Page 41 of Grave Situation

I’m an idiot. Of course there’s a chance the person we’re looking for is going to move around. “So for now we can plan to stay on the highway until Lenledia?”

~Yes~

“Excellent.” Lenledia’s only a week or so away. Unless our quarry leaves there immediately and stays moving indefinitely, we’ll catch up to them soon. And then I can hand over the stone, wish them well, and make my way back to the City of Knowledge, where I’ll never have to see a horse or a tent again. “Where’s my map? Did we bring a map?” I look at Tia, who rolls her eyes and pulls a folded piece of paper from one of the many pockets sewn into her leathers.

“Here.” She unfolds it, and we all lean in to see.

“You’re the horseman,” I tell Jaimin. “How far can we get before they need to rest again?”

He taps his lip, studying the thickly drawn line that represents the highway. “Probably here,” he says at last, pointing to a village that doesn’t look that far away on the map. “At about lunchtime. And then we could stop here”—his fingers move along the line of the highway to where the bridge over the River Harnc is—“for the day. Unless there’s any urgent need to move quickly, I don’t think we should push the horses too hard.”

“I agree,” Tia says. “Things look quiet so far, but we don’t want the horses worn out if you suddenly need to run.”

She’s the warrior, and he’s the horseman, so it would be stupid of me to argue. “At that pace, how long to get to Lenledia?”

“That’s a little faster than it would take a good carriage,” Jaimin says. “Eight or nine days, maybe.”

Still in line with my original reckoning, then. And if I remember right, there’s a good-sized town at the Harnc river crossing. And a town means inns. Suddenly, I’m extremely grateful for greedy traders. That bridge was expensive as fuck to build, but the merchants’ guild of Lenle agreed to split the cost of hiring mages to help with the king of the time, because they wanted a feasible overland way to get goods to the City of Knowledge and through the passes to the northern countries. I’ve never seen the bridge for myself, but Tia says that from the air, she can see it from miles away.

“That sounds like our best option, then,” I say casually. “Stone? Do you agree with this plan?”

~Yes~

Wow, finally something going my way.

“I have some more questions, if you don’t mind.” Jaimin’s frowning, his expression faintly troubled. I gesture for him to bemy guest. I’m enjoying this little reprieve from jostling around on horseback.

“Are there zombies already loose on the continent?”

And there goes my relaxation. I wait tensely for the stone’s reply.

~Yes~

“Actually loose? Not contained by their masters?”

~Yes~

Tia swears viciously.

“Have they caused harm to innocents?”

~Yes~

Now it’s my turn to swear. I stand and pace away, kicking rocks. Then a thought occurs, and I swing around. “Do the councils know?” Is this one of the questions they asked while I was saying goodbye to my class?

~Yes~

“And they’re acting on this information?”

~Yes/No~

Before I can reach out to shout angry expletives at my master, Jaimin says, “Is everything that can be done at this time being done?”

~Yes~

His jaw sets. “Is there anything we can do, aside from what we’re doing?”

~No~

---