Ry did not put this together.

G’Fenn, who was too clever for his own good, and too prying, as well as far too interfering, had asked some questions when he’d been visiting Ry on an eve that was an eve after a similar eve G’Fenn had been visiting, which was prior to her leaving in the morn to visit her mother.

Directly after a quake.

But Ry had shooed off his queries and did so with rather an unusual vigor.

Then again, no Go’Doan priest liked when another questioned what he did with his Go’Ella.

Apparently, Ry was no different.

It was actually unusual for any priest that he let her go without an escort…or at all.

In one of the very few fortunate occurrences in her entire life, Marian had a Go’En who did not question her request. He simply granted it.

It was even more fortunate now.

In this time of greatness.

Marian read this as what the visions she was seeing in her meditations and bowl readings and colorful dreams were telling her.

It was all coming together.

Her destiny.

So now she was riding swiftly after stopping at a brothel for a rubbing of her back, neck and shoulders and a hot scented bath then taking a nice meal at her leisure in a pub (Ry was also generous with his travel tithe, though Marian preferred to think of it as it actually was: him paying her for her bloody service, something no Go’Ella received).

She needed to be there in the night and the Ancient Ritual Ground was close to Go’Doan, less than a full day’s ride away.

But after she spent the part of the day she’d have to spend waiting for the night if she got there too early (she’d learned that right away), she took the route quickly for the ride was rife with concerns.

This was partly due to the fact it was also close to the edge of The Enchantments, and there were all manner of men who regularly journeyed there for whatever purpose they got in their heads to go.

Over two hundred years, and not a one of them got in.

Men did not learn speedily. In some aspects it took centuries.

Even millennia.

Not to mention there were Zees.

Marian had no squabble with the Zees. She understood them traveling in their bright caravans, keeping themselves to themselves and very much not liking when anyone poked their nose in their business.

The problem was, they were known to set upon travelers. They didn’t tend to harm them, just steal their possessions, including their horses.

And Marian needed her horse to get to the Ritual Grounds and then get back to Go’Doan. Ry could be downright fatherly when his mind was turned from his writings. If he knew Marian had been harassed by Zees, he might demand a G’Tish accompany her.