“Which is what way?”

He took a moment to look around, examining the area, before pointing. “That way. We go down to—”

“That’ll take us completely off course.”

“If you’d let me finish . . .” When Brannie folded her arms over her chest and began tapping her foot, Aidan went on. “We go down that way through the next few towns. Then we turn back and follow around the Big Lakes of Rhionganedd. That will allow us to—”

“Lose days,” Brannie cut in. “Absolute days, if not more than a week. I won’t do it. We’ll go this way.”

“No. We won’t.”

Brannie didn’t know how it happened. How she and Aidan found themselves almost nose to nose, their anger palpable. Logically she knew they were both exhausted and feared greatly for their comrades. But that didn’t seem to matter at the moment as the pair squared off against each other.

“We are not about to sacrifice ourselves on the altar of your guilt.”

“What the battle-fuck does that even mean?” Brannie exploded.

“It means you need to stop blaming yourself for what happened. You had nothing to do with this.”

“I never said—”

“And we’re not about to run into a battle we can’t possible win because you feel guilty!”

“I do not feel guilty!”

“Liar!”

“Oy!” Brannie thought she heard the sound coming from behind her, but chose to ignore it.

“Don’t you dare call me a liar,” Brannie warned.

Aidan leaned in even closer, their noses now touching, and snarled, “Liar.”

“Oy!”

Startled, the pair parted and looked at Uther, who may have been trying to insert himself into their conversation for quite some time.

“What?” Aidan barked.

Uther pointed with his good arm. “That.”

Brannie looked down the opposite side of the road and watched four horses pulling a carriage, happily trotting along.

The animals began walking toward them until the horses reached them and stopped.

Brannie immediately began petting one. “They don’t seem hurt,” she noted. “Or frightened. Anyone in the carriage?”

Aidan opened the door of the elaborately designed vehicle and leaned in. “No. It’s empty.”

Brannie stepped away from the horse and walked past the carriage. She gazed down the road, trying to see if someone was running after the animals. But she saw no one and she didn’t have the time to look.

An expensive carriage like this . . . “Is there blood?” she asked Aidan.

“No.”

Brannie waited a bit longer, but when she still saw no one looking for the carriage, she announced, “We’ll take the horses.” But when she turned she saw that Aidan had already unhooked the horses and was handing the leather straps off to Uther and Caswyn so the horses could be easily led around.

When he handed her the straps of the horse she’d petted, he asked, “What?”

“I hadn’t said yet that we were taking the horses.”

“You just did.”

“But you were already unhooking the horses from the carriage before I said anything.”