Ahead I saw a small lake, and Grimalkin signaled that we should set up camp beside it.

She left Jenny and me to put up the tent while she lit a fire and caught some fish for our supper. We struggled a bit—erecting the tent required some skill; no doubt we’d get plenty of practice as we went.

After we’d eaten, we sat around the fire for a while.

“How has the first day’s riding been?” Grimalkin asked.

“Not comfortable,” I replied.

“My bum’s sore and the insides of my legs are rubbed almost raw,” Jenny complained, “but no doubt I’ll get used to it.”

“You’ll get used to it, all right,” said the witch assassin. “Today we have begun slowly to allow you to adjust. Tomorrow we will go a little faster. After we reach the coast and sail across the Northern Sea, we will get up to full speed. We have a long way to go.”

Soon after that, we turned in for the night. The ground was hard, but the tent proved surprisingly warm. Wrapped in my blanket, I fell asleep within minutes.

At last we reached Scarborough, a small coastal port with a high castle. There we booked our passage and boarded a large three-masted ship.

We left our horses behind at a livery stable; the owner halved his exorbitant price after one threatening glare from Grimalkin. We stowed our baggage in the hold, intending to buy or hire new mounts on the other side of the Northern Sea. Grimalkin had traveled this way many times before and knew what she was about.

And so we sailed slowly away from our own land, across an expanse of water that was quite calm. I’d been warned that, more often than not, the crossing here could be extremely rough.

“What’s bothering you?” asked Grimalkin, looking at me closely as we leaned over the starboard rail, staring down at the calm water. The lack of wind meant that our vessel was making little progress. “You seem deep in thought.”

The witch assassin wore a thick gown with a hood and gloves. Had there been a rough sea with spray, she would doubtless have retreated to her quarters belowdecks; even Grimalkin was vulnerable to salt, although she had a far greater tolerance than others from the Pendle witch clans.

“You’ve convinced me of the need to make this journey,” I told her. “But I don’t like to be away from the County for too long. I feel I’m letting the people down—not doing my duty as John Gregory would have expected.”

“By traveling with me, you are doing more to help the County than you can imagine. Together we can gather knowledge about our enemies that might make the survival of the County possible. Soon the Kobalos will attack the northern kingdoms. If they fall, they will then press on southward to the coast. Our own lands lie just across this sea. We face a new darkness; one even worse than that threatened by the Fiend. The Kobalos intend to destroy and enslave humanity, make no mistake about it.”