The east town gate hadn’t been closed for the night, though we did get an surprised look from the soldier on duty. He could have stopped us, but a man in armor with a warhorse typically outranked a city guard. I could see the despair in his eyes as we rode past. Given the unusual situation, he was sure to be questioned about it later.

Once we’d left the town behind, I reined Honey back to a normal walking speed. After that, I dismounted to walk alongside to spare her the extra weight. She was strong enough, but my mail shirt and other gear added several additional stones to her load. Furthermore, she'd already been walking all day.

Considering the fallen sun, it would take quite some time for the Earl to receive the news and organize pursuit. Assuming we continued into the night, he’d never catch us. Even if he did send riders after us, all we had to do was keep running. The next town along the road fell within the Duke’s territory.

Obviously, Honey was worn out. She’d already done more than I expected. On the other hand, she was riding high from the excitement of biting someone without being scolded afterwards. Eu was about the same, wiggling and fidgeting in the saddle. Instead of resting, she stayed busy patting Honey’s neck and whispering words of praise.

“Good horse! Smart horse! Mouth mouth mouth!”

Unfortunately, in the fading light, finding a spot to rest and take on water was much more difficult. In the sunlight, I could have found landmarks and signs that I recognized. Instead, I was forced to pull off my helmet again and peer out into the falling darkness.

In the end, we continued walking deep into the night. Eventually, I heard the burble of a stream ahead. The sound was familiar, and I suddenly realized we’d walked as far as the border bridge, the edge of the Duke’s domain. Once we’d crossed over the stream, I immediately called a stop and set up camp. At some point, Eu had fallen asleep in the saddle. More accurately, she was lightly dozing while barely maintaining her balance.

I pulled Eu off and set her on top of my laid out tent. In the meantime, Honey waded down along the incline at the side of the bridge to take on water. We only had a few bells left until morning, but we all needed the rest. My feet were killing me, but more importantly, I was exhausted from the tension of a narrowly avoided battle. Where my limbs had been tingling, now they were shaking from withheld effort.

In addition to my concerns about pursuit, I could make out other travelers' camps in the clearing around the bridge. This location was a common stopping point for merchants and pilgrims. In effect, that made this area even more dangerous, not less.

Since I couldn’t expect Eu or Honey to keep watch, I left my hauberk on and settled down against the side of a tree. I had no doubt that I’d fall asleep, but this pose wouldn’t let me go too deep. With one hand on the pommel of my sword, I’d be able to jump up at the first sign of trouble.

As I closed my eyes, Honey came to nuzzle up beside me and nibble at my hair. In other words, she was telling me that she’d be keeping watch too. Not that I trusted her. A few moments later, she was breathing evenly, sound asleep. A few breaths afterwards, I joined her.

----------------------------------------

The first sign of the coming dawn was the stirring of the merchant caravans in the camps nearby. The teamsters shouted out encouragement as each wagon yoked up their horses and prepared to leave. The sky overhead was still dark, but when I looked up, I could see the brightening blue of twilight before the rise of the sun.

Once I realized where I was, my eyes flicked to where I’d laid out Eu on top of the tent cloth. There was an impression in the oiled canvas where her body had been, but no sign of her.

“High heavens!” I leapt to my feet and scanned around the area.

Luckily, she was nearby. I saw her crouched down at the water’s edge playing with the river sand.

As the adrenaline faded, I shook my head in relief and walked down the slope to join her. “Don’t drink that water. You'll get sick.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“No water. Dirt!” She pointed at the small pile cradled within her hand.

“That’s sand. The word is sand.”

“Sand! Big sand!”

“Yes, there’s a lot of sand… I guess?”

“No! BIG sand!” She brushed the dust off of her palm revealing a small, sparkling crystal.

“Where’d you get that?” I approached to take a closer look.

“Sand!”

“You found that in the sand?”

“No? Yes! Sand fwoof!” She seemed to be awfully pleased with herself.

When I reached out, she handed over the crystal. It had a regular, but unusual geometric shape. The six long sides were flat, but the two ends each had a tapering hexagonal pyramid. The length was about the same as my thumbnail.

“Huh? You fwoofed the sand?”

“No. Not fwoof sand. Sand fwoof!” Her words were so helpful... just like always.

When I held it pinched in my fingers up to the sun, I could see that the crystal was glassy clear. In fact, I couldn’t see even the smallest scratch. The light sparkled through it, sending out rainbows of color. I had to admit that it was pretty. In fact, I could probably sell it in the market as a gemstone.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Sand fwoof!” She repeated herself.

I looked behind her to where she’d been working and I saw a collection of scribbles drawn into the riverbank. “You found this here? Who did this?”

“No. Sand is … word is sand!” She smiled.

“Yes. Sand. That is indeed the word.”

“No! Sand not word! Word is sand!”

“Huh?”

She pointed at her scribbles, “Word!”

I hunkered down to take a closer look and I realized what she meant. The marks in the sand weren’t drawings at all. They looked more like writing, but not with any alphabet I’d ever seen. The characters were arrayed in neat lines from top to bottom with careful spacing breaking phrases into groups.

I shook my head as I considered the situation. The grooves matched the size of Eu's finger tips. In other words, this served as further evidence that she must have noble blood from some foreign country. Who else would have taught her to write? Almost anyone can read a few letters and sound out words, but writing sentences and arranging them? That’s one of the final steps of true literacy.

Regardless, I couldn’t deal with this now. It would serve as more information to relay to the Duke once we’d arrived. More important at the moment was the crystal that she’d given me.

“What is this?“ I showed her the so-called sand-fwoof again.

“Sand fwoof!”

“That doesn’t help at all. Whatever. I guess it’s yours?” I handed it back to her, but when she realized her pants had no pockets she pushed it back again to me.

“Yours … for now.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. I’d used that same qualifier on her before. I could only surmise that she’d understood exactly what it meant from the context. “Uhh… thanks?”

She had a sweet smile, which she followed with a surprise attack by pointing behind me. “Honey MOUTH Deft!”

I ducked down and rolled forward in my panic, but was pleased to see that there were no horses sneaking up on me. Honey was still sleeping at the top of the slope near our camp.

Eu started giggling, so I smirked at her, “Oh? You’ve got a mean streak!”

“Honey carrot?”

“We’re out of carrots, but I can buy some in the next village. We should be there before noon.”

“Village? Noon?” She repeated the words, but I had no time to explain.

“Let’s go!”

Picking up the campsite was simple. I hadn’t even opened my bag of gear the night before. That meant we’d be eating cold trail rations as we walked. As I searched through my shrinking sack of supplies, I discovered the last of the dried fruit and berries that had been gifted by Diligence. That treat made the morning more bearable.