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did, Nay.” Leigh snickered in his corner. “And it helped that my father is holding a dinner tomorrow in my favor—ourfavor—and he would not have scheduled it when he did if he expected me to be late. Or later than usual.”
    “Don’t like the sound of this at all.” A thundercrack reverberated through the box: Nay’s fist pounding the side. “Should have warned us.”
    “Dear friends, did I not suggest you avoid too much wine so as to be clear-headed for this adventure? I did, didn’t I? If I’d not warned you, you’d all be besotted right now.”
    “I must have been besotted to be here.” I let a low growl rumble from my throat. “If you’d hinted, Leigh, we could have eaten more. We could have slipped some cheese into our pockets …”
    “Stuffed bread up your … shirttails.”
    “My, my, rather testy. Be careful, my friends, or I might not lead you back to Valsina.”
    “Be going my own way. Don’t need you, Leigh.”
    “Will it be the Nay way for you two, as well?”
    “I think we should all calm down a bit here. Let’s remember that tines and haft thing, shall we?” Rounce’s words came firm and cut through the growing tension. “If they wanted four of us, presumably there are some challenges out there that require four of us to handle. I know Hawkins, Leigh, and I have spent time in the countryside, out hunting, living off the land. What’s your experience, Nay?”
    “Done my time woodcutting.” He fell silent for a moment, then plunged on. “My mother, she makes cures, so I know to harvest some plants and roots and berries.”
    “Good, that’s a skill we don’t possess.” Rounce yawned. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve had a long day. Getting to sleep in this wagon may not be easy, but I’ll suggest it. If Leigh’s right, and chances are he is, we’ve a longer day before us tomorrow.”
    “Well, I’m all for sleep, gentlemen. Perhaps I’ll dream up a way we can return in style. Wouldn’t that be something?”
    I shook my head. “It would, Leigh, but I’ll leave the dreaming to you. I have a feeling this exercise will be rooted more in reality than anything else.”
    Though I tried to remain awake during the journey, the day did catch up with me and I drifted off. Just prior to that we had taken a turn that should have put us on a southwesterly jog, and we’d begun to climb into the foothills of Bokagul, but that’s the last thing I remember before the wagon stopped and cool air flooded in through the open doorway.
    I rolled off the bench and started down the ramp. Yawning, I nodded at the two men standing in the moonwashed forest road. Given the moon’s position I figured we’d been on the road for the better part of three hours, which put dawn another three hours off.
    I flung my arms wide to stretch. One of the cloaked figures drifted forward and gave me a hearty shove in the flank. I stumbled toward the side of the road, intent on remaining on my feet, but I ran out of ground.
    I tumbled into a ravine, passing first through a screen of thorny blackberry bushes. I hit on my knees beyond that, snapping some deadfall branches, then began a somersault that bounced and tossed me down the steep hill. Somewhere in all that I clipped a sapling with my right thigh. This started me spinning wildly, caroming me off this tree and that and finally dumping me in the grasp of a lone pine’s gnarled and exposed roots.
    I heard more crashing around me and at least one splash. I tried to stand, but my right leg apparently decided it was done for the night, so it collapsed. I slid facefirst down to the stream running through the ravine’s heart. My fingers sank into cold mud, but didn’t sink so far that I got a dunking.
    I heard more splashing, and then a laugh. “Just as well you didn’t stuff bread in my coat, as it would be soggy mush right now.”
    “A match for your brains, then.”
    “Well done, Nay … with your wit, me you may yet slay. Triple rhyme!”
    “Rounce, you with us?” I looked around and could see Leigh sitting