He stretched out in the long, coarse grass, staring up at the misty grey sky. The light was diffuse, and it was impossible to tell east from west.

His eyelids grew heavy, and he fought off the strong urge to doze. Tired as he was, it was too dangerous to sleep in the open in what had proven so far to be hostile country. A rutted road ran along the bank and he followed it upstream toward the town, dizzy and exhausted.

A wooden palisade surrounded the town, and the road led up to a large gate framed by torches on either side. The gate was closed, and two watchmen in long tunics sat on low stools around a campfire before it, talking in low voices as they ate their breakfast.

Pulling his tattered coat around him to cover as much of his sword as he could, he approached cautiously. “Please, I need help.”

The first to notice him dropped the bread he’d been eating and he and his companion leapt to their feet and backed away.

“Please!” Alec said.

Instead the watchmen ran to a postern door beside the larger one and began hammering on it with their fists, shouting in a language Alec didn’t understand, though it was clear that they were terrified. The postern opened and they dashed through and slammed it shut behind them. Alec heard the heavy thump of a wooden bar falling into brackets. He started forward to claim the fallen bread when stones rained down around him from the top of the palisade. Alec stumbled back toward the river. Rocks struck him on the shoulders and back before he was out of range. Running as well as his wounds would allow, he reached the river road and turned upstream, hoping for something better than he’d found so far.

It was light enough now to make out farms and pastures around the base of the valley, but Alec wasn’t about to approach any of them. Fact was, he had no idea what he was going to do.

The sound of shouting woke Klia at dawn. Rolling out of bed, she padded over to the window and looked out over the dreary, drab town. Something was going on beyond the palisade but she couldn’t see what, or understand the language.