In the empty area near the city gates, six heavily loaded wagons were waiting with a herd of pack beasts. A small crowd of people were standing nearby.

A short well-dressed man with dark skin was darting back and forth, talking to the drivers, the guards and the crowd. He made eye contact with Hina as she was walking up the road towards the caravan and stopped walking. He turned and walked up to them. "Greetings," he said, speaking quickly. "You and your group are up on the third wagon," he pointed it out. "Wait nearby until the driver asks you to board, yes?"

"Thank you," Olivia said. "We'll do that."

"And the matter of payment, the balance of..." He looked down at the notepad in his hand. "Five quarters?"

"Yes, that's correct." She flipped open her satchel and reached into the pocket. "Here."

"Very good." He nodded and tucked the coins away into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. "We'll be on our way shortly." Yusuf turned and walked away in the direction of one of the other wagons.

Olivia looked at Hina and shrugged.

"I guess we go and wait over there," Hina said.

After a few minutes of waiting by the wagon amongst a handful of other passengers, a heavyset man came and stood near the front. "Passengers," the man said in a loud voice, "please go ahead and board via the ladder to the rear of the wagon. We'll be on our way shortly. Please get my attention if you need assistance with your personal belongings."

The wagon was a tall, box-shaped wooden vehicle, with a bench at the front for the driver, with room for at least four people to sit side by side. Two burly pack-beasts were waiting patiently at the front, ready to pull them away on request. From the back, Hina could see past the guard rail into a large cargo area, heavily loaded with crates and bags and boxes of goods and even a few barrels. She recognised sacks of grain from Grambe and one of the crates near the top was full of apples from Hertley.

Some of the other passengers were already boarding, a man carrying several bags followed by a woman with a small child in her arms.

Hina joined the queue behind Kai, and followed him up the ladder when their turn came.

Bean gave a little chirp as she reached the top.

The space for passengers on top of the wagon looked comfortable, with wide benches along the sides and racks for luggage in the middle. A rail ran around all four sides to keep passengers from falling off, and there was a little cloth roof that spread out from above the rail, which would provide some protection from sun and rain.

Towards the end of the bench opposite from the ladder, Hina took a seat—the better for being out of the way of the other passengers. She sat down with her bag between her knees.

Olivia sat down beside her, and Kai sat down on the other side of Olivia. "This is nice," Kai said. "We don't have to walk anymore."

"And we'll get a pretty nice view of the countryside from this elevation," Olivia said. "Better than walking by far."

"Maybe we'll spot a hidden ruin or something," Kai said. "I hear there's all kinds in the hills around Modmin."

"Hmm," Olivia said. "Maybe we will."

"Well, I'm looking forward to having lots of time to practise," Hina said.

"Sensible."

A handful of other passengers boarded over the next few minutes and took their seats. Hina counted eleven people in total, including her group and the young child with the couple who had boarded before them.

When new people stopped climbing the ladder, the space on top of the wagon was still looking comfortable. Hina was pleased that they wouldn't be crammed into a small spaces for the journey. There was sitting room free for half again as many people.

At the front of the wagon, a woman climbed up over the side to sit on the railing, facing forward. She took a black metal crossbow down from where it was hanging from a strap over her shoulder and settled it into her lap. Leaning back over the railing, two guards with spears sat beside the driver of the wagon behind them.

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Hina wondered what would happen if they ran into a beast—or even one of the huld. Would the wagons stop while the guards dealt with the threat? There were twelve guards, Yusuf had said, two per wagon. And the passengers were obliged to help in an emergency. Was that enough to deal with a huld? What if there was more than one?

She imagined a massive figure tearing through the guards—like the huld tearing through the farmers by the farm-house gate.

But surely the caravan-master knew his business. He wouldn't last very long if he regularly lost goods and passengers to the wild.

And neither would Hina if she wasn't prepared.

They would arrive in Modmin in eight or nine days, assuming they didn't run into any serious trouble. From Modmin it was about a week and a half of walking—uphill—to Almewich, and another week or so from there to Om Qalar.

Almewich wasn't on any major trade routes, so it was unlikely that they would find another caravan heading that way. Not unless they wanted to wait for a week or more in Modmin.

It would be faster if they headed east to Walton and then caught the train, which would take them through Burton and then all the way to Om Qalar in a matter of days. But Hina and Kai didn't have enough coin for that, for one, and more importantly, she didn't think they should risk it.

If there were flyers in Blandmanch, there would be worse at the train station.

That inn-keeper had asked too many questions, now that Hina thought about it. And she'd tried too hard to get them to stay the night.

So Hina needed to be ready for another long stretch in the wild. Looking around the wagon at the other passengers, no-one was looking in Hina's direction. It was a shame that they didn't have more privacy, but she supposed she'd have to make do.

First thing was her ambit. She had worked on it last night outside Blandmanch and had managed to expand her ambit along her legs and torso. And there was no reason why Hina couldn't continue to work on it now. It wouldn't even look like she was doing anything to the other passengers, unless there was some way to tell—she'd have to ask Olivia. Later.

Hina focused her mind and felt for potentia at the edges of her ambit. There was a different feeling to the energy beyond herself, a fullness and a sense of motion. She took a breath and drew it in, then released it. And repeated the process. A sense of freshness and energy filled her, left her invigorated. Hina drew until her well was full. Until she felt like she was holding all of the power that she could hold.

And she could hold noticably more than she could before the—the farm. Whatever had happened there at the end had deepened her well, and she was stronger for it.

With her well full, Hina could feel her ambit more tangibly, a field of energy all around her, within her control. Her influence extending out into the world ever so slightly, all around her body. All around her body except for around her head.

Hina traced the lines of her face and head with her inner senses, the arc to the top of her skull. Past dark hair to her high forehead, her thick dark brows. Down past her nose, and past the her lips—pursed in concentration—she relaxed her expression. She traced her attention past her round chin and plump cheeks.

Collectively, these were the last parts of her boundary that remained unchanged.

When she felt like she had the right sense of herself, Hina focused. She gathered her will, and pressed out, pushing against her boundaries. Seeking balance, an equilibrium with the rest of her ambit.

Hina pushed out with all of her might. She pushed and pushed until she could feel the edges of her will fraying.

And then something shifted, and came loose. The boundary around her head relaxed, became responsive to her press, and moved.

This time her ambit shifted further than any of the other times she'd done this. Something about expansion along all of her boundaries? It felt fluid, and like it was moving a long way as she continued to press out.

Gradually, another sense of resistance developed as she pushed, until she could push no further. It was enough.

Hina relaxed a little, holding on to her progress with a little effort.

She put two fingers to her forehead, facing outwards, in line with her nose. She could feel that her second finger was just inside the boundary of her ambit—a massive expansion when compared to the less than a finger's width of ambit she had developed around the rest of her body. Could she...

She assessed her will, her energy. She had enough power for another attempt, she thought. Just one more.

Hina felt for her ambit around the rest of her body, where it joined to what she was holding already—her neck and shoulders and arms and all the rest. It came into her attention more readily that she'd expected, or perhaps it made sense—it was all part of the space in the world that she had claimed, continued to claim for herself. She could feel it—it was ready, she was ready.

She gathered her will, and pressed outward once more. She felt the flexibility in her ambit around her face spreading downwards, a wave of responsiveness. And then her ambit came loose in a ripple.

Pushing with all of her will, Hina pressed outward. She held the whole of her boundary, pushing it out in every direction until she met that sense of rising resistance. She pusehd until she could push no further against the resistance on all sides. And then she held it there.

Hina let out a long deep breath as a wave of exhaustion spread through her.

She had to let go now, and hope that the change stayed where it was. Or that it would be easier next time. She could live with having to repeat this process a few times until it stuck, if that's what it took.

Releasing her attention around her left ankle, Hina let it fall out of her will ever so slightly, and then released it entirely.

Nothing changed. And then after a moment, she felt the sense of flexibility harden around her foot. Her ambit didn't move at all.

Encouraged, she tried her right ankle, repeating the process. And then, reaching the ends of her energy, she released all of the rest, all at once.

She took several deep breaths. Her ambit stiffened, the sense of flexibility fading.

But it stayed where it was, and Hina couldn't help but smile.

Her boundaries extended two finger-widths out into the world in all directions.