"Mushrooms," Tuck scoffed. "We're doing battle with the Barons, and we have no plan B to fall back on because plan B would rather spend the time bouncing on mushrooms!"

Spike paused in her wild circles and flashed Tuck her gigantic smile.

"And they're not even good mushrooms!" he went on. "You could have at least found us some mushrooms we could eat. But no, you only find yellow, poison mushrooms. And stop smiling like that, you stupid globe!"

Spike just chirped gleefully. I laughed, too. "You can't really blame her," I pointed out. "You practically dared that guy to kill you."

"That's the thanks they give to people who save their lives? Come on, you can't blame it all on me."

I cocked my head. "Actually, I don't think he attacked you until after you'd sentenced him to spending the remainder of his life as a prisoner."

"It's better than drowning," Tuck said defensively.

"Next time just leave them in the river."

"No way."

I sighed. We were camped a little ways from the spot of the rescue. The sun was already setting, so we'd built a fire, in front of which Tuck was sprawled across the ground, drying off. I was wringing the water out of our ropes. Spike was rolling around in happy circles, as always.

"There's probably nothing we can eat around here that won't kill us, right?" Tuck changed the subject.

"Nothing except slimeberries," I dismally replied.

"I said 'that won't kill us'," Tuck muttered, rolling over.

"They're not that bad," I said. "And we really shouldn't waste our rations when we can easily find food on our own."

"Not slimeberries, though. Anything but slimeberries. I'd rather eat the poisonous mushrooms."

"No you wouldn't. Come on," I said, and moved away from the river toward the forest edge, where we were sure to find some berry bushes. Though I was starving, I didn't know if I'd prefer to find any of the slimy berries or not. They were one of the worst things I'd ever eaten in my life.

Tuck sat up. "Why can't we just eat Spike?" he complained, but followed me off anyway.

To my dismay, the bushes were immediately visible as soon as the tall grass receded. The foul-tasting but edible berries looked fully ripe.

I picked a slimy, round, green berry off the nearest bush. This was not what being a missioneer was supposed to be about, I thought unhappily. But I knew I'd eat them if I had to.

A look of revulsion passed over my teammate's face as I held the berry out. I tried to scrape off the oily slime with my fingers. Then I shrugged, placed the small round fruit in my mouth, and bit down.

I grimaced, but I kept chewing. It was sour! Nothing else, just pure, disgusting sour! The skin was tough and the greasy slime didn't help any, but they were nothing compared to the awful sour fruit. Tears sprang up in my eyes. I swallowed the mass as quickly as possible. I looked up, expecting Tuck to laugh at the horrible faces I couldn't help making, but saw he was completely somber. As a matter of fact, the cold, stony look that had left his face when the Barons had gone had returned. I hated that face � it made me nervous.

"It's not that bad," I lied, as soon as I could talk.

Tuck stared at me. "You're crying," he pointed out.

I just shrugged again. Now that the berry was in my empty stomach, it felt good. So I picked some more, and stuck another in my mouth. This one didn't seem so bad. Maybe my taste buds were going numb.

Tuck took a small step back. "Maybe I'm not really that hungry," he said uncertainly.

"Yes, you are," I informed him. "If I can do it on my first day out of training, you can do it." I opened his palm and placed a slimy berry in it. Just touching it, he shuddered fearfully. Fearfully? I asked myself, wondering if I were reading him wrong. It was a berry.

I watched in fascination as he took a deep breath, slowly moved his hand to his mouth, put the small, sour berry in, and began to chew. The he spat it out in revulsion and shook his head, looking like he'd be sick. His whole body was actually shaking, but when he looked at me and spoke, his voice was calm.

"Forget it," he said. "No berries." Then he turned and trudged angrily back toward the camp. Angry? Stop reading, I reprimanded my brain. I was only confusing myself.

"Sensitive taste buds?" I asked no one as I ate another berry. Now that my senses of taste and smell had ceased to exist, they actually weren't all that bad.

Tuck didn't eat anything at all that night. He didn't talk to me either. He once again became as cold and surly as he'd been at Mission Training. He just lay down by the fire and pretended to sleep. I guess he eventually did fall asleep, because when he woke up a few hours later he yelled at me for leaving the fire going once everything was dry, so Barons could see smoke and investigate. I was disappointed in myself for being so foolish, but also angry and annoyed with him for yelling at me. Even so, I began digging the dry dirt and forming a pile to pour over the small campfire. Tuck sat up and did the same. In silence, we killed the flames and watched the smoke rise. As all light other than the dull shine of the two moons vanished, I caught a glimpse of the puffan, contentedly asleep on two legs, and it inspired me to try to make peace.

"Look, Tuck, whatever I did...I'm sorry," I told him.

"For what?" he asked coldly.

"I don't know!" I protested. "Why are you...why...?" My voice drifted off, as I realized I didn't know what I meant to accuse him of.

"Not so cocky when you can't see people's faces, are you?"

I didn't know what to say to that. He was right. I'd never before seen how heavily I leaned on my ability to read people's expressions.

"Get some rest," he said sternly, though not so cruelly. "We'll have to make up distance tomorrow." Bewildered, I obeyed, and lay down in the tall grass, and surprisingly I fell asleep quickly, ending my first day as a missioneer.

* * *

I woke the next morning at a light touch on my shoulder. I stirred a little, opened my eyes, sucked in my breath, and screamed. The innocent round ball who'd been flashing her giant, stupid smile an inch away from my nose scuttled off, making fearful little chirping noises. At the same time, my mission teammate leapt over to silence me. I was quiet before he got there.

Tuck was one of the most unpredictable people I'd ever met. I braced myself for a stern reprimand, after the cruel berating I'd gotten for keeping the fire burning last night. But instead, he maintained his hard appearance for about two seconds, and then laughed at me.

I was immensely relieved, but experienced a stab of pain anyway. Randa wasn't here. Captain Gill wasn't. No one I knew at all was here. Except the cold, sour man pretending to be my Captain. And the cute, sweet little monster who'd just scared me half to death. For the first time I experienced pangs of regret that I'd been assigned to a mission.

It's a step, Bryt, I told myself. Every missioneer has to learn to live without the security of anything familiar. So I looked sheepishly up at my partner. "I'm better now," I said, and hung my head.

Tuck's eyes were still smiling, but his manner was serious as usual. "We'll just try to keep out of sight of any big ships traveling downriver."

"Big ships?" I asked nervously, thinking how much trouble just a small rowboat had been.

"Yeah," Tuck said casually. "I think that boat we met was probably a lifeboat. Two men whose canoeing skills could obviously use some sharpening going down through rapids with no packs or supplies? Doesn't sound like they were spies."

If they had been Cols instead of Barons, I think it would have been too much for me. "They escaped a wreck in a lifeboat, fought courageously against the rapids, and we sent them humbly to their captures without even socks?"

Tuck grinned that boyish grin that seemed so natural at one moment and so out of place the next. "They probably deserved it," he countered. "I'll bet they tore off while they could and left their shipmates to drown without a lifeboat."

"What makes you say that?" I asked suspiciously.

"There were only two of them," Tuck replied.

"Is that how you justify sending them off like that?" I asked him.

The grin never left his face, but a feeling of dread came over me as I saw his eyes glaze over and his face harden. "You know, maybe," he said in a bitter tone. "But you would have left them to drown, so don't try to accuse me of immorality."

I had no answer to that. He was right. I hadn't meant to offend him. But, shuddering from his coldness as I bent to roll my rope back up and loop it to my backpack, I couldn't help muttering, "That Baron was right. You are a sick little bastard."

Instantly I felt my body jerked back into a standing position by forceful hands on my shoulders. "That's right!" Tuck whispered fiercely, giving me a shake. "So don't do anything stupid!"

He released me, and I dropped resentfully back to my rope. I was frightened by his threat, but determined not to show it. He was far too arrogant for a missioneer with only four years of experience. I stood up, smiling to myself. And I was certainly way too bold for a missioneer with only one day's experience. But Captain Gill had always said I was too bold. I squared my shoulders and walked briskly toward the forest.

"Where are you going?" my "Captain" asked me harshly.

"To get some more of those slimeberries for breakfast," I replied, trying to keep my voice steady. "They could be my new favorite food." I turned back to the forest without waiting to see his reaction. Only when I reached the bushes did I look back, and saw that Tuck had finished with his rope and was now rolling mine. From his manner I could tell he'd let it go. So I decided I would try to, too.