Laika came up beside him; now that night had fallen, he was able to relax his guard. Laika, sharing his memories of Karse, was similarly relaxed. Nighttime held no terrors for Alberich now, not after so many years in Valdemar. If the Sunpriests unleashed their demons—and given how quiet the night was, he rather thought that said demons were fully engaged in pursuing stray Tedrels at the moment—he didn’t think they would bother to do so here. So far as the Sunpriests knew at this point, there was no one in this part of the hills but the children, and why waste their most dangerous and powerful nighttime weapon on a lot of children?

Children who couldn’t escape on their own, and would soon be facing the Fires anyway…

He had to unclench his jaw over that thought. And he sent up a silent prayer—not the first, and he doubted if it would be the last—that one day the Sunpriests would be answering for their transgressions, and one day it would be priests like his old mentor Kentroch, and like Father Henrick and Geri, who would be ruling in Karse again.

One of the other Heralds came riding up, looking nervously over his shoulder. “Herald Alberich, shouldn’t we be putting outriders all around?” he asked. “I mean—”

“Peace; at ease be, protected we are by the priests themselves,” Alberich said, and exchanged a glance with Laika. She laughed.

“Karsites won’t stir out of their doors after dark,” she said, with the air of one who knows. “Their priests have a habit of sending some sort of creepy-howly thing out at night, to make sure nobody’s out doing something they shouldn’t.”

“Even the Sunsguard stirs not,” Alberich added, with sardonic amusement. “So that now, should even a priest order them out, they will not go.”

“Caught in their own trap,” Laika said. “And serve ’em right. So by the time sun’s up, we’ll be so close to our people that even if they catch on we’re here, our folks can mount a big enough rescue to squeak us across without losing so much as a hair.”

Alberich considered how much the Tedrels had drained from the country, and sighed with pain. “If they scout or FarSee us, we take—so far as they will know—useless mouths only. We leave—think, they will—the camp unplundered.” Privately, he doubted that even the Sunpriests would trouble themselves with FarSeeing this part of Karse; they would use their power to track down the Tedrels and Tedrel recruits. They must know that Sendar was dead, but they must also know that now was not the time to attack Valdemar themselves. Valdemar had just fought a terrible battle, and were exhausted, yes, but the Karsite Sunsguard was drained and weakened by the demands of the Tedrels. The current Son of the Sun—