The Fort Jaliyl clothing shop was essentially a large wooden warehouse, each support pillar threaded through a table on which were stacks of dresses, jackets, pants, and bins of various ornaments. Cleared shoppers—wearing gold, silver, or copper badges around their necks—crowded around tables in the light of lamps hanging from cross-beams.

Near one of the tables, Kath’s man Beamish held out a dress, green with yellow trim.

“What do you think,” he asked Yan. “Think it’ll fit her?”

“She’s not here,” said Yan. “How can I know?”

“You know how big she is next to me,” said Beamish. He held the dress against his body.

Kath glanced at them from a nearby table. Her eyes narrowed.

Yan nodded. “That looks about right.” He reached out and teasingly flipped at the ruffles along the neckline. Beamish yanked the dress away.

“Aren’t you looking for something,” he said. “For Nasra?”

Yan waved his hand. “Nasra has too much clothes already.”

“So…” Beamish scanned the nearby tables. He shouldered a bald man aside and snatched up a necklace of red gems. “Get her jewelry instead.”

Yan grabbed the necklace and bared his teeth at Beamish. But then, he held the jewels out and looked at them.

“It’s nice,” he said. “I have to admit.”

“It’s garnet,” Beamish said. “Isn’t that her birthstone?”

Yan shrugged.

“How the fuck would I know?”

He held the necklace up to his throat. Beamish grinned and nodded.

“It does look nice.”

Kath stared at them from out of earshot, her eyes intense.

“What is it?” Harun said to Kath. His wife Marina looked up at them from the buff-and-blue scarf she was holding, her dark eyes wide with concern.

Kath shook her head. “Nothing. Just my men acting weird. As usual.”

She looked at the beige leather jacket he was holding. “What’s that? It looks small.”

“Ah this?” He held it out. “Not for me. For Locksley. The new boy. Jeddy just kicked him out of the kids’ camp and he’s going out with us now.”

“Sucks to be him,” Kath said with a chuckle.

“My love, that’s ugly,” said Marina. “The men will tease him.”

“He has to earn the uniform,” he said.

Marina lowered her eyes at him with a disapproving pout.

“Does it have to earn it in a hideous jacket?”

Harun shrugged at tossed it back on the table.

Kath grinned at Marina as Harun lumbered off to a rack of belts.

“The men are so callous to the boys,” Marina said.

Kath shrugged.

“Boys have to learn to be men.”

“Kathleen.” She smiled slyly. “You know as well as I that they never stop being boys.”

Kath chuckled at that and nodded.

“So,” Marina said, “are you here to buy new clothes? I mean, not that you need any.”

Kath shrugged, running her fingers along a black-and-red leather coat.

“Here,” Marina said, holding out a turquoise dress with yellow embroidery. “This would look amazing. At a dance. Or a spring festival.”

Kath laughed. Marina pouted. Her shoulders sank.

“It’s beautiful, really,” Kath said with an apologetic face. “But, I’m still on the trail. I don’t know if I’m ready for this kind of dress.”

Marina looked concerned suddenly. Kath braced herself. She had known Harun for years, through her trading with the Fort. She’d only known Marina for a few years, during the courtship and marriage. But, she’d learned that Marina was a woman whose affections came quick. Not something an instinctively suspicious merchant was used to.

“Kath, when are you going to settle down with a husband?” Her face was soft, but then it winced. “I didn’t mean to offend, if you’re not—”

“Oh no,” Kath said with a chuckle. “I like men. But there are so many boys in the way.”

At that, they both laughed. Harun looked back at them, first in suspicion, then in resignation. Marina pointed at a fur-trimmed jacket on a table next to him. He lifted it with one hand and she nodded. Harun shrugged and slapped it over his shoulder.

“Boys,” Marina said to Kath, “taking care of boys.”

“To be honest with you,” Kath said, “I find myself less concerned for finding my own man than finding my niece a good man.”

Marina carefully laid the turquoise dress on the table and nodded.

“Benjamin seems to like her.”

“They seem to like each other,” Kath said, picking up the black-and-red jacket. The red would stand out in the woods. She set it back down.

“But, a house maid and a chimney sweep don’t have much of a future together.”

“Ben also fixes clockworks,” Marina said, fumbling through a tray of gold bracelets. Kath looked at her, intrigued at the boy’s notoriety.

“Oh yes,” Marina went on, “and he maintains the lightning rods. He keeps our houses from catching fire in a lot of ways.”

“His reputation gets around,” Kath said.

Marina nodded. “He’s got a head on him. Ridvan favors him.”

“Favors him too much, I think,” Harun said, suddenly at his wife’s side. Locksley was behind him, looking sheepish, the fur-trimmed jacket Marina had chosen draped over his arm.

Kath looked at Marina apologetically then reached past her and grabbed the boy’s jacket. He glanced at Harun as Kath yanked the jacket away. In its place, she held out the red-and-black jacket she’d been considering.

Marina’s brows rose. Kath shrugged at her.

“It’s more masculine,” she said. “And the red will keep him from getting accidentally shot during a hunt.”

Marina nodded in acceptance, but Harun shook his head.

“Or get him shot on purpose by the king’s men.”

Kath lowered her eyes on him.

“More than your uniform?”

Harun glanced at his mustard clothes and huffed in frustration.

“And,” Kath said, “are you in the habit of putting boys on the front line in real combat?”

Harun frowned and shook his head. He turned to Locksley.

“Take it.”

The boy smiled in admiration at the jacket and took it from Kath.

“Thank you!”

Harun’s eyes were all over the jacket.

“Good choice,” he said to Kath. “I was never any good at picking out clothes.”

“Good thing they issue you a uniform,” Kath said.

He huffed. “I guess so, yeah.”

“Have you had better luck with the boy’s gear?” Marina said, with a wink and a grin.

Harun held out a crude belt and a plain canteen.

“Is that enough?” his wife said.

Harun put his hand on Locksley’s shoulder. “This is why you’re going to enjoy being in the field. No females giving you a hard time.”

“Just all the males,” Kath said with a wink at the boy. Marina chuckled.

Harun frowned at the boy. “That’s true. You’re going to hate that part, I’ll be honest. You’ll probably hate me before it’s all done.”

“No sir!” the boy said, holding the jacket out.

∋∈

“Are you a mercenary?”

Beamish looked down at the girl and set the dress he was holding on a nearby table.

“Who are you?” he said, brushing the red curls from his face.

“My name is Justice,” the girl said. The girl beside her nodded seriously.

“Justice isn’t a name,” Yan giggled.

“Are you a mercenary?” Justice repeated, staring at Beamish.

He nodded and looked at Yan, who rolled his eyes and went back to trying on garnet bracelets.

“We both are,” Beamish said. “We work for Kathleen Franklin.”

Justice and Holland both turned to look at the woman, who was talking with Captain Harun, his wife Marina, and the boy Locksley. She noticed their attention and lowered her eyes at them. Then, in unison, the girls turned back to Beamish and Yan.

“Are you allowed to have weapons in the Fort?” Holland said with an icy stare.

“We weren’t stopped,” Yan said with a shrug. He dropped a garnet bracelet in its tray.

“That wasn’t her question,” Justice said. Her eyes were cold.

Beamish frowned with a lifted chin. “His answer implied an answer to her question.”

“They understand implication,” Justice said to Holland.

“Very atypical of mercenaries,” Holland said. They nodded at each other in agreement.

Justice turned to Yan. “You mean the guards let you break the rules?”

“I—” he said, turning to Beamish. Beamish shrugged. Yan stammered, “I… don’t know. I just know they didn’t stop us.”

“This is all probably illegal,” Holland said casually to Justice.

“Captain Harun!” Justice called out.

The nearby customers turned to look. Beamish and Yan waved at her to be quiet. Kath gave her underlings a scathing glare.

Harun glanced at Locksley with a knowing look, then turned to the girl.

“Yes?”

“Are mercenaries allowed to bring weapons into the Fort?” Holland said. She pointed at Beamish, then at Yan. The crowd in the shop started whispering to one another.

Harun laughed and slapped Locksley on the back.

“See?”

The boy looked at the girls like he wanted to shrink into nothingness.

“Captain Harun,” Justice said. “Are their swords and guns illegal?”

“Guns?” Yan squawked.

“We don’t have guns,” Beamish growled, brushing his red curls back with one hand.

Kath stomped over to the girls with fire in her eyes.

“Ladies,” she said, pointing at Justice and Holland in turn.

The girls stood up straight. Their eyes were wide and fixed on this imposing woman.

“Are you suggesting,” Kath said, “that the guards of Beauty House would let my men into this Fort with illegal firearms?”

The woman had directed the question at the girls, but her volume brought everyone within earshot into the conversation. Holland stared at the ground. Justice shook her head.

“Or,” Kath went on, “that I would let my men enter the Fort with illegal firearms and risk losing this?”

She snatched up her copper badge and held it out.

Holland glanced up and shook her head. Justice was staring at Kath’s mud-caked boots.

“So,” Kath said, “you two have raised unwarranted accusations against friends of Orange. What is the implication of that?”

The girls shrugged, unwilling to speak.

“Merchants,” Harun spoke up, “are permitted two armed guards to accompany them into the Fort.”

The girls nodded at him.

“And look at them,” Harun said, waving a hand at Yan and Beamish. “They don’t have firearms. Just sabres and daggers.”

“Mine’s just a sword,” Beamish said.

Kath glared at him.

“Shut up.”

Holland and Justice glanced at each other, then at Beamish and Yan, inspecting them for firearms.

“They don’t have firearms,” Harun repeated.

“Okay,” Holland said. Both girls looked defeated. The shoppers slowly returned to their browsing.

Beamish shoved Yan with a grin. Yan put his hand on Beamish’s shoulder to shove him, but winced from the pain in his silk-wrapped hand.

Justice looked up at Kath, her eyes steady. Kath sighed and set her shoulders.

“You can have two armed guards,” the girl said, “and you chose these two?”