Birchdale was a bustling city and a favorite stop for adventurers and mercenaries. The streets ran thick with people of a wide range of races and a wider range of regalia. Entire blocks were devoted to blacksmithing, potioneering, and other trades for supplying adventurers. Street performers and sign wavers competed to be heard over the pounding of feet and hooves, and newsboys shouted quest advertisements between their headlines.

  Calvin had no trouble finding them competitively-priced lodging. He even convinced the innkeeper to give him a small discount when he offered to pay for two weeks up front. He left Pelias and Edwin to set up their base there and set off to advertise for recruitment. He started with the job boards, putting up notices for a lucrative job dealing with devil-worshipping snake cultists.

  After that, he dug through his memories and followed them to the back corner of an old bookstore on the shady side of town. He tapped a special rhythm on one of the wall panels, and a secret door opened to him. He slipped inside, and it closed silently behind him. The guard uncovered a lantern, and his face broke out in an incredulous grin. “Chester?” the guard asked. “You’re alive?”

  Calvin did a double take, startled. Despite the blanket of course whiskers, the guard’s face had a familiar boyish roundness. “Terry? You’re still here?”

  “Aw, Chet, it is you! I thought they must have killed you!” Terry pulled Calvin into a tight embrace. “What happened? Are the others alive, too?”

  “Yes, they’re fine,” Calvin said, extracting himself from the hug as his stomach started to squirm. “We were captured, but someone rescued us. Exploitative type. We’ve been trying to pay him back since then.”

  Terry frowned. “All that time? You couldn’t even send me something to let me know you were alive?”

  “I would have if I’d known you were still here.” His stomach jerked impatiently. “But come on, let’s go down. I’ve got a job.”

  Excited, Terry grabbed the lantern and led Calvin down a set of steep stone stairs. The stairway was so narrow that Calvin had to squeeze to keep his shoulders from brushing the walls.

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  “I thought you’d have left here by now,” Calvin said as they walked. His voice echoed against the stone walls.

  Terry shrugged. “Never occurred to me. They pay me just to sit there and bring people in. It’s like free money.”

  “They don’t take you out on jobs?”

  “Sometimes they do. Not very often.”

  “But don’t you wish you could be doing something?”

  Terry shrugged again. “Like I said, it’s like free money. What could be better?”

  “Maybe finding a new crew?”

  “Is that an invitation?” Terry threw a hopeful glance over his shoulder at Calvin. His childlike expression made Calvin want to grant his wish, but his stomach twisted in protest. He tore his gaze from the puppy-dog eyes and shook his head. Terry wilted, but Calvin held to his decision. He didn’t have the resources to bring Terry into his crew. Plus, this job was highly likely to get bloody. He didn’t want Terry mixed up in it.

  At the bottom of the stairs, the space widened into a small meeting room. Four chairs sat around a table. Across the room, another staircase led out a different way. The other walls each had two doors. Calvin’s practical memory told him that two were storage, one was the den leader’s quarters, and the other was the bunk room for the thieves. The first three had complicated locks, but they were more of a skill barrier than an attempt to keep the thieves out.

  Calvin shook off the nostalgia before it could give him a stomachache. “Where is everyone?”

  Terry shrugged. “Might be a couple sleeping, but the rest are out. Do you want to wait for them?”

  Calvin shook his head. “I’ve got lots to do, and little time to do it.” He pulled out his last job notice and scribbled some code on it. The code gave a few more details on the risks and rewards of the job, as well as a promise that he’d return to discuss it in three days. “Make sure the den leader sees this,” he instructed Terry, “as well as your best fighters. This could easily get bloody.”

  “Can I come, Chester?”

  The temptation was greater this time, and Calvin hesitated. Part of him loved the idea of having his old crewmate on his new team, but his stomach wriggled uncomfortably. I had no life before Tikray.

  “Come on, Chet. Please let me come. I promise I can help.”

  Calvin left the den. “I’ll think about it.”