I did my darndest to curse whoever had decided to not put well-maintained roads along the outside of each of these small islands. Honestly we could have done this faster on a boat. But I didn't want to go on a boat. That would mean I'd have to grow there and row back. And would the amount of sea serpents in the area? I was not too inclined. Actually go on the sea without a water attuned fae male.

  "I see there are row boats that are attached to the ship and we could have taken those," Martin said.

  "Those are for emergencies and also I like to be able to see any large beasts that are coming. I can't do that in this dark blue water."

  He took that in stride.

  "Now that you're saying that I... Didn't think that it would have been so dangerous. Like I know this is where the courts got their their best and brightest and advanced them to a new rank, but this? It's like they could die in so many new and unusual ways."

  The cart creeks as I pulled it along sand. It really was a nice day. If I hadn't been here to clean up corpses, then it might actually feel nice. But I had chosen this work because I could go and clean up corpses and have it keep me topped up with magic, among other reasons. The pay wasn't terrible and it kept me away from the courts. That itself was enough reason to take the path along the packed dirt that led up to the Jungle.

  "I think I see one."

  Martin shielded his eyes, looking ahead of us. I squinted. The sun was high above, attempting to kill me, giving me another reason to hump the cart along the only shady area.

  Up ahead someone was leaning against the tree. Or it had been somebody. As we got closer it was clear that they were not just leaning, they were impaled and they had bled out quite recently.

  "If you'll excuse me for a moment."

  "By all means," he said.

  The man was wearing classic summer Court garb. Long white linens surrounded a simple chain mail vest. The mail did absolutely nothing to the spear that ran through both him and the tree.

  "Shit."

  "What's wrong?"

  "We're supposed to remove the bodies but this one's going to be stuck."

  "Oh let me take care of that for you." Martin pulled out a small hand ax and began to chop at the spear.

  Like any Faye, I like a man who takes the initiative. This in itself was very nice as I was able to see that he could take care of problems that I didn't really want to work on.

  I pulled off my cap and dabbed around the center of the high fae. That was a good amount of blood there and I was going to be able to use all of it. I tapped into the thrill a little bit and pulled the body forward off of where it had been impaled. Blood gushed out, nearly overfilling my cap before I sopped up all of it.

  I gave me enough that I wanted to spend some of it at that moment to just toss the corpse onto the pile with the rest. I didn't but I was able to lift it up with one hand and place it onto the cart easily. It was difficult to balance carrying something the size of yourself but enhanced musculature could do it for you.

  It was all about balance. I use their blood to toss them all over and then packed some of it away. It was about give and take, and I took what I needed.

  "If this one is here then his dance partner has to be somewhere nearby."

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  I looked along the jungle line. It would have been so easy for them to have a little tryst that ended with one of them speared through the chest. If I was the one that had got into this fight I would have gone to the shade.

  It was just so much cooler in the shade.

  "I think I found them," Martin said. "At least one."

  Who gestured further down beach and I could see two other bodies. Of course they were close to each other. It was going to be another one of those things where I could load up a critical mass of bodies before turning around. I was already planning my spot to turn the card around.

  No, it would be deceptively easy to jog over there. Then, I could toss one into my shoulder jog back, put him into the card and while I turned it around or while Martin turned it around. But that would be just a waste of energy. The cart didn't take much more than I had. Carrying them over sand was much more difficult and it would almost certainly be time to eat when we returned.

  I wasn't here for a good time, I just had a job to do. I was saving my energy for the next serpent or good looking male with potential.

  I eyed the man in front of me as we got closer to the two clearly dead fae. It was a lot easier to tell someone was dead but it didn't have a head.

  One head hadn't even fallen that far.

  "I don't think that either one of these was the one that speared our most recent acquisition," I said.

  There's a way that people who have have been trained for and been in actual combat move and when they anticipate that they'll be into a fight, there's a way that they react. Martin did that, lowering his stance and turning towards inland.

  I listened for a second. I could only stay like a coiled spring for so long before I get a little bit itchy. He was still moving a little bit but I could see that his attention was on the forest and not on the two in front of us. I was tempted for a long minute to just let this slide. But then I heard it.

  And I wasn't mad that he had. Is he already done it? But I definitely was concerned.

  "Do you sense something?"

  "There's something in the aether over there. It's unsettling and I want to move on as quickly as possible."

  Humans were fickle creatures but I believed him. I wasn't attuned to whatever he was so I would at least in this instance, I would go along. He had all the time in the world to prove me wrong.

  "Just stay away from that tree?" I said. That would be doable. Just to be sure, I didn't think about how easy I could do this or how quickly this could be done. I didn't need the gods of luck to come back at me trying to help me out of a bad spot.

  It would be a lot easier just to avoid the bad spots.

  There are a lot of spots where magic is gathered up for a while and no one had dispelled it for years. That wasn't our job but I didn't know the the capabilities deal that. And neither looked at the two that we were about to pick up.

  That made the point to avoid obvious places. There were death traps or at least the locals would consider a death drive. So we secured. Riley bounders of that and moved our way back. Vivian had the wood all set up and save for the couple bodies that bossman was getting himself, that would be enough. That was time to figure out if Martin was going to stick around or not.

  "What are you getting on the boat and we're going to go to another place. Now. I'm going to say that you have your canoe or row boat place or whatever type of boat you rode your way here about. I'm going to guess that you don't want to take that back."

  His face was telling me that he now thought that was a terrible idea, especially given the amount of sea serpents in the area. We could deal with the serpents on a larger boat but he was going to have to lose something.

  "I tell you what do you want to go? Grab whatever you want from the boat and maybe get back here. Doesn't make sense for us to head off without that. And you'll be able to see the pie every by the time you. It should be pretty high in the sky."

  He didn't need to hear me twice. He was off before I could say anything running with intent. Either he'd forgotten something very important or really wasn't that far. Unless it was some sort of heirloom ocean boat, there was no reason for him bring it back. But very quickly thereafter, he approached from the water.

  "He looks know he's going to be a handful. Are you sure going to be able to handle him?" Vivian crossed her arms.

  Those arms did look a little bit delicious, especially as I saw them in action. Whoever he was or had been, he knew how to row.

  "I just need you to distract the boss for long enough that I can see what he's made of."

  Vivian looked down the beach. "That really shouldn't be an issue.”