A few hours later, Zamir arrives at camp with an adventurer's pack on his back. It looks like he's massively overequipped for his journey, by Layla's standards; he even has a collapsible eleven-foot-pole on there. He seems to be equipped to rob tombs, not take a simple journey up and down the Asp to Sothis. 

He pushes up his glasses and nods to Fahim, who Layla's asked to attend her for Zamir's comfort. 

"I'm here," he says. He looks around at the small crowd by the ashes of the fire; Hayat and Fayruz are playing the pharaoh's game, walking their pieces across the small board to rolls of triangular dice as Layla and Fahim watch. "Which of you is Layla?"

"I am. Your father sent you?"

How he replies to this question will tell her much, she thinks.

He flinches for an instant, but does his best to cover it. There's nothing wrong with being a dutiful son. It hurts to have it thrown in his face that he's a failure, but it's nothing more than everyone else does. 

"He did. I've heard you offer generous pay. Where should I set up my tent?"

She catches the flinch. Zamir is not happy about his father, and who could blame him? But he doesn't complain. To him it's just the way of the world. 

Haidar won't even let his son stay on the estate while they negotiate in town. She feels sorry for both of them.

"Anywhere in camp is fine. Stay within the circle of the outermost tents, there are other caravans that need that space. Would you like help setting up?"

"I'm sure I can manage," Zamir lies. His father has shown him how to set up a tent many times, after all. It's not his fault that he's never really been any good at it. 

He has no clue how to, does he? 

She's in an awkward position now. If she sends someone then he'll feel like she doesn't trust him, but also she doesn't want him to make a fool out of himself in front of everyone in camp by being poor at setup and takedown. 

She'll err on the side of caution. "Alright. Please don't hesitate to ask if you want assistance. It's no shame to you to need a hand, I know you're not a caravanner."

He nods to Fahim. "Would you escort me?" he asks. 

Fahim gets up from the board. "Of course," he says. 

He walks over to Zamir. "I might as well help with the tent as well, if you're going to have me for an escort."

"... I suppose so."

Zamir casts around the camp for a place to set up his tent, and finally settles on a small area next to Yasmin's tent. 

The floating disk hovers along behind him, and he begins to set up.

Fahim follows along and starts helping Zamir unload his disk. 

Well, that seems to be under control. 

One alchemist hired. Now she just needs to arrange the trip downriver... 

This might work out after all.

A few hours later, Layla's done the calculations to head downriver and doesn't like what she's seeing. She doesn't want to go overland, it's filled with gnolls, but stabling the camels for the whole duration of her trip upriver and downriver again is expensive and useless, and it splits up the caravan in a way she deeply dislikes. She could send her people off on another trading mission, maybe with Kamil at the head... but that risks her coming back to no caravan at all. She should be at the head of her people. 

She could sell the camels and purchase them again later, but she deeply dislikes that as well. 

It just makes more sense to go overland - she just doesn't know if she can make it profitable as well, given the extra guards she'd have to hire to have a good chance of survival.

"Rana," she says. "Do you know any seasoned adventurers who would be willing to guard a caravan against increased gnoll activity for less than this amount?" She passes over the ledger book. 

"I know one. You wouldn't like him, though. He's in it for the thrill of it and the circles, so he charges less than most. He's a sorcerer though, and more than strong enough to protect the caravan single-handedly. We had a thing for a while, but..." 

Rana shrugs one shoulder. "Basically I'd have to bribe him with sex, but I don't mind that too much. He doesn't mind taking the necessary precautions. It could get a bit messy emotionally but I don't think he'd just leave us in the lurch. Up to you."

"So you figure he'd get us there?"

"Yeah, I think he would."

"Then I'm willing to risk it. It's better than being killed by gnolls or leaving behind the camels to eat a hole in our budget; we'll be able to take a proper cargo downriver to Sothis and the camels will earn their keep. I'll take one handsy adventurer over a large dent in my budget any day." 

Layla scoops together her materials. "Let's go meet this man. What's his name?"

"Baqir. He'll be at the Inn of the Desert Winds drinking this time of day. Let's go grab him before someone else does."

And with that, Rana sweeps out of the tent.

Layla follows a few moments later.

People crowd the Inn of the Desert Winds, as usual. There's a man playing the sitar in a corner and many merchants negotiating deals at the various tables. Adventurers cluster in small groups, hiring out their services to all comers. 

Rana beelines for a man in a showy suit with a heavy fur stole - the attire of a wizard who doesn't have to deal with the heat and the sand.

"Baqir," she calls. "It's good to see you!" 

He turns to look towards Layla with his good eye. "Well look who it is," he purrs. "Rana, after all these months. Finally made it back from down the Crook, huh? Looking for good old me?" He raises an eyebrow. "Here to buy me another drink, are you?"

He settles back against the bar with a natural ease, his too-pretty face full of smiles. "And I see you've brought your lover, too. Glad you could join us, Layla. I take it it's serious. I hope Naila hasn't gone and died on you two?"

"She's fine, Baqir. We wanted you as our escort north to Sothis, actually." Rana slides onto the bar next to Baqir and waves to the bartender. "A drink for this fine man," she says. 

Layla can't help but wince a little. This is the kind of behavior that gets her sister her reputation - ordering drinks at taverns for adventurers in front of everyone - but it's tactically useful so she kind of has to let it pass. 

"Should I give you two some space," she asks. "If you'd like to catch up?"

"Wouldn't that be scandalous, leaving your sister unescorted with a strange man?" Baqir's voice drips with contempt. "Do what you like, I'm not your mother. And I don't think you Shemtej do obey-your-mother anyway, so scratch that comment, I'm just not anyone to you. Go back to your caravan if this is too much for you."

Baqir stretches and accepts his drink from the bartender. "Your lover's told me ever so much about you, you know. Wouldn't it be a shame if the Golden Stone Caravan was known to associate with someone like me." 

He reaches over and brushes Rana's hair out of her face. "Come now, let's leave your sister out of this if she wants so little to do with me."

What a fucking slimeball. 

Layla schools her face carefully neutral. "I understand," she says. "In that case I'll leave Rana be. She can make her own decisions." 

This was Rana's idea. She can let Rana handle it. She doesn't need to deal with this creep.

Rana rolls her eyes, but doesn't brush Baqir's hand away. 

"It's alright," she says. "Me and Baqir go way back. He's only teasing." 

She looks over at him. "You are only teasing, right?"