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Dex held up a finger. "I've organised a bow and quiver for you. You might get to use them yet."
Viva looked surprised, but pleased. "Shit yeah. Thank you, Keeper."
"Just Dex," the Keeper said. "It's just us, we don't need to be fancy."
"Says the man who packed enough so he could look good," I reminded him.
Dex looked thoughtful. "You're right. You three don't need to be fancy. Leave that to me."
"Consider it left." Kerina flicked her braid over her shoulder and kneed her mount toward the door. "I wouldn't know how to be fancy if my life depended on it." She shot me a look through narrowed eyes and turned away.
"I wasn't going to say a thing," I said to the air in front of me. I swung onto Wind's back and leaned down to tighten the girth.
"Of course you weren't." Dex shrugged at Kerina's back and let his horse follow hers out into the warm, humid morning. "This is going to be a long journey if you're at each other's throats the entire time." Before I could speak, he added, "I am still going, even if I have to order you to stop snapping at each other." He looked away to smile past me.
"Viva, why don't you ride beside me, you can tell me all about your visit to the temple yesterday." Dex manoeuvred his horse beside hers and they chatted amicably.
A small contingent of guards, each chosen by me, fell in around us.
I rode at the back, eyes on the streets and every person we passed.
Many in this part of the Vault knew the Keeper on sight. They stopped to wave, and gawk at Viva.
Few paid any attention to me or Kerina. To them, I was just another guard, another servant working for the Keeper. No one to take notice of, in case it inflated my unworthy ego. That gave me the chance to watch their faces, empty smiles and insincere waves.
I wouldn't swap places with them for all the money in the Vault.
Dex drank in the attention and Viva didn't seem to mind it. Kerina's lip curled slightly at the sight, but she quickly resumed her indifferent, bodyguard expression.
The road sloped down and we headed into the poorer parts of the Vault. The waving became less, but the bustle increased.
To the left, someone shouted. I caught a blur of motion in the corner of my eye.
I tensed, but it was nothing more than a child throwing a ball to another.
I glanced ahead and caught a smirk on Kerina's face. She must have seen me react. I responded with a knit of my brows and a gesture to keep her eyes ahead instead.
She rolled them, but turned back around anyway.
The further south we went, the more tense I became. The streets became narrower and increasingly flatter. Houses gave way to shops, the condition of which decreased as we rode.
We went from freshly painted signs for tailors, and cutlers who displayed their wares outside their shops, to peeling paint and grimy windows.
Dex's back stiffened, but he said nothing. Even he knew he couldn't solve all the Vault's problems. That must have pissed him off. For all his humour, he was a proud man, who hated even the suggestion of failure.
The horses’ hooves clattered as we reached the city's southern canals. Sewerage from the upper city flowed in the canals before it washed out to sea. The smell which lingered was overpowering on a hot afternoon.
Even in the relative cool of the morning, the stink forced me to take shallow breaths.
Viva pulled out a scarf from somewhere and wound it around her head and over her nose. If she was as sensitive to smells as I thought, she must feel sick here.
"Keeper!" a man shouted. He looked over a pile of boxes and gave Dex a wave.
Dex's returning wave must have encouraged him. He climbed up onto the pile of boxes and began to chant.
"Keeper. Keeper. Keeper."
Others took up the chant, tentative at first, but then becoming louder.
