At once he sat up, fumbling for his knife, his heart pounding. The stable was filled with a thin, grey light, enough for him to see dimly. His eyes flew to the door. Sebastien was just slipping in. Luka groaned aloud in relief and dropped his knife. ‘I thought you were the constables!’ he said. ‘You gave me such a fright.’ Sebastien did not smile. He looked white and strained. ‘You’d better get up,’ he said. ‘You need to come back to the camp.’ ‘Why? What’s wrong?’ Even as Luka spoke, he was gathering up their belongings. Emilia sat up sleepily, her hair all over her face. Rollo sat up too, and yawned mightily, showing all his teeth. ‘The man that’s after you, he showed up at the camp this morning with the local garrison,’ Sebastien said. ‘He wanted to know where you were, and when we said we didn’t know, the soldiers requisitioned all our horses, every single one of them.’ ‘No!’ Emilia was shocked.
