So Xander was instead laden with the worst band of cohorts that could be written onto parchment. Red was capable and intelligent but that fatal mix of not at all martial yet supremely protective. Maia might be capable in about ten years if her hasty temper let her survive until then, but currently she acted as if she were invincible even when her bruises indicated otherwise. And Costa was…Costa—an easy target unless he turned himself sideways and then at least his thinness would make him difficult to hit.
