"We're not going very fast yet!" But the train was slowly speeding up. Jumping would get more hazardous with every moment that Jason delayed them. "There's a nice soft spot right up ahead. It looks like sand."

"Sand?" Jason came up to the door, leaning to look out.

Kira grimaced and shoved, then followed Jason out the door and onto the dirt and grass lining the tracks.

She rolled to a stop right next to the first row of crops, breathing heavily, trying to figure out whether she had acquired any hurt worse than bruises. Kira waited until the rest of the train had passed before she stood up, cautiously testing for anything sprained.

Jason was lying still, unmoving. She walked over to him, fearing the worst, but his eyes were open, gazing upward.

"Are you all right?" Kira asked.

"You throw me off a train again, and then ask if I'm all right," Jason said, his voice flat. "Why do I doubt your sincerity?"

"I don't want you to be hurt, Jason, but we needed to get off that train."

"You really are crazy. I know you're not thrilled to be stuck with me, but at least I'm not homicidal!"

"Can you walk?" Kira asked.

"I don't know. I'm beginning to think I should let the bad guys find me. What are they going to do to me that you aren't?"

"Very funny. Get up." She offered him her hand to help.

He glared at her, ignoring the offer as he rolled to his side and then stood up, refusing to say anything else.

Kira shrugged and led them north through the fields.

Jason didn't speak again until the day was nearly over. It had been a long walk past the outer edges of Danalee, the banks of the Silver River beckoning ahead.

"I can't believe that I fell for that again."

"I'm sorry," Kira said.

"Are you? You're pretty good at shoving people off of moving trains."

"Jason, before I met you I had never shoved anyone off of a train."

"I guess that makes me special," Jason said. "And you must have a natural talent for it."

She smiled for the first time in hours. "It's nice to know I'm good at something. Do you forgive me?"

"I guess so. Kira, I've already tried several times staying mad at you and I can't do it." He looked ahead. "That river is flowing north, isn't it?"

"Yes. The Silver River. That's our road to Dorcastle." Just like her mother, nearly twenty years before. "There are always barges moving downriver. We'll hitch a ride on one."

"Is that safe?"