This night, however, the nightmares seemed to have been partially thwarted. That might have been due to the soothing presence of the Healers bedded all around her. After all, she was an Empath; Kris was not. There had been enough bad fortune this spring that it was possible she might well have been picking up the general air of disaster everyone was sharing lately. She’d thought she’d made her shields strong enough to block just about anything, but she had been stressed, and that put a strain on her shielding.

Or the fact that the nightmares went away might have been just because she had worn herself out past the point of being disturbed by them. For whatever reason, she slept soundly for the first time since leaving, and had only the vaguest memories of disturbing dreams in the morning.

Seven

Seven

If Kris had been deaf, he might have been able to sleep through the noise of the night guards coming in and the day guards getting up. Since he wasn’t, he made a virtue of the inevitable and got up with them. He found Talia, still sleepy-eyed, waiting for him in the mess hall; she’d had the foresight to claim two breakfasts from the cook. Their host put in an appearance just as they were finishing.

“Well, I’ve got your instructions. I’m to give you maps, and you’re not to wait for an escort but to go on to the capital. You’re to check in with relay stations at sunset before you stop for the night.”

“Sounds simple enough,” Kris replied. “I really wanted to get on—not that your hospitality isn’t appreciated, but I’d rather not strain your resources. Just as well we’re not going to have to wait for an escort.”

“I’ll admit I was glad to hear I didn’t need to supply you with one,” their host said frankly. “I’m shorthanded enough, and if half of what I’ve heard is true, none of our beasts could ever hope to keep pace with yours, anyway.”

“It’s true enough,” Kris replied with pardonable pride. “There isn’t a horse born that can match the speed and endurance of a Companion.”

“All right, what you’ll do is follow the main road to the capital—it’s easy enough—and stay overnight at Alessandar’s hostels. They’ll always be on the main square of town; there’ll be a Guardpost nearby, and they’ll look like inns. The only difference between a hostel and an inn is that the sign outside will have a wheat sheaf in a crown. Oh—you do speak our language, don’t you?”

“Perfectly,” Kris replied in Hardornen.

“Oh, good—I thought they wouldn’t have sent anybody that didn’t, but you never know—and once you get a few miles off the Border nobody speaks Valdemaren.”