The horse eyed him with intelligence. Or was that Kerrick’s imagination? Still, Kerrick wondered if he could train the horse to move silently through the forest. Once he found the aqueduct’s southern exit, he wouldn’t have much else to do. And a quiet horse would be quite handy.

“What do you say, boy? You up for a challenge?” Kerrick asked, stroking the horse’s neck.

The horse snorted and pawed the ground. Kerrick decided that was horse for yes. He also thought the horse needed a name. Huxley was the first name that popped into his head. Hux had been the stable master for Kerrick’s father and had taught Kerrick how to ride and care for horses. He’d also been one of the first to die of the plague.

“How about Hux? Do you like that name?” he asked.

Another snort and paw. Kerrick was two for two.

After he checked on the other horses, Kerrick led them to a nearby stable and sold them. The effort to leave the forest to handle the sale exhausted him, and he slept until late the next morning.

He mounted Hux, then headed southwest at a walk. Slacking the reins, Kerrick let the horse choose the path while he listened to the sounds created by Hux’s hooves on the forest floor. A rustle of leaves, a crack of a twig and a scrape as he brushed a hoof over a fallen branch. Not bad. Most people made more noise than that.

Kerrick spurred him into a trot. At this pace, the horse chose his steps with more care, creating less noise. The canter was all drumming hooves and loud crashing. Not good.

Keeping Hux did have one benefit. He’d reached the south side of the city by late afternoon. Although the trees near the city’s southern wall had been chopped down and the vines pulled from the marble, the rest of the forest had been allowed to grow right up to it. He guessed the exit would be covered with greenery.

The forest sensed the wall as a rocky barrier thwarting its efforts to expand. Kerrick stretched his awareness, but didn’t feel any holes or gaps. Guess he’d have to find it the old-fashioned way.

He urged Hux to go east, paralleling the wall. When they reached a small muddy stream, Kerrick entered it and turned the horse left. Splashing in the water, Hux raised his head as if startled, but he didn’t balk. A few steps later, Kerrick smelled a foul odor. Probably what upset Hux. It wasn’t mud that turned the water brown, but sewage and offal.

However, the stench meant they’d found the exit. And sure enough, the stream led right into the wall. Bushes and saplings covered most of the round hole, but the middle above the water remained clear.