Dawn broke. I woke to find myself surrounded by bodies. The bodies were not those of my fellow revelers, but instead of two young ladies no doubt in their finest dresses who were to tend my needs during my stay in this, the second best room the town could offer me, that of the chief's himself.

Both had taken a spot upon the large bed at my insistence, and were currently at better ease than I. My head fairly swam under heady scents and the remains of the wine from the night before.

A perfect time to practice with the orb, truth told.

I hid it under the thick blankets which no one should have on any bed in the middle of the harvest season, no matter how soft it was or cool the room stood in the evenings. A matter with which I disagreed with my host.

It proved as hard as expected to merge my thoughts into a whole and send them into the ball, but I managed briefly before a gentle knock came upon the door.

"Lady Kath, are you awake?" Eadric whispered to me from beyond.

"I am," I stated, placing the ball back upon the nightstand I had retrieved it from as the ladies woke with assorted murmurs. "The door is not locked."

First one then the other girl snapped to, faces aflame.

"Sorry, I cannot enter Lady Kath, unless you are in distress. It would not be decent." Eadric said. "You are not in distress, are you Lady Kath?"

I eyed the two girls. They kept their gaze firmly ahead and above me. "No Eadric, I am not."

"Right then. The morning meal is ready downstairs. I shall see you below at your pleasure."

I wondered how long Eadric had been outside, and if he had heard me stirring. The door was a solid one, and I certainly had heard none pass in the night.

"Lady Kath, do you require us for anything?" Hissa, the more forward of the girls asked. She had offered to launder my garments last night, to our mutual chagrin.

"No, thank you, you may both leave."

They curtseyed and all but fled, duty well done with none the wiser. After all, I would say nothing.

I began packing as the door shut, taking care to check each item. I missed nothing of my own. In fact, there was the addition of a two charms, both sprigs of Hilas, for fortune under change. From the scent, both were fresh.

The door creaked as I opened it; no one was waiting beyond the portal. I shrugged my pack on and tested the stairs. They were more solid than last night.

My companions were in the common room, at table with the mayor and village worthies, and kitchen staff comprised of older women serving them.

All conversation ceased as I appeared. "I apologize for interrupting."

"Not at all, Lady Kath," Countess Lirisphine responded. "Please join us. We were just discussing the state of the roads ahead."

"Yes, I was just saying the road should be clear and packed hard, as the last rain was a week ago," the man Alif stated with authority.

Something we already knew. That anyone with sense already knew. "That is good. It should be a boon to harvest trade."

"Indeed, indeed," The mayor repeated, nodding.

I met the gazes of my company and shrugged. If they wanted me to know, then they would discuss it. The Countess and Eadric both wasted no time looking elsewhere, but Count Warren nodded slightly.

Halith brushed past me. "The horses are ready, Countess."

"Right, thank you Halith."

I wasted no more time, sitting in the nearest vacant seat. The good women of Lelix wasted no time either, filling a plate heaping with bread and gravy, and fresh aspertus and setting the feast before me.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but there is no way in all the heavens I can eat all of this."

The kind server smiled. "Do the best you can, Lady Kath. The remainder shall in no way go to waste.

That did little to ease my mind, but I refrained from stating as much, preferring to match action to words.

Aspertus fresh from someone's garden; it had been some time since I'd had such.

The talk was about small, safe matters such as the weather and the exact numbers of the harvest. I paid careful attention nonetheless, even as I stayed silent and filled my belly.

I did do admirable work of the plate before me, though a distressing amount remained. I did not let the Aspertus waste at the least.

Halith moved his chair near. "Lady Kath, what troubles you?"

"Is it obvious?" It must be so.

"A little. Come and walk with me, if you are finished."

I was.

The air outside was fresh and smelled of a blend of freshly gathered crops, and the morning sun was bright. Halith struck out for the green and I followed.

The green was empty but still bore the scars and trappings of the night before. I was at least grateful to see none had spent their evening in the dew, or had at least moved on to healthier climes upon waking.

Halith scanned the space as I had and finding it to his liking, he turned to me. "Now Lady Kath, please won't you tell me what troubles you?"

"All this. These people have given of their food and of themselves to me. I ate a meal which might have served on of the field hands in better stead, and spent my first night in a bed surrounded by girls who seemed petrified that I would take offense at some slight." I did not know how to explain. How could I explain to one born of wealth?

"Ah," Halith replied, sinking to a knee. "I thought it might be that."

He sighed and looked me in the eye. "I mean no offense, but I will make a wager; you have always given of yourself freely and without hesitation."

Thinking back, I could not refute him.

He saw it, and nodded to himself. "I thought so. Lady Kath, in harvest seasons past, was it not your pride to give as you were able to the sorceresses who visited? Was it not your villages pride? A noble must accept the well wishes and gifts of the peasantry, not with dark emotion but with grace. It is a peasant's pride to take care of one who sacrifices their very lives for the kingdom on their behalf. Carrying the hope and will of the kingdom is your lot now."

"I know all that... but the knowledge makes none of this easier. I can do for myself. I am used to doing for myself. It seems a waste."

"Only time will tell if that is true," Halith replied soberly. "If you do well, then none of the sacrifice great or small which came before nor any sacrifice in the future will be wasted."

I admired Halith's honesty, even as I cursed the blunt speech for the yoke it settled on my shoulders.

Halith tousled my hair. "That's a good lass - you're thinking. Come, let us rejoin the others and help harry them to the road. I know Count Warren will wish to tarry for the wine is most potent."

He stood and I followed as he headed back to the inn, my thoughts falling upon the wine. It had been most useful in loosening tongues, my own included. Count Warren had proven quite the bard under it's influence, recounting battles and glories past.

"Now let us speak of happier subjects. How go your studies? I have been too busy scouting of late to see the fair Countess instruct you."

"You have missed little, sir. Aside from my fumbling at letters."

Halith turned to me and leaned down again, whispering. "Truly, letters are instruments of confuddlement. I myself can only just decipher many of them, and my own scribblings will never be deemed prose of the ages. Should you manage as much after a season, you may be deemed one of the most brilliant minds in the kingdom!"

"You are a base flatterer sir, and I am inclined to dismiss every word you utter." I whispered back.

"Only half," He replied in his normal tone. "Deciding which half to trust will stand you in good stead for the games ahead."

"Oh Halith, don't say such things, you'll frighten her away." A voice from beyond the opening inn door scolded; the Countess emerged with an austere gait and expression at odds with her warm smile.

I stepped aside as first she then my other companions emerged. Eadric came nearly last, with both his and my bag of belongings slung over his shoulders. He stopped and motioned me to step in line as a sullen Conrad exited the inn at our rear.

I made sure to step in front of Eadric; judging from the hay on his fine clothes Conrad had spent the night not in a bed, but a hayloft. A nice warm place to while away a night to be sure, but it seemed the good squire had not been impressed.

"Unfortunately, the good folk of Lelix had no spare horse or even donkey for us to borrow or buy."

"My feet weep at the missed opportunity," I informed him primly.

"Hah! Well said. You'll just have to continue to grace Gern with your bottom."

"My bottom prefers my feet," I informed him, sliding to the side and removing my knife from it's pouch in my pack. I could use it for fine detail, and I was - had been a fair piece from learning all my father knew of such subjects.

I very much felt the need to practice such skills today; my letters and orb could wait.

"Well in deference to your bottom I'll take the first shift with the mighty Gern. What is that you have there?"

"A knife used for work in Carpentry."

"Looks just like any other." Eadric commented idly as I bent down and scooped an errant branch up. It was Whil and promised a fair bit of stretch, likely from that tree over past the stable. How had it gotten here?

"It is, I suppose. The difference lies mainly within the mind." I pruned the branch down until I had a manageable length.

"Right. Are you able do such things while you walk?" Eadric asked.

My look was to be scathing, but Eadric seemed to dismiss it. "I am the child of a carpenter, sir, and almost full grown. I will not injure myself in the attempt."

"Ah, but will not the branch be injured?" Eadric countered.

I shrugged. "That remains to be seen of course; I am not the artist my father is."

Conrad snorted loudly.

"I look forward to your efforts then." Eadric answered, sending a black look behind us.

Conrad kept silent.

We reached the stable; I stayed back as the party moved to their animals, checking girths and hooves and uttering gentle words to the creatures. There was little I could add to such activity. I did pay some attention however; I knew so little of how to deal with beasts of burden that any information was both welcome and useful.

The knowledge of the morning seemed to be that bribes seemed to be most effective, and that horses did like sweets. Perhaps I should ask the Countess how her mount was of a normal size.

Under my other efforts, a form began to take shape; with that form came an idea, and I nurtured both unwatched, as was best.

Soon we were all out and upon the road between an honor guard of the good citizens of Lelix, amid cheers and well wishes.

I modeled my behavior from the Countess, who gazed straight ahead with a smile and every so often exclaimed gracious thanks.

The village soon passed behind and the people there returned to their every day.

The road was ours alone; no carts or wagons were yet loaded with the harvest. They would likely join us later today, taking the excess harvest to market and paying their yearly taxes.

The next hub of civilization along the road was a town larger still - Forsworth. Named after an old knight in the early days of the kingdom, it was an old border town with centuries of history. It was also a walled city, and a center of trade thanks to every road save the one we were traveling down.

It was also two days of fast travel from Lelix, or many days at the pace of a cart. I looked forward to the scenery.

"Alright, your turn Lady Kath."

I looked up from my wooden focus and found hours had passed; had I kept pace or had they? No matter.

Eadric stood before me, his hands steepled, with Gern behind him showing teeth in the promise of pain. With a sigh I mounted, trying to spare Eadric as much of the road dust my shoes had gathered as possible.

He dusted off my failure and pointed to my project. "You might have to stop for now."

I brandished the knife in clear warning at the beast balefully staring back at me. "I will not. If Gern decides to frisk as he did yesterday, this knife might slip, however, and find itself a new home in a very tender place."

It wasn't a very big knife after all, and would cause no lasting damage. Gern rolled his eyes, showing the whites, and turned, starting off at a gentle pace that barely rolled at all.

"It seems you've had a breakthrough in human/animal relations, Lady Kath, though not one I'm sure I appreciate."

"Relax, Sir Eadric. Gern is not in any danger," It would be a poor repayment of the knight for all his service to harm his trusty steed, after all. "But clearly the animal takes me for a fool. I observe as well as any other, and he walks differently with you upon his back."

"That is true enough. He also understands the nuanced language of violence."

"So all he wanted was the threat itself?" Clearly I would need to ponder my long held beliefs on the intelligence of animals.

Eadric shrugged theatrically. "Who can say? I know not the mind of beasts. That would make me a sorceress after all."

"I know them not either." I protested.

"It seems so, yet there are some sorceresses that know all of the animal kingdom, and indeed know the bears and wolves of the kingdom by their first names," Eadric claimed.

I had never heard of such, and I told him so.

"Ah but you have - for all the kingdom has heard the tale of Tamer Miriam."

"Oh? But the stories told don't state she was a sorceress." At the very least, none I'd heard had.

"Correct, but her very own journal does. It is a rare trait among your kind is all, and not well reported upon. Perhaps you'll be the next one, eh? Tamer of beasts and defender of the kingdom?"

"I am sure that such is not the case."

My hands almost fumbled flipping the block of wood, now recognizably a figure of a sort, over.

Eadric crowded closer. "Oh, I recognize it now. You are more talented than you intimated."

As he smiled an arrow bloomed in his chest with a hiss, as if conjured there. Around me others fell, and a horse screamed and reared.

Eadric's voice was pained but shockingly loud. "Gern, get to safety! Lady Kath, hang on!"

Gern spared not a single glance for his master, but lowered his head and bulled forward; it was all i could do to lower myself and grasp his neck for dear life.

Arrows flew all around me, but none ventured close. The air filled with screams and curses, the scent of blood and something else. It all passed rapidly behind me as I tried not to break my head open upon rock or low branch. Gern seemed to have no idea where he was to go, weaving from side to side and even off the road between strides.

"Stop you fool beast! We need to go back and help your master," Of course Gern did not; if anything, he sped up. Perhaps that was for the best; I had little idea what I could do to help in what was clearly an attack. I did not know how to use a sword, and what little I knew of mending wounds would be useless.

Still the fool beast would break his leg and kill us both as this speed.

Horses thundered behind me. Had my party followed our example, despite how few had been mounted? I risked twisting for a glance.

No, they had not. The horses behind me were fresh and bore men I did not recognize. Six in all, whip thin and dressed in black garments of an unfamiliar cut, they rode their steeds with enviable grace while hunched almost as low as myself. Each had a bow and a sword visible, though their quivers were nearly empty. The bows stayed slung.

As calmly as I could I whispered in Gern's ear. "They are not friendly, and they are gaining."

Gern's ears flicked into my face and his speed doubled as he abandoned his meandering. The other riders soon lost ground. Even then, no arrows flew.

But as long as we were on the road, those riders would be able to find us. I had no idea how fresh those mounts were, but I was willing to bet they were rested, and though my weight was slight, that vision I'd stolen whispered to me of confident speed.

I was not the one in charge of the situation, however. The reins might as well have been woven of gossamer for all the impact they had.

No sooner had I given up all hope when Gern changed direction again, this time into a streambed. He slowed at least, and I risked a look behind us. I saw no evidence of our pursuit. I also saw little evidence in our change of course, dissolving even now under the rapid onrush of clean water.

Gern shook and slowed again, picking his steps carefully. I was finally able to sit up, but found my fingers still firmly entangled in handfuls of mane. Such might have been why my use of the reins was less effective than desired, though Gern had in fact turned the direction I had been pulling... of course I had also been pulling at his hair as well.

Gern cast is ears back and I did the same, listening for the noise of pursuit. But what to do? A simple turn right would lead us back into the woodlands towards friends, but Gern would be unable to run there and should we meet more of the enemy I did not favor our chances. However, each step in another direction brought us further into the unknown, and there was little doubt that if they had not assumed the correct path, the riders in black soon would. There was some space to run along the beach that seemed less treacherous, however the trail would be clear. Away from the stream led to the city, but would I be safe there, where none knew me?

What could I do?