The road rose and dipped as it wound its way through the rolling hills that lay to the west of Chamford. Once they were out of sight of the town, Victoria permitted their horse to slow down. The mare’s body was broken, and Victoria knew it would quickly die without her power. The question now was how much longer she could make the poor beast bear them before her power gave out.

“There are people up ahead,” Leryn warned.

Victoria’s body swayed from the effort of turning her head. Her vision was blurred from the effort of keeping the horse moving but she could just barely make the figures of two men on horseback riding slowly in the same direction as they.

“Do you think they’re pursuers?”

Victoria shook her head and bit back a snide remark. She was too spent to get into a verbal battle now. “Then they’re going in the wrong direction, aren’t they?”

“What should we do?”

“Let’s see who they are,” Victoria suggested. “They probably came out of that shack we passed just now.”

“There will be pursuers after us from town,” Leryn whispered. “We should kill them quickly and take their horses.”

“We can do that after we find out who they are,” Victoria whispered back. She was slurring her words and knew that she could not keep their battered horse going for much longer.

“Hail there, travellers,” Leryn called out, causing Victoria to wince.

“Why don’t you just tell them you’re an Imperial noble and save me the embarrassment,” she hissed as she elbowed Leryn in the ribs. The effort caught her off balance and she began to teeter, only to be saved from falling by Leryn’s strong arm.

“Good day travellers,” one of the men called back, slowly, confused by the manner of greeting. “Are you coming out of Chamford?”

“We are… fellow peasants,” Leryn began. He jerked upright when Victoria pinched his side.

“I must say, you must be brave fellows to be out this early,” another voice muttered. “What with that Night Stalker mincing about. There’s always some damned fool who thinks they can run around outdoors after dark.

“Are you… are you gents Pledge Drivers?” Victoria asked when she noticed their white uniforms and caps that were lined with crimson trim.

“That we are,” one of them said with a sheepish smile. “Our wagon got stuck in a ditch last night, and we weren’t able to free it before dark.”

He then turned pale. “We left our Pledge in there. You don’t think the Night Stalker was after him, do you?”

“He’d have been fine as long as he stayed in the wagon,” the other driver said confidently. “Almost every Pledge spends at least a few nights in there on their pilgrimage.”

“Say he came out to piss or something,” the first man said worriedly.

“How far away is your carriage?” Victoria asked. Her voice was weak and barely audible.

“Just over four miles away down the fork on the right,” the first driver replied. “We tried to free it for as long as we could before night fell.”

Victoria brought their horse to a halt, and it trembled as it stood in place. The men noticed her condition for the first time.

“Are you sure you’re fit to travel, miss?” the first driver asked.

“Or your horse,” the second began slowly. “Is this Pledge Wife your daughter, sir?”

“You really should take better care of her,” he continued.

“Now,” Victoria whispered.

Leryn leapt from their horse just as Victoria came to the end of her tether. The horse let off a soft whinny before collapsing. Meanwhile, the huge swordsman was able to drag one of the drivers off his horse and drove his shattered sword into the man’s neck.

“By the Pantheon, what are you doing?” his companion demanded, his eyes wide with shock.

Leryn moved to grab him by the leg, but the man backed his horse off a step or two. He began to wheel his horse around when Victoria, who had summoned the last vestiges of her strength, reached out with her power and used it to take hold of the man, who yelped when his body acted on its own to shift all his weight to the right, throwing him off his horse. He attempted to scramble to his feet, but Leryn pounced and quickly stabbed him through the heart.

“Their horses,” Victoria said weakly. “We’ll need two.”

“What for?” Leryn asked as he gathered the reins.

“Hide their bodies,” she croaked as she lay next to their fallen mare.

“You’re making a lot of demands,” Leryn remarked as he tied the horses to a nearby tree.

“When you’re done, take both horses and them to the wagon… down the right fork…” Victoria continued. As her consciousness slipped, she cursed herself for not instructing him to bring her along to the wagon and hoped he wasn’t stupid enough to need to be told that.

Victoria gasped when she came to. She could tell from the swaying that she was on a horse. Then, she realized she was leaning back against something hard and firm. She jerked forward and turned around to see Leryn looking down at her, wearing a sardonic smile.

“Good,” she said weakly. “You brought me along.”

Leryn gave her a confused look.

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“How long have I been asleep?”

“Not long, a few minutes,” Leryn replied. “I hid the bodies in the grass a fair distance from the road. There wasn’t time to bury them so they will be found before long. I took their uniforms with us, just in case.”

“That was very intelligent of you,” Victoria managing a coy smile. “I just might faint again from shock.”

“Mock while you can, witch,” Leryn said without rancour. “You and I will have a reckoning when all this is done.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Victoria replied.

Soon, a large carriage came into view. It had rolled into a ditch but was otherwise intact. Its panels were painted deep blue and were lined with patterns of gold leaf that blazed under the morning sun. Bronze sculptures of the gods of the Pantheon lined the roof. Victoria knew the Pledges would be inside for once they boarded the Pledge Wagon, they were not permitted to leave until it reached their destination, however long the journey took.

“You stay here,” Victoria said as she dismounted and stood on unsteady feet. “They’ll be less wary if they see my face instead of yours.”

Leryn grunted and remained where he was as Victoria crept up to the carriage. She used a ledge to peer through a window before walking back to Leryn.

“There’s only one,” she said. “He’s asleep.”

“What do we do now?” Leryn ventured.

“Hitch the horses up, use them pull the thing free,” she replied. “Then we can deal with him.”

“Why don’t we just kill him?” he asked.

“He could prove useful.”

Leryn scowled, unconvinced. “That sounds like a fine way to get us caught.”

“You said you’d defer to my expertise, remember?” she pointed out.

Leryn’s scowl deepened but did as he was told. Victoria watched him hitch the horses to the carriage and wondered if she should take his sudden obedience at face value. Something caught Leryn’s eye, and the bulking man paused his work to hop onto the driver’s bench at the front of a carriage.

“Can you believe this?” he asked happily, holding up a pair of sheathed swords. “They just left their weapons out here overnight.”

No, Victoria decided. Trusting him would be too dangerous. He didn’t shy from violence, and a moment of carelessness could cost her dearly.

“You know, it occurs to me that those drivers would have tried this already,” the burly man remarked when the horses were hitched up.

“Well, I think you’re stronger than the two of them combined,” Victoria observed. No harm in a little praise while things appeared to be warming between them.

“Be that as it may,” began said, without a shred of humility. “That carriage looks well and truly stuck.”

Victoria looked at it and shrugged. Two of the gilded carriage’s wheels were stuck in the foot deep ditch that ran along the road. The massive carriage looked far too heavy for the two horses to pull out. However, Victoria reckoned she had enough power to help them pull it out.

“Are you sure about this?” Leryn asked as he took his position at the back of the carriage.

“Yes,” she replied as she climbed into the driver’s seat. “Let’s get this thing free.”

Leryn stood back for a moment while Victoria whipped the reins. The horses strained against their yokes, but the carriage scarcely budged.

“This isn’t going to work,” Leryn remarked sourly. “I don’t know what they were thinking pulling this massive thing with so few horses. We will probably have to go look for more if we want to use it.”

“Just push,” Victoria replied.

“This isn’t going to work,” Leryn repeated, but put his back into pushing the carriage all the same.

Victoria felt it budge slightly, but it wasn’t enough. She began an incantation.

“You’re not casting your foul magic on me,” Leryn warned through gritted teeth.

Victoria didn’t even dignify him with an answer. She hopped down from the driver’s bench and placed herself between the two horses, touching each of their flanks with her hands. She channelled her power, increasing their blood flow ever so slightly.

“You’re going to kill them!” Leryn protested.

“Focus on pushing,” Victoria replied. Her voice was strained. Preserving the horses’ health required a level of control that taxed her greatly.

Soon, the wagon began to roll forward, and with a great thump, it was out of the ditch. Leryn and Victoria abruptly fell to the ground, exhausted from their efforts. The horses seemed to eye Victoria incredulously, as though telling her that they had done most of the work.

“Are we out?” came a sleepy voice from inside the carriage. “Hooray, well done, lads!”

Victoria turned her head to see a beaming, ruddy face at the window slot behind the driver’s bench. The face’s smile quickly turned into a confused frown.

“Say, where are my drivers?” he asked. He then saw Victoria. “A Pledge Wife? If you’re looking for your husband, I’m afraid he’s in another carriage.”

The man began to chortle, as though he’d just told the funniest joke he’d ever heard, and Victoria warily got to her feet. Behind the carriage, and out of sight of the window slot, Leryn did the same. He drew his finger across his throat and gave Victoria a quizzical look. She shook her head sharply and turned her attention back to the man, whose pale blue eyes were darting around, looking for a sign of his drivers.

“We’ve killed your drivers, and are commandeering you and this carriage,” Victoria said as calmly as one would announce that it was raining.

The man glared at her. Through the window, she could see that he was a diminutive man with a narrow face and two protruding front teeth that made him look very much like a rat. “If that’s your idea of a joke, I’m afraid it’s not funny, young lady.”

Victoria raised an eyebrow. “Young lady? You don’t look any older than I am. What’s a runt like you doing on a Pledge Wagon?”

“I’m from a remote village,” the man replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Vindrick Asklen’s the name, by the way. Anyway, the uneducated bumpkins there didn’t appreciate my superior intellect and voted me to as Pledge.”

Victoria frowned. “That’s not how it works… at all. Being Pledged is…”

“Oh, you’re one of those hardliners, are you?” the man sniffed. “Well, Bandrin’s Hollow is one of the recent converts, and they aren’t really as… ahem… fanatical, as you. No offence meant, of course.”

“You learn something new every day,” Victoria muttered to herself.

“Now,” Vindrick continued. a “Where are those drivers? Don’t tell me they’ve gone off for a pint now that the carriage is free. My chamber pot’s full, and I’m positively famished!”

“Well, as I said, they’re dead, and…” Victoria began.

“Young lady, I don’t know what your game is, I really don’t have time to entertain you,” Vindrick said dismissively.

“She is telling the truth. Your drivers are dead and are being feasted on by crows in a field four miles up the road” Leryn said as he stepped into view of the window slot. He had unsheathed one of the swords and was resting it on his shoulder. “And unless you want to join them, I suggest you shut your mouth.”

Vindrick turned pale. “Oh.”

“Why are we keeping him alive again?” Leryn asked.

“It will be easier for us to get where we’re going with that carriage,” Victoria replied.

“Don’t even think about escaping, or I will cut your legs off,” Leryn warned as Vindrick retreated to the rear of the carriage. A whimper came from inside, and Leryn snorted with disdain. He then turned back to Victoria. “And where does his being alive come into the equation?”

“Pledge Wagons have two drivers and a pledge in the back,” Victoria replied. “We need him.”

“And what’s to stop him from screaming his head off the moment we roll into the next town?” Leryn ventured.

“My power,” Victoria replied.

The corners of Leryn’s mouth curled in disdain. “I thought all Pledges went north. Aren’t the Mud Flats in the wrong direction?”

“Some Pledges go to the west as well,” Victoria said and pointed at a small brown patch on the carriage. “Like this one is.”

“What do they do with Pledges, anyway?” Leryn frowned.

“Nothing good, I’m sure,” Victoria mused. “No one from where I was from knew.”

“More of them go to north than west?”

“That’s right.”

Leryn nodded slowly, lost in his thoughts.

“What are you going to do with me?” Vindrick whimpered.

“That’s none of your concern!” Leryn roared. “Another word out of you and I will cut out your tongue!”

“I don’t know if I can take any more of his snivelling,” Leryn remarked sourly. “Can I just cut his tongue out? It’s not like anyone’s going to see while he’s riding back there.”

“About that…” Victoria began gingerly.