The Unwilling Aviator (Book 4) by Heidi Willard

door and the bar were four dozen tables crowded with more of the same, and all armed according to occupation. Some had daggers, others held axes stashed against their thick legs, and a few had sharpened cards made from metal that could be tossed like knives.
    Canto strode through the mess of villainy and up to the bar. There was a little space left, enough for two people, but the two men on either side sneered at the dwarf. They slid together and shut off access to the bar. Canto stopped and glared at each of them. "Mind moving aside?" he asked them.
    "Yep," one of them coolly replied.
    Percy came up behind Canto and put his hand on the dwarf's shoulder. "Perhaps we could find a table," he suggested.
    "His kind isn't allowed in here," one of the men at the bar yelled.
    Percy raised an eyebrow. "His kind?" he repeated.
    "Dwarves," another man spoke up. "We don't need them small people coming in here and swinging their blunt axes around the place."
    Percy felt Canto stiffen and the dwarf brushed off his hand. "You might want to be rethinking yer words," Canto growled.
    The men at the bar laughed, and the room behind Canto and Percy quieted. He was of slight build with the dark cloak of an assassin. "What's wrong, dwarf? Don't like being small?" jeered the first man.
    "Ah don't care what ya call me, but no dwarf ever let his ax get blunt," Canto countered.
    Percy set his hands back on the dwarf's shoulders. "Have you forgotten our roles as ambassadors?" he whispered to his short friend.
    Canto shrugged him off again and glared at the bar men. "Ya can keep being an ambassador, but Ah've had enough of that mess."
    "Too short of patience for diplomacy?" another man spoke up. That got a round of laughs from the men, but the insulter didn't get to finish his guffaw before the bottom of an ax handle slammed up into his lower jaw. The man's head whipped back and he fell backwards into a crowd of his friends who dropped him to the floor in surprise.
    Canto gripped his upside-down ax in his hand and his eyes swept over the menacing group. "Anyone want to see if my ax is blunt?" he challenged them. Many of the men stepped forward and brought out their assortment of weapons.
    Percy backed up against Canto's back, pulled his sword from its scabbard, and glanced over his shoulder at his short companion. "Was this wise?" he asked him.
    Canto smirked and swung his ax so the blade was on top. "Nope, but we'll have a little fun," he replied.
     
     
    In the north of the city their three younger friends had their own troubles with the natives. Pat led the way through the crowded, bustling streets and they found themselves in a marketplace. Stalls with tarps over their wooden tables were set up along a long, narrow street. In front of and behind the tables vendors hawked their wares of beautiful paintings, fine pottery, and stinking fish. Pat stopped at the opening to the market and glanced at her companions. "Don't make eye contact with the peddlers. It only encourages them," she warned them.
    "Encourages them to do what?" Fred asked her.
    "Peddle. Now let's get through this as quickly as possible without losing what little gold we have left after Ned's insanity," she insisted.
    The three entered the mess of stalls and kept to the center, but halfway along the street they passed too close to a stall and Ruth accidentally made eye contact with a peddler. The man wore a suit made of strips of colored cloth, and he jumped in front of them and gestured to his stall.
    "Come and see what I have, my children! I promise you will not be disappointed!" the man told them.
    "No," Pat replied. She brushed past him, but the man cornered the other two meeker companions.
    "Come come! A look is all I ask!" The hawker gently grasped their arms and led them over to his stall where sat a menagerie of birds. Ruth bumped into a stand on which sat a large, gray-feathered hawk with golden eyes. The bird let out a squawk that startled her, and she stumbled back into