Dead men lay around the start of the bridges span, wearing the uniforms of her familys men, clearly cut down before they could react. Erin stared down at them, wondering what it must have been like for them to be cut down so suddenly.

They came this way then, Odd said, dropping down from his mule. There are more tracks, too. A second force went this way afterwards.

He pointed, and Erin could see what he meant. Although with one of the great bridges, it was hard to truly tell when people had gone across. Erin was more interested in the fact that Odd could pick apart the tracks so easily. Hed mentioned being a former knight, but Erin still didnt have the first clue who he was. He was just… Odd.

We need to cross, Erin said.

Odd nodded. If thats where your sister is, thats where we have to go.

Erin frowned at that. No speech about how this is too dangerous, or about how angry the king will be if his knights start raiding across the bridges and start a war?

War is coming anyway, Odd said. And I… I have a poor record of listening to those I should.

He set out over the bridge on foot, leading his by now exhausted mule. He paused by one of the slain guards, closing his staring eyes, but also lifting the mans short bow and a quiver of arrows. Taking her cue from him, Erin did the same with a crossbow.

A real bow is better, Odd said. Crossbows hit harder, but an archer with the skill to do it can send six arrows flying for every bolt they fire.

A crossbow is whats here, Erin pointed out. Did this strange man think he was her teacher now?

True, Odd said, and kept going across the bridges broad span.

Erin had never been across the Slate before. The bridge between its shores was wide enough that it seemed to take an age to walk it, its wooden slats creaking beneath her feet. She supposed that she should have felt some security in that instability, in the power of the Slate to keep the two kingdoms apart. Yet, from what Odd had said, even that wasnt enough anymore.

Who was this man who was not a knight, or a monk, but both and less all at once?

There was no answer to that, so Erin kept leading her horse. She was most of the way across when she saw figures emerge from the trees on the far shore. There was a chasing cluster of horsemen, dressed in the colors of King Ravin, but Erin was more interested in the figure riding out in front of them, racing ahead of the chasing pack for her life.