Ka-lik’et was a large, sprawling city, which meant it would take a lot of time we simply did not have to case the exterior for guards. I had to rely on my prior knowledge of their stations and hope things had not changed over the years, or since Kharid’s passing.

The main entrance gates were not an option; I knew that without even looking. In the prime of my criminal career, there had been no less than twelve guards assigned to the gate every single night. There were several other entry points along the walls in less conspicuous parts of the city, and those were frequented by two guards apiece. Then, of course, there was the option of scaling the wall, but we lacked the equipment necessary. That meant we had only one option: distract one of the guard pairs overseeing a side entrance long enough to sneak in.

“Can’t we just go to the gates and tell them what we told the rest of the mutacorpathy team?” Phoebe whispered as we trekked a wide berth around the city borders toward the lesser-populated back.

“Unfortunately, no,” I said quietly. We were well out of earshot even if the wind carried our voices, but, when it came to stealth, I always preferred to be safe than sorry. “If I had truly been called back to Ka-lik’et to check on the colonists, the guards would have been notified.”

“Well, could we make something else up?” she suggested hopefully.

I shook my head, though I kept my eyes pinned on the clay boundary. We were rounding to the rear of the city, and I could see the two separate openings through which merchants traveled each morning to bring their wares to their booths before the market opened. They were not gated or blocked in any way, just simple thick breaks in the wall with arches overhead, but a guard stood on either side of each with their eyes pinned to the desert expanse before them. That might mean we needed to make a distraction for all four, rather than two. I cursed under my breath.

“No,” I responded to her gruffly. My frustration was not with her, but she shrank a bit as if it were. I glanced at her momentarily to silently reassure her I was not displeased with her offerings. “I wish we could, but guards are not easily fooled. Our best option is to get them away from their posts for an unseen reason. That way, by the time they realize they have been duped, we will be already inside.”

“Okay, so how are we supposed to do that?” she asked, now sounding as frustrated as me.

I eyed the guards. They were familiar to me, of course, but I knew none by name or by demeanor. I would have to hope they were all foolish enough to defy orders and leave their posts in search of my distraction.

“I have an idea,” I said carefully, “but we will have to be fast, and we will have to be ruthless.” I pulled both daggers from their sheaths, and her eyes widened.

* * *

The uhudu brayed in panic, and I swung my legs around it to straddle its middle.

“Hold its head down,” I ordered.

Phoebe looked hesitantly down on the creature. “This is so cruel,” she mewled miserably. “It’s like a little camel.”

I knew not what a camel was, so I leaned forward over the uhudu to stop it from squirming out from under and looked at her firmly. “I told you, we are going to have to be ruthless if we are to succeed,” I said. “I like this no more than you do, but there are greater things at stake here.”

“Are you going to kill it?” she whimpered, kneeling down one leg after the other and placing her hands on its slender neck. Stray golden hairs fell from its throat to the sand where her fingers pushed them free of the rest.

“Of course I am not going to kill it,” I snapped a little irritably. To think that I would kill an innocent creature for any reason other than self-defense was insulting. “I am going to cut off a chunk of hoof.”

She ogled me in horror. “That’s awful!” she hissed.

I took the uhudu’s back left leg in my hand and held it aloft. Phoebe squeaked in protest, and I paused.

“We have nothing else at our disposal, Phoebe,” I told her warningly.

She shook her head wildly, matted hair tumbling around her face. “I don’t care! We can’t hurt an animal just to get what we want!”

I released the uhudu’s leg in surprise. “You think I will hurt it?” I asked, startled. “You think that is what I intend?”

“Well, cutting off its hoof doesn’t sound like a spa treatment,” she whispered fiercely.

I almost laughed. “There are no nerves in an uhudu hoof,” I explained. “It will not hurt him. It will only force him to walk lopsidedly until the missing piece grows back.”

She stared at me, studying me hard as if trying to determine if I was placating her or telling her the truth. “How is that going to help us?” she suspicioned.

“Because we will direct the uhudu toward Ka-lik’et where the guards will see it, and they will try to capture it,” I confidently said. “Illegal uhudu farms are a popular source of income for a number of rogues. They are useful beasts. Their hooves are quite solid yet porous and make excellent water filters for nomads in particular, and, of course, when they are grown, they are prized as travel animals. An illegal uhudu can almost always be characterized by a lopsided gait because the farmers are always harvesting the hooves, so the guards will assume this one has escaped and will want to catch it as evidence against the offending farm.”

“Fine,” she groaned. She turned her face away and closed her eyes so tightly that her lids wrinkled. “Just do it quick.”

I took the beast’s leg again and began prodding around its surface with the tip of my dagger in search of a weakened soft spot. When I found it, I slid the blade in easily and popped the hilt upward. With a sick stretching sound, a mass of hoof separated from the rest and rolled into the sand beside me.

“It is done,” I said, dropping the leg and snatching up the hoof piece before the uhudu’s flailing flung it far away.

Phoebe scrambled upright at once, and I got to my feet. Immediately, the uhudu rolled over onto its belly and shakily stood. It brayed at us with displeasure as it tried to gather its balance again. I flattened my hands against its flank and shoved in the direction of Ka-lik’et. Then, I grabbed Phoebe’s hand once more as I slid both the hoof and the dagger into the empty sheath on my hip.

“Come,” I said hastily. “We must hurry.”