The constant jarring of the horse’s steps sent vibrations straight up Tel’s spine and set everything from his thighs up aching for different reasons. Ahead, on the actual saddle, Shara didn’t seem to be having the same problem, gently rocking in time with the animal.

His hands on her waist for balance didn’t make anything better, and every time he grabbed tighter for balance, or even realized he was touching her, his brain went annoyingly blank. She’d talked to him a few times during their ride, but his answers were little more than non-committal grunts.

Get outside, meet people your own age, Grund had said. Well, what was he supposed to do after he met them? Talk? About what? Sure, she was a sorcerer…or maybe sorceress was more accurate…was there actually a gender differentiation? He hadn’t seen anything on the topic in any of the books he’d read back at the enclave. Maybe he should…

“…when we get to Bastion?” Shara’s voice creeped into Tel’s consciousness, and he forced himself back outside his inner contemplations.

Constant interruptions were the other problem with meeting people. Grund really had no idea what he was saying.

“Sorry, what was that?” he asked, his voice coming out quietly, and his hands instantly turning sweaty against her tunic. Again.

“You apologize too much,” Shara said.

“Sorry,” he said. Had she talked to him just to insult him? Nothing new there.

“Nah, Tel, it’s not like that. My aunt always taught me not to be sorry for things that weren’t my fault or that I couldn’t control. She said that if all I ever did was apologize, I’d never actually grow to being accountable for my actions. I don’t really know what accountable means, but I think I get the gist of it,” Shara said.

“It’s like being responsible for your actions,” Tel said quietly, the only other sound the hooves of the horse beating their rhythm on the packed dirt of the road. With the sun closing in on the horizon, there was nobody else around.

“Oh? I thought it had something to do with money. Thanks,” she said, glancing over her shoulder with a smile that made Tel’s palms somehow sweat even more.

“No problem,” he replied. “And…technically, I wasn’t listening, so asking you to repeat was my fault.”

Shara blew out a breath, her sides rising and falling under his hands on her waist.

“Okay, look Tel, I’ll give you three ‘sorry’s per day. Only three. Got it?” she said.

“What happens if I go over three?” he asked.

“That’s your question? No argument to the restriction?” she said, an eyebrow arched as she turned her head to look at him again.

“I need the full contractual obligations before I can agree to it or not,” he said.

“You didn’t get out of that enclave much, did you?” she asked.

“No, sorry” Tel said, his shoulders shrinking down, which only set his stiff back to aching even more.

“That’s two. You’ve got one more,” Shara said with a chuckle. “And we all have something we aren’t good at. But, when we’re around more people, you’re going to need to be careful how you speak. You sound too smart for your own good.”

“I said the same thing to Grund,” Tel mumbled, but forced his thoughts away from the pools of blood seeping up through the floors of his memory around the closed door. “When does the count reset?” he asked instead.

“The count? Oh, for saying sorry?” Shara said. “Starts fresh in the morning when we wake up.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“When you wake up or when I do?” Tel asked.

“If you’re apologizing to me while I’m still asleep, I think you have bigger problems,” Shara said, chuckling again, the sound of it easing some of the building tension in Tel’s shoulders.

“You’re probably right,” Tel agreed.

“You’ll learn women usually are,” Shara said with another laugh.

“Or they at least think they are,” Tel said.

“Whether that is true or not, I suggest you never say it out loud again, if you catch my drift.”

Tel nodded after a moment of consideration, though the woman in front of him couldn’t see it since she was facing the wrong direction. “Again, you’re probably right. But, you didn’t tell me what would happen if I went over the limit of three.”

“You need to tell me a secret,” she said, this time with a wink. “And not a silly secret like you hate carrots. I mean a juicy secret.”

“How do you know I’ll tell you something true?” he asked.

“Kind of seems like who you are,” she said. “Am I wrong?”

Another moment of consideration. “You’re not, if I agree to your terms, I will do my best to uphold them.”

“Perfect! Then we have a deal,” she said.

“I didn’t say…” Tel started.

“You’ve got one left until we settle in for the night,” she rolled right over his objection. “Don’t waste it.”

“I’ll do my best,” he said flatly, but the corners of his mouth curled up. “Shara, how do you do it?”

“Uh, you’ll need to be a little more specific,” she said.

“How do you talk to a complete stranger?” he asked. “And… get me to answer?”

“You don’t usually answer when people talk to you?” she asked right back instead of answering his questions.

“People don’t usually talk to me. I’m not very… interesting,” Tel said. “Unless it’s about clocks, I guess.”

“What do you talk about when you aren’t talking about clocks then?”

“I don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t talk.”

Shara half turned in her saddle, which pulled Tel closer because he didn’t dare loosen his hands around her waist or risk falling off the horse. “When was the last time you had a conversation with somebody about something other than clocks?”

Tel glanced up at the yellow and orange glow stretching across the sky so he didn’t have to look at her eyes, something about them and how close she was making his chest clench. “When Grund told me I had to escape,” he said.

“And before that?” she asked without turning back.

“Two… no… three…” he said, thinking back.

“Three days ago?”

Tel shook his head.

“Three weeks…?” she said, her eyebrow rising.

Tel shook his head again.

“Months?!”

Tel turned his attention to the trees on the side of the road and gave one more shake of his head.

“Three… years? You’re telling me the last time you really talked to somebody was three years ago?”

Tel nodded. And he’d probably have gone three more if he hadn’t left the enclave. Left wasn’t the right word. Been chased out.

“I… I feel kind of special,” Shara said, and there didn’t seem to be any malice or sarcasm in her voice.

“You still didn’t answer my…” Tel started, but stopped as he noticed the horse was angling to the right at a fork in the road. “Shouldn’t we be going to the left here?”

“Bastion is right,” she said. “I know it seems odd it loops around from the opposite direction, but it doesn’t wind like the road to the left. It’ll take us a couple days to get there, but this is the most direct route.”

“But Gravelburg is to the left. If any of the others…escaped, they will have gone there. I need to check,” Tel said.

“I know you said that earlier, but it’s risky. The Tailcoats are still close. I’m pretty sure we’re ahead of them right now, and I’d like to keep it that way,” Shara said.

“There’s a Tailcoat garrison in Bastion,” Tel said. “We’ll have to avoid them there anyway. I need to check Gravelburg for the others. They probably weren’t as lucky as me to meet…somebody like you, and they’re all…old. They’ll need our help.”

Shara tensed under his hands, and her head went from the right road to the left and back again.

“I said I’d help you, but, Tel, I don’t…” she started, but stopped when Tel unceremoniously pushed himself off the horse to the side.

The animal danced away at his sudden departure, and it took every ounce of dexterity he had – which wasn’t much – to not completely fall on his face. Still, he stumbled to his knees, but quickly pushed himself back up and dusted off his pants.

“Thank you for…getting me this far,” Tel said. “I wouldn’t have made it away from the mountain without you. I don’t have…” he stopped then slipped the pack off his shoulder and flipped it open. Reaching in, he grabbed one of the stopwatches he’d hastily packed from the vault. It wasn’t the same quality as his own, but it was still a treasure compared to most stopwatches out in the wider world. “Here,” he said, holding it out to her. “As…payment. Unless you’d prefer money? I have some…”

“Stop, Tel,” Shara said, but her eyes stayed on the stopwatch for several long seconds before she turned her attention to him. “Come on. Get back on the horse.”

Tel took a step back. “I can’t. I need to go to Gravelburg.”

Shara sighed, but pulled gently on the reins in her hands, and the horse sidled back towards Tel. “I know. I’ll take you. Come on, get on the horse,” she said, holding out her hand.

Tel looked at the big animal, the rump of it almost at eye-level. “I…can’t,” he finally said.

“Tel, I told you I’d take you. Just get on.”

“No,” Tel said with a gulp. “I mean, I don’t think I can physically get up again.”