them off with a dismissive flicker of her fingers. "Alright, but then what did the girl- Jamie- have to do with this?"

"I don't know her. Honest. I hadn't even met her before today."

Aveline and Lyla exchanged glances.
"What happened, then?"

"I was on my way to the Tarrah, minding my own business, and then this girl comes up to me and tells me that she could help with the investigation, and that if I helped her get into the Tarrah, she'd pay me three bags of silver."

"And you said yes? Are you an idiot? She could have easily been a swindler or a con!"

"I know that," Eli snapped, his cheeks coloring slightly. "I just wanted to see what she would do. But all she required of me was follow the three of you and keep watch while she stole the invitation out of your pocket, and assist her if necessary. I was bored enough, and... I mean, who wouldn't do it for three bags of silver, right? Then when I saw her disappear into the alley, I followed after and you nearly impaled me with a knife."

Ari lifted a single eyebrow. "You're not the brightest, are you?"

"Can we quit it with the hostility? We're trying to do the same thing here. In fact, we should be working together," Eli insisted. "Which brings me to my point..." He twisted the doorknob of the the door behind him and pushed it open. It emptied into a large room.

Lyla followed Eli into the space, where it smelled like sweat and beer, and there were about two dozen beefy people, mostly men, arguing with each other over spilt mugs. Most of the spherical biceps on their arms were bigger than Lyla's head.

Lyla worried her bottom lip with her teeth. Somehow she had forgotten that the reward had been offered to many others of high skillsets, from different kingdoms all over the ocean.

Ari ogled them openly, seeming nearly appalled.

"It's no wonder no one has found the missing royals yet. What were they thinking, hiring all of these overgrown idiots?" He muttered.

Lyla had to disagree as she watched one of the men rip his fork in half with his bare hands. "Are you joking? Any of these people could probably rip off my arm with one hand."

"Exactly." Ari bobbed his head. "Seems to me like the monarchies hired all of the strong people and none of the smart ones."

Lyla studied the group again and realized that Ari had a point.

Eli turned to them, apparently not having heard a word they said, with that self-satisfaction still stuck on his face. It made his features less handsome, Lyla decided, which didn't come as a surprise to her. People were often more attractive when they smiled. Lyla's aunt Rosamund was the most bitter person she knew, and she looked like an old boot.

"See?" Eli clasped his hands behind his back. "All the recruits."

"Eli," Aveline growled, latching onto the boy's sleeve like a reproachful mother and pulling him back into the hallway. Lyla and Ari squeezed out behind them. "The Queen never mentioned that we had to work with people," she hissed.

"You don't have to," Eli responded, sounding surprised. "But-"

"I'd rather not split the reward," said Ari loftily, with a sneering twist to his lips. "We can do this on our own."

Eli snorted. "What makes you think you're so much better than all the skilled fighters in that room?"

"We are," Aveline shot back. "Guaranteed."

Eli drew back to squint at the three, a new, puzzled expression furrowing his eyebrows.
"Who are you?"

Aveline's lips sweetly curved upwards. "Now, that's not any of your concern, is it?"

Eli scowled and opened his mouth, but Ari interrupted him.

"Bottom line? We're private contractors. If you want to help, you can help, but we're not working with these pigs-"

"You!" A thunderous voice boomed above the boisterous noises of grit and testosterone as the door was violently thrown back open.

Ari whipped around, suddenly, his hand a blur as it shot up to encircle the outstretched wrist of a man who Lyla had not realized had entered out of the door behind him. Lyla gasped as she glimpsed the shine of a knife. It clattered to the marble floors with a ringing sound as Ari yanked the man's fingers back much too far to be natural. He yowled in pain.

"Did you just try to kill me?" Ari asked calmly, and Aveline stooped down to pick up the fallen dagger. She casually wiped the surface clean with her skirts as she sauntered over to the man. Lyla stiffened.

"Thieves," he hissed as he doubled over in pain. "You robbed my estate."

Wide-eyed, Lyla whipped her head to look at Aveline, who shrugged.

"Ah," exhaled Ari. "You're likely right. We've robbed many fine estates in our time— you couldn't possibly expect us to remember. Share the wealth, as they say-"

Howling with anger, the man twisted out of Ari's gasp and lunged forward, but Aveline was faster. She rushed forward, knife in hand. Lyla clapped her hands over her mouth as he cried out in pain.

"Wait!" She shrieked abruptly, surprising herself at her outburst. "Don't kill him!"

But the dagger had made its mark— piercing the skin near the man's hip. A thin line of blood frothed through the fabric of his coat and stained it with its colors. There was a long silence, pervaded by the dripping of the ceiling somewhere in the hallway.

"Oh, come off it, I didn't kill him," Aveline groused after a few seconds. "I just gave him a little scratch, is all."

Lyla unpeeled her fingers from her cheeks to see that she was right. The man— sweating and panting like a drunk against the wall, wasn't dead after all. Aveline had only opened up a small cut on his side, likely to frighten him. It had frightened her, Lyla thought, trying without much effort to calm the shaking of her limbs.

"What's your name?" Aveline inquired.

"Simon," the injured man croaked.

"Listen, Simon," Aveline said softly. "If you lay a hand on either one of us again, we're going to kill you. Do you understand that?"

Ari released the boy, watching as he crept back into the bar room like a dog with its tail between its legs.

"I'm going to find those royals first," he blustered as he walked, nursing his broken hand. "I'm going to take the reward, and then I'm going to run you two into the ground-"

Ari cut him off. "Oh, stop whining, Simon."

"What is wrong with you?!" Eli's unexpected shriek was piercing and Lyla covered her ears— she'd forgotten that he was still there.

"He was trying to kill us," protested Aveline.

Eli opened and closed his mouth like a fish. "Mercy. How many enemies do you have?!"

"Do you see now why we don't work with other people?" Ari made a face as he wiped at a streak of blood on his shirt.

"Because, whoever it is, you've probably robbed them at some point?" Eli guessed, the sarcasm thick in his tone.

"I'm so glad you understand." Aveline made a show of sympathetically patting his shoulder.  "Anyway, we have some investigating to do. Please, do let us know if you see anything suspicious."

Eli's answering nod was slow and stuttered, like he wanted to argue but couldn't think of anything to say, and Lyla almost smiled.

**thank you so much for reading, and as always, vote if you liked :)**