Rezkin felt disheartened now that he realized this was not going to be a simple track and hunt. He had no doubt Farson would use the boat to get as far away from Rezkin as he could as quickly as possible. Rezkin was going to have to hunt him through the cities and across the kingdom.

A tiny voice in the back of his mind begged for attention. It wondered why he had to hunt Farson at all. Until today, everyone Rezkin had been ordered to kill had been some kind of criminal, as far as he knew. Master Jaiardun did not always tell him why he had to kill someone, but Master Peider did, and they were always terrible people. Farson though, had always struck Rezkin as an honorable and loyal man who adhered to the Rules as much as possible. In fact, all of the strikers could fit that description. Again, he felt a slight tightening in his chest when he thought of the other strikers.

Rezkin shook his head. He could not afford to think like this. His master’s last order was to kill the strikers, and that was what he was supposed to do. Then why were the masters fighting each other? What if Master Jaiardun’s order was wrong? Stop it, he told himself. He could not afford to question the orders, now. Maybe, when he caught up with Farson, he could ask the man what was going on before he killed him.

For the next seven days, Rezkin followed the river to Perdony without incident. During his training, he had spent quite a bit of time in the wild learning survival skills and hunting and tracking. About a half day from the village, he encountered the first signs of people in the outworld. A small cottage was set upon a clear hill covered in thick grasses. Milling across the hill were fluffy, white sheep. A barking dog ran around the sheep nipping at their heels. Rezkin had never seen such a dog before. He had learned to use dogs for hunting, but this dog did not seem to be trying to kill the sheep.

At midafternoon, Rezkin got his first look at an outworlder village. It was much like what he imagined, only everything was more colorful. The homes were decorated with flowers in planters, and a few stalls where produce and other general goods were sold had been covered with bright cloth that provided shade. None of the men appeared to be armed, as far as he could tell, with the exception of a few belt knives. One man carried a hoe propped on his shoulder, but it was rusted and bent. The scruffy man was trudging toward the smithy.

Rezkin suddenly yanked on the reins and pulled his charger to an abrupt halt as a small-man ran right in front of him. The small-man was chasing a round ball. As soon as he caught up with the ball, he kicked it to another small-man. Several other small-men and a few small-women were running alongside, laughing and calling out for the small-man to kick the ball to one of them.