“I’m sure it was.” Hadrian pulled the saddle back up and undid the knot. “People think horses are stupid—dumb animals, they call them—but they’re not. This one, for instance, just out-smarted the Princess of Melengar.” He pulled the saddle off, folded the blanket over, and returned the saddle to the animal’s back. “You see, horses don’t like to have a saddle bound around their chest any more than I suspect you enjoy being trussed up in a corset. The looser, the better, they figure, because they don’t really mind if you slide off.” He looped the leather strap through the ring in the cinch and pulled it tight. “So what she’s doing right now is holding her breath, expanding her chest and waiting for me to tie the saddle on. When she exhales, it’ll be loose. Thing is, I know this. I also know she can’t hold her breath forever.” He waited with two hands on the strap, and the moment the mare exhaled, he pulled, gaining a full four inches. “See?”

She watched as he looped the strap across, then through and down, making a flat knot that laid comfortably against the horse’s side. “Okay, I admit it. This is the first time I’ve saddled a horse,” she confessed.

“And you’re doing wonderfully,” he mocked.

“You are aware I can have you imprisoned for life, right?”

Royce and Etcher entered the barn. The younger thief grabbed his horse and left without a word.

“Friendly sorts, those Diamonds are,” Hadrian observed.

“Cosmos seemed hospitable,” Arista pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s how you might expect a spider to talk to a fly as she wraps him up.”

“What an interesting metaphor,” Arista noted. “You could have a future in politics, Hadrian.”

He glanced at Royce. “We never considered that as one of the options.”

“I’m not sure how it differs from acting.”

“He never likes my ideas,” Hadrian told her, then turned his attention back to Royce. “Where to now?”

“Hintindar,” Royce replied.

“Hintindar? Are you serious?”

“It’s out of the way and a good place to disappear for a while. Problem?”

Hadrian narrowed his eyes. “You know darn well there’s a problem.”

“What’s wrong?” Arista asked.

“I was born in Hintindar.”

“I’ve already told Etcher that’s where we’ll wait for him,” Royce said. “Nothing we can do about it now.”

“But Hintindar is just a tiny manorial village—some farms and trade shops. There’s no place to stay.”

“Even better. After Colnora, lodging in a public house might not be too smart. There must be a few people there that still know you. I’m sure someone will lend a hand and put us up for a while. We need to go somewhere off the beaten track.”