Page 17 of Silver & Gold

Raider grinned. He liked this kid. “Fair enough.”

Seth’s head appeared over the boat’s side railing. “Stop distracting him.”

With a sigh, Raider leaned back in the water, letting his body float. They were out of the current here. Raider could feel a hint of its tug but not much.

Seth scowled at Raider’s floating form. “Stop distracting me.”

“Never.”

“Don’t go too far. There could be crocodiles.”

“Crocodiles!” Julian squeaked.

“He’s kidding,” Raider assured him, but Seth only grunted and vanished into the boat again.

“If Adavasti were here,” Julian sighed, “he could protect me from a crocodile.”

Adavasti, Julian had explained earlier, was the ifrit. Apparently, Adavasti had come upon Julian in the Kesh when he’d been hopelessly lost. They had struck some kind of bargain—Julian had been vague on the terms—and Adavasti had saved Julian’s life. (Another reason, clearly, that Julian had made it this far.) Usually, bargains with ifrits concluded swiftly and the creatures flitted on, but Adavasti seemed to have developed an attachment to Julian—and Julian to it.

But events at the vineyard had left no time for Julian to locate Adavasti, and the kid was clearly feeling a bit bereft.

“I won’t let any crocodiles get you,” Raider promised. “Or eels.”

“Eels!”

“Stop distracting him!” Seth called out.

Chuckling, Raider ducked under the water. He scrubbed at his hair. It felt so damn good to wash off the sweat, grit, and general feel of the past couple days.

Only a handful of seconds passed while he was underwater, but when he broke the surface, it was to the sound of shouting.

Fear spiking, Raider swam frantically to the boat, grabbed the side rail, and hauled himself up. Streaming water, he landed on the rail in a crouch.

Seth had fallen on his ass and was staring in bewilderment … at a very hungover ifrit.

The little blue creature was crawling out of the cargo space to rest atop the canvas tarp. Its smoky tail hung listlessly over the edge of a barrel.

Still wearing his arcane headgear, Julian was clambering up onto the stern’s wide platform. “Adavasti! Have you been in there the whole time?!”

Adavasti put a thin-fingered hand over his pointed ear. “Do not speak so loud, Jewel-man. Poor Adavasti is grievously unwell.”

Julian plopped wetly onto the platform. His white robes clung to his slim body. Seeming to notice this, he plucked at them self-consciously.

“I warned you about the wine,” Julian admonished gently.

Raider said, “He just needs a cup of kahve.”

Seth snorted. “You would know.”

Raider flashed him a grin. He would indeed. “Since kahve is sadly lacking, I’d suggest a sip of water.”

The ifrit lifted its head to glare at Raider with bright citrine eyes. It stuck out its tongue between rows of sharp teeth.

Raider shrugged. “Just trying to help.”

“Gold, Jewel-man,” the ifrit whined.

“You know I’m out of gold, Adavasti.”