"Breakfast is almost ready," he says.

"Oh," he grunts as he looks over to where Jiron is taking the meat from the fire. Getting up, he crosses over to the trees and does his morning business and then returns to take a seat by the fire.

Jiron hands him his portion and then gives James his. They sit there for a while in silence as they eat. James takes a look at the mountains surrounding them. Glancing to the south, he can't really see where he caused the sides of the pa.s.s to cave-in as trees and mountain block his view.

"How far did we come last night?" he asks.

"Not sure, we traveled for several hours before stopping," Jiron replies.

"We better push long and hard today," continues James. "Abula-Mazki won't be giving up so easily."

"I hope he was caught in the landslide," Miko adds.

"So do I," agrees James, "but we can't go on that a.s.sumption. We must act as if he's still after us."

"Where to now?" Jiron asks.

"Continue heading north," James replies. "It's all we can do."

Once they finished their breakfast, they mount and continue down the side of the mountain. The trail they are following is fairly clear, having been traveled by riders on their way to the Gathering for a very long time.

It takes most of the day to reach the plains below the mountains. They turn more to the west as they continue along the foothills, traveling until the sun begins to fall. A hollow between two hills gives them a good place to remain hidden while they camp through the night.

While Jiron gets the fire going, James goes out and gets a couple rabbits for dinner. Once they're on the fire roasting, they sit back and relax.

James wishes he had something to use to see if they are being pursued, but there are no pools of water to be found. He needs something that has a smooth, reflective surface in order to do it.

"Think we're staying ahead of him?" asks Miko.

"Maybe," replies Jiron. "It's really hard to say. It all depends on how far he had to ride to find another way from the gathering. And if he's willing to kill his horse in order to catch us."

"Do you think the Grey Wolf Clan will aid him?" Miko asks.

"Probably," answers James. "We messed up their camp pretty good, and probably insulted them in some way when we s.n.a.t.c.hed you out from the middle of their camp."

"Other clans may help as well," Jiron guesses. "We did violate the peace, though I doubt if the Windriders will be among those coming after us."

"Maybe," agrees James. "If we can make it out of their lands, then maybe the clans won't continue the pursuit."

"Let's hope so," Miko sighs. "Is that why we're moving more to the west? So hopefully we will be out of their lands?"

"I hadn't thought of it that way," Jiron says. "I just figured the hills would give us more cover than the open plains. But that's a thought."

"The forces of the Empire in this area would hardly be on the lookout for us," reasons James. "If anything, they'd still be looking for us further south. We should have a day or two before Abula-Mazki has the chance to alert anyone."

"If our luck holds, we may be able to keep ahead of the word of our whereabouts all the way to the border," Jiron says optimistically.

"That would be nice," James agrees, though doesn't really feel that is a possibility.

James takes the first watch once they've eaten and are ready to bed down for the night.

In the morning, Jiron pulls out rations he found on the horses Therin had given them. After a quick bite to eat, they're in the saddle and making their way through the hills. They continue to maintain a route to the west, with a slight northerly heading. The hills afford them some protection from being spotted but at the sacrifice of speed.

Some time after noon, they curve around a hill and suddenly before them is a road going north to south. They pause a moment before moving behind a hill bordering the road. Jiron dismounts and while the others wait with the horses, looks for any traffic moving upon the road.

He's up there several minutes before coming back down. When he returns, he says, "There's no one on the road and I could see it winding its way through the hills for miles in either direction."

"Think we should chance it?" James asks him.

"We'd make better time, but you never know who'll be using it," he replies.

"Moving through the hills is slowing us down," James tells him. "I think we need to chance it. If we keep a constant watch for anyone approaching, we might be okay."

"Alright," Jiron says as he remounts. Turning his horse toward the road, he continues, "Then let's do it." He leads them back to the road where they break into a gallop as they race to the north.

After only going several miles, the hills begin to smooth out until they're once more in gra.s.sland. There's a river to the west and as they go further north, it slowly draws closer.

Several more miles finds them where the road crosses the river. Ahead of them, a mile or so past the bridge, sits a large keep not far off the road.

They come to a stop in the road before crossing the bridge as they consider their options.

"Think there's anyone still in there?" Miko asks, referring to the keep.

"From here it's hard to tell," Jiron replies. "I would think so though."

James glances to the east where the hills begin again, about a mile away. "We should return to the hills, they'll give us more of a chance to get by here without being seen," he suggests.

"I agree," says Jiron as he turns his horse and leads them at a gallop toward the cover of the hills.

As they reach the hills, James glances over to the distant keep and sees a force of cavalry coming out through the main gate. They're heading down the road to the south.

"Jiron, we may have company!" he hollers to him.

Jiron looks over and sees them leaving the keep. Pushing their horses harder, they make their way into the hills. After they've put a large hill between them and the riders, they come to a stop and then dismount before climbing to the top of the hill. Peering over the crest of the hill, they see the riders continuing down the road to the south and not turning to follow them.

"I guess that answers whether anyone is in the keep or not," James announces.

"Yeah," agrees Miko. "It's a good thing we got off the road when we did."

"I'm just happy they didn't see us," says Jiron.

"Me too," James says.

They climb back down to where their horses are awaiting them. Once they're mounted again, they make their way through the hills toward the northeast.

An hour of riding brings them to where the hills end. To the north is nothing but open plains. To their left is the river where it turns to the north. They can still see the keep far to the west and are relieved when they fail to see anyone around.

"We'll be pretty conspicuous out there," Jiron says, indicating the open plains.

"Don't have much choice unless we want to just sit here forever," reasons James.

"Maybe we should stick close to the river?" Miko suggests.

Shaking his head, James replies, "Might not be a good idea. If there'll be anyone around, most likely they'll be by the river."

"Oh," he says.

"Let's stick to the plains, but keep the river in view," suggest Jiron.

"Alright," agrees James. "As good a plan as any."

Miko gives him an annoyed look.

"What?" James asks him.

"You never take my suggestions but are always taking his," he accuses.

"Take it easy," James tells him. "I don't always take his suggestions. We, meaning all three of us, try to come up with the best course of action. Whichever one sounds the best, we do. Don't take things so personally."

Miko doesn't look very satisfied with his response.

"Shall we?" Jiron asks, looking from one to the other.

"Let's," replies James. Miko gives a nod as well.

Jiron moves out, the others follow as he angles east, away from the river. They proceed until it's just in view behind them before turning more directly to the north. As they travel, they keep a constant watch for anyone out upon the plains, but it looks as if they're the only ones about.

By the time they stop for the night, the keep has long since disappeared behind them. All they can see in every direction now is plains, with the river cutting its way through them to the west.

They decide upon not lighting a fire so as not to alert anyone in the area where they are. Cold rations are the fare this evening, they still have some cooked meat strips from the previous nights to fill them up. James is still feeling the need for more than just meat, but will have to wait on that.

During Miko's shift in the middle of the night, he hears horses racing past off in the distance. In the moonlight, he can make out a group of perhaps ten riders. He almost wakes the others but then doesn't when he realizes they're not coming their way.

When he wakes Jiron for his turn at watch, he tells him of the riders.

"It might have been that warrior priest," suggests Jiron once he's heard.

"Do you think so?" Miko asks, worried.

"Don't be too worried, remember, we're in the land of the Clans," he tells him. "It could very well have just been a group of riders moving from one place to another. Nothing says it has to do anything with us."

As Miko lies down to sleep, Jiron continues, "Just try to get some sleep, we'll need our rest tomorrow."

"Alright," says Miko.

Soon, Jiron can hear the soft sound of his snores in the night. He spends much of his watch staring out across the moonlit plains, searching for riders. He's much more worried about the riders Miko had told him of than he'd made out, just didn't want Miko to fret about them.

In the morning when James awakens he tells him of what Miko saw last night. "I wish I had been awake," he says to Jiron. "Then I might have felt if Abula-Mazki had been among the group."

"If that was him," Jiron says, "then he's ahead of us."

Nodding his head, James replies, "I know, that could make things difficult to say the least."

"He'll probably enlist the aid of the nearest garrison, as well as send for reinforcements," Jiron guesses. "We haven't any time to waste sitting around here."

"I agree," James says as he goes over and wakes up Miko.

They mount and quickly make their way toward the north, still following the river from a distance. The river continues almost due north as it flows to the south and James finds it odd that there are no villages along the riverbank.

"I would think there would be someone living along the river," he states during their travel.

"Why?" Miko asks.

"It's a good place to live," he tells him. "You have access to fish and fresh water, plus transportation south as needed. It's just odd is all."

"Maybe the clansmen don't allow anyone to live there?" Jiron guesses.

"Perhaps," says James as he reflects upon it. "You may be right, this could be the border area between the Clans' land and the Empire as agreed upon in that Treaty they'd mentioned. If that's the case, then there most likely will be minimal people inhabiting this area."

"Which could prove beneficial to us," Jiron says with optimism.

An hour or two past noon, Jiron points to the west and then hollers out, "James!"

James looks over to the west and sees a band of riders on the other side of the river. One rider has broken from the others as he races to the north, the others pace them as they move north. He can see the riders casting glances their way.

"d.a.m.n!" James curses. "They've seen us."

"And it looks like one is going for help," adds Jiron.

James begins to angle his horse to the east and the others follow his lead. "Need to put some distance between us, fast."

"It won't take them long to find us now that they know about where we are," Jiron says as he gallops along beside James.

"Let's put off that meeting as long as we can," James replies as they race through the tall gra.s.s. He's worried that at their speed, one of their horses might put a hoof in a gopher hole or something that will break its leg. That would prove disastrous.

Glancing behind, he sees that the river and the riders are no longer visible. They turn to a more northerly course and push their horses as hard as they can.

A horn sounding to the southeast causes them to glance over their shoulders. There behind them are several dozen riders coming fast. They look to be clansmen, but which ones they can't tell from this distance.

They continue racing north, maintaining their lead from the approaching riders. Hills begin to appear to the northwest. James begins to angle toward them, the hills would give them a better chance than open plains.

"But what about the riders we saw there earlier?" Miko shouts to James.

"There're less of them than what's behind us," he replies. "Besides, we stand a better chance among the hills."