She had noted almost no one traveling northward toward Lornth, but she and her force had passed carts and small wagons heading away from the town. Why are they going southward? Was it just because they had friends or family with whom they could stay? Certainly, heading toward the lands of the lords most likely to create trouble didn’t make much sense to Saryn. Except most of the townspeople probably don’t know that. They only know that the Lady Regent is in trouble, and they’re afraid to be in Lornth because they know there may be fighting there. Saryn glanced at the road ahead, a packed-dirt way holding generally to the crest of a low rise that ran north and south. A kay or so ahead of her it dipped slightly, before climbing to the crest of yet another gentle rise. She squared herself slightly in the saddle, knowing that she couldn’t put off the task at hand, not if she and her force wanted to survive the eightdays ahead, because, sooner or later, another chaos-mage would show up to support the rebel lords, and the next one was likely to be far more accomplished than the Suthyan hedge mage she’d barely managed to handle.
