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"I can't wait," Walten said simply. "I've hated carpenting since they day my parents stuck me there. At least this is more interesting, and I get to do something." He looked up the road. "I didn't want to spend all my life in the village anyway."
"I've always thought of leaving Aldreth, but I didn't really take it seriously," Tiella admitted. "And here I am."
"Step it up, young ones," Dola
Tarrin and the others urged the horses to a faster walk, and they were up with the knight and the Sorceress again.
They stopped several times over the day to rest, so that the Aldreth villagers could get themselves out of the saddle and stretch out muscles cramped by sitting down. They stopped for a meal of bread, cheese, and dried meat by a large stream, in a small meadow near the bridge that spa
Watch Hill sat upon a single hill that rose out of the surrounding forest, where there was a large flat valley. During the day, a person could see quite a distance over the green-carpeted valley in which the village stood, thus the village's name. The architecture was so much like Aldreth that it was easy to see the similarities, but the layout of the village was much different. The village followed the contours of their hill, arrayed in rows on the flatter parts of the ridges along the sides, and with the i
Before Tarrin could move, he felt Dola
"Warn me next time!" he said in a breathless hiss, holding onto the saddlehorn for support.
"Very well," Dola
The interior of the i
A rotund, tall man with a bald pate and wearing a dirty apron scurried up to them. "Mistress Casbane, it is good to see you again," he said. "I have only two rooms left, but they are yours for the taking, with my complements."
"Such a generous offer," she smiled, "but we would not deny you the coin you would make on your rooms this night. We will take your rooms, for the usual fee. I would ask, though, that some supper be brought to us in our rooms. We will not dine in the hall this night."
"It will be as you wish, milady," he said with a warm smile. "Please, follow me. I'll have the hands bring up your packs as soon as I come back down, and I'll send Emmy and Kamy up with di
"I can hardly wait to taste your wife's excellent cooking," Dola
The rooms they were led to were on the second floor, and were side by side. Both were the same size, and both were rather spartan but clean. Each of them had three beds in it, a single stand with washbasin and water, and pegs along the only free wall for cloaks and clothes. A lamp was set into the wall near the door, and the i
"I don't care," Walten grunted, flopping down on the one against the far wall, by the washbasin. That left Tarrin the one beside the door.
Tarrin sat down on the bed, surprised at how soft it was, and took off his boots. Dola
"Just set it anywhere, and mind you bring up the Lady's di
"Yes, my Lord," she said with a little bob, and the two women set their trays of food and drink down carefully on Tarrin's bed so as not to spill them, and hurried back out.
"Di
"Luhan's wife is Shacean," Faalken said, reading the surprise in the faces of his charges. "She cooks in their classic style, which involves using spices. Luhan grumbles at the price of those spices, but he more than makes up for the cost with the food he sells."
"It's like nothing I've ever had," Walten said. "My mother uses spices, but only what grows around the village."