They saw the 'dice' before catching sight of the town named after them... two stone formations that did look as if a giant had carelessly tossed gambling cubes to the ground here and forgotten them, though Naveli couldn't actually make out any pips on the sides or top of the rocks. But she could definitely see how the region had gotten its name from them. When they made their closest approach, it was evident that each 'die' was between nine and ten feet high.

By that point, they could also see the village itself, a small cluster of buildings not far away from the rocks. The Harrises led them straight into town, and to Naveli's subtle dismay, started telling everybody that they met the story about Naveli and Tuma, (except in the story those weren't their names,) being attacked by rebels on the road. Tumaxool looked anxious himself... was it being paranoid to suspect that the rebels might have an informant here in this village? Someone who at least would know that they were not the simple commoners that they pretended to be?

But nobody outed them as princess and bodyguard with an anonymous shout from the depth of the crowd, (or by coming up to them and declaring their recognition openly, for that matter,) and everybody sounded either too hurried by their own business to pay much attention to the matter, or reasonably outraged that the rebel attacks were now targeting on innocent commoners. Naveli managed to pull Deborah aside and admit that she was uncomfortable being the focus of so much attention, and so she and Kevin extricated them from the steadily forming caucus of villagers and led the way to their own home, which turned out to be a small loft above the local baker's, where Deborah worked. "Hmm, looks like it'll rain later," Deborah said, judging the clouds that were gathering in the sky. "That might make your trip to Wayne's corners harder, or easier, depending."

Naveli worried about Ereyu all through the lunchtime meal, which was mostly of the pastry variety, probably for convenience. They hadn't been able to arrange anything in terms of how the friendly ferret would follow them into town, meet them, make sure that she could hitch a ride on whatever transport they found, if any. Though Naveli had kept her eyes open for anything small or furry ever since spotting the Dice rocks, she hadn't spotted any sign of her. Maybe she had been spotted and attacked by a villager, or had come to misadventure along the way as far as that went.

After finishing the meal of bread with various preserves, sweet potato pie, and a light beer to drink, Naveli and Tuma said their goodbyes to Mister and Missus Harris, offering assurances that they'd be able to make their own way from there. Naveli looked again for Ereyu, and considered calling to her, but couldn't figure out what she would say if somebody asked her who she was looking for.

"Let's start by seeing if we can find out anything about the passenger coach," Tuma suggested, and headed off with that purpose in mind. (Probably he didn't mind the thought of going on without Ereyu at all.) Down where one small village lane ended up against a high stone wall, he approached a group of young people who were tossing dice onto the hard clay ground. Naveli supposed that it was fair to use 'people' in the general sense here, since the company consisted of more than one in each of the categories of human, Saurian, and partbreed as far as she could tell.

"Do any of you know where the coach stops, and how much a fare to Wayne's crossing is?" Tuma asked bluntly.

A half-Saurian girl looked up. "Yeah, I do."

"Will you tell me?"

"Throw you for it," she suggested. "That is, if you have something to wager against the information. Doesn't have to be anything big, for that."

"Come on, don't make me laugh," Tuma shot back. "Tell me or don't - I can find someone else to ask."

"Then why dontcha?"

"Well, I'll play along," Naveli said, stepping forward. "Don't know the rules of the game."

"Might as well make it easy," a human boy from the crew suggested. "You throw one die." That 'you' was aimed at Naveli. "If you get three or more, you get the info. One or two, and Shavva gets your bet... if you can think of something."

"Just a second." Naveli rooted around in her pack, and came up wth a dark bundle of fibers, tied up together. "Not worth too much either, but it's got some sentimental value."

"What is it?" Shavva asked, interested despite herself. She reached out, hesitated before touching the object until Naveli noded. "Hair?"

"Yeah, my hair, cut it off a few days ago. Thought maybe I could give it to a wigmaker in the city."

"You could sell it," a Saurian boy chimed in. "They buy good hair in Ashville, my mama says. Humans do, I mean."

"Alright, it's a fair stake," the original girl decided, and handed over a small wooden cube to Naveli. "Make your throw, and be sure to let it tumble out."

Naveli considered the die, looked over at Tuma, and realized that he was scowling at her. Yes, it had been a bit of a dubious move to reveal the existence of her shorn hair if the idea in cutting it had been to appear less pampered and noble. But nobody seemed to be picturing what she'd look like with the hair or wondering how she'd been able to let it grow out so long in the first place. Mumbling a lucky word, Naveli tossed the die onto the clay ground, hoping that it would bounce around enough that the kids would decide it had been a decent throw.

"Three," the second of the local kids declared. "New girl wins. Pay up, Shavva."

"Sure," Shavva said. She didn't seem particularly irked at having to give the information, just slightly disappointed in having lost her chance to win hair. "It's around the east north-east side of the village... um, take this street up to the next junction," she said, pointing north, "then turn right and continue along until just before you run out of village. There'll be a sign for the Silver Ferret card lounge. I think that the going rate for your fare is around ten wamps each."

"I didn't know that we were playing for what you 'think' you know," Tuma said caustically.

"Don't worry, she's right, or close enough," another girl chimed in. "Nine and eight icos, if you want to be precise. I take that ride whenever I can, to get up to the big town parties..."

"And meet up with Ricky Varios," Shavva shot back, and everybody laughed except for Naveli and Tuma."

"Alright, thanks," she said. "Anything I can do for you, short of gambling away my hair or other stuff?"

"Nah, but thanks for offering." Naveli nodded, and followed Tuma as he immediately set off following the directions. By the time they got to the Silver Ferret sign it was already starting to dribble a bit of rain here and there. And there was still no sign of her own little ferret.

"Should we go inside, maybe?" she asked a little while later.

"No, not yet. They'd probably want us to either gamble or drink, and we can't really afford to do either."

"Oh, sheesh, I meant to mention money," Naveli said. "Do you think that you can hock some of my jewelry or something?"

"Hmm... most of it's probably a lot better than anything they see in a place like this," Tuma said doubtfully. "And that means that anybody who works in the trade will wonder what you're doing with such fine things."

"Yeah, I suppose so," Naveli allowed.

"Plus, I do have a little money with me. Nearly forty wamps."

"Really?" Naveli exclaimed. "How long have you had it?"

"Umm... since back at the Festival, actually. Wanted to be ready in case I had a chance to do some shopping, grab something to eat, whenever I could grab a free moment and not have to watch over you like a hawk." He sighed. "I still don't understand why the rebels didn't search us more thoroughly than they did."

"Okay, so let's see." Naveli started adding up. "That'll be plenty for our coach fare, and some left over... should we leave it towards getting from Wayne's corners to Ashville??"

"Not sure," Tuma said, as the rain started to fall much harder, splattering around the little alcove in a wall where they huddled for shelter. "It might be worth trying the jewelry deal when we get to Wayne's corners. It's a bigger place, and if I go into a pawn shop without you, then they might take me for the new errand boy of a local gentlewoman."

"Yeah, I suppose that's true," Naveli sighed. "And we'll probably need to figure out something about a place to stay in Wayne's corners... depending on when the coach leaves here and gets there."

"True." Tuma looked around. "Maybe we should go in after all, just to say that we're waiting for the coach and asking when it comes. That'd be plausible, even expected. We can see where things go from there."

She chuckled. "Well, after you."

----------

"Alright, there you go. Keep together, don't spread yourselves out." The driver handed Tuma two little ticket stubs, one for each of them, and they struggled into the small motorcoach with their packs and the food that Naveli had bought at the card lounge to eat on the way. Hopefully, nobody on the coach would clue in that a black and brown ferret was smuggled into her backpack. She'd found Ereyu about forty minutes before they had to leave, and the two of them had come up with this emergency measure to make sure that they wouldn't be seperated again.

There were twelve rows on the coach, with a loveseat-like bench seat on each side of the aisle, and Tuma stopped at nine right. "Do you want the window spot?"

"Um, yeah thanks," Naveli agreed. She'd appreciate getting the chance to look out. Quickly most of the coach filled up with other passengers, (well, it had been starting to fill before they even paid their fare, since they hadn't been the first in line,) and then the flow of new customers stopped with about two or three spots still vacant, and an equal number of people who managed to get a double seat all to themselves. Well good for them.

So the driver pulled out of the spot where he had 'parked' and drove out onto the roadway, with the rain still beating down on everything pretty hard. Naveli wondered how long it would continue raining this hard. It was fairly pretty as long as she was firmly inside the coach, at least. The road went up and down a few hills and into farmland, where she supposed that the residents were probably happy enough to get the fields and pastures well watered.

"Hey, girl!" Someone reached over the seat to firmly tap her on the shouler, rousing Naveli from her introspections. (She'd expected to be able to get deeply into a brood this time, at least, instead of being interrupted so soon.) "Is that something near you that's squeaking?"

Uh-oh. Yes, Naveli could hear the faint sounds of a somewhat anxious ferret, but the first thing that came to her mind was, "No, I, umm, I don't hear anything."

"Cow patties! What, are you sneaking a rat or a mouse home in your pack, doll? It's unsanitary, and it'll probably get loose and crawl into somebody else's..."

"Hey, 'doll,'" Tuma said, suddenly grabbing the hand of the older woman, which had been only an instant away from jabbing the young princess again. "Whatever's in my friend's knapsack, it's going to stay there, and neither you nor anybody else get to say anything about it. You don't have the right to tell her off for anything, you're not her mother or her employer. Do I make myself sufficiently plain?"

"Umm... well, yeah." Tuma let her go. "Mongrel jerk. Just because you can overpower..." The rest of the complaint died down to a mumble that Naveli couldn't really hear under the influence of Tumaxool's hard stare.

"Umm, thanks," Naveli muttered, and opened her sack just enough to take a peek in. Ereyu had heard the commotion and was staying as still and quiet as she could. I wish I could put her into a deep enchanted sleep, like in the old fairy tales, Naveli thought to herself. Need to ask Samantha if there are any sleep spells in the Castle archives, when I get back home.

Within ten minutes, she was sleeping deeply herself.

-----------

And Scott was there - in fact, this time, her dream surroundings didn't match her true pose, sitting on the bench seat and half lying against the sides of the coach. Instead, she was sitting on a green hilltop, the rain falling down on her and all around her, but being so wet wasn't unpleasant - not when he was just walking up the hill. She smiled as Scott squatted down near to her.

"We're doing fine, sweetie," she said, unsurprised at how the endearment leapt to her lips. "Haven't seen much trace of the rebels since I last talked to you."

"Well, they're still tracing you," he said, sounding nervous. "Almost moved into Dice Rock and caught you there, but they missed the coach." Naveli gasped - and inhaled a few droplets of rain, which made her choke for a second. Scott immediately broke off and tried to help, but she assured him with a gesture that she was okay.

"How... how could they have taken us back, there in town?" Naveli breathed. "Just sent soldiers in with weapons, like they did at the Festival?" It was a question that she realized didn't need to be answered, and Scott must have picked up on that too. "So are they still following us? How did they know that we'd be going through Dice Rock?"

"I... I'm not sure, except that some weird hermit guy is involved."

Naveli's heart sank. "Merlik?"

"Yeah, that sounds right. He's involved in supplying those weird weapons, and I... and I think he might have been involved in the plan to take you prisoner in the first place."

Now that her heart had gone as low as it could, an icy chill ran up her spine. The figure in the hang glider... responsible for her entire ordeal? She should have heat rayed his ass when she had the chance, except - did he have majikal defenses of his own? "Does the hermit know any magik?"

"I... I'm not sure, but there's definitely something weird about him."

"Does he wear... umm, more clothes than usual for a human?"

"Uhh... I don't think so, why?"

"Just wondered." Naveli sighed, looking out at the peaceful dream scene that didn't seem so appropriate now. "Listen, Scott, I - I don't know how long this dream thing between us will last, so I wanted to let you know that... that I'm so grateful for your help I don't have the right words to tell it all to you, and - and that I like you a lot clear on top of that."

"You... you do?" Scott smiled shyly. "Could - can I kiss you?"

"Definitely!" A nervous titter-giggle escaped her. "I'd have made the first move, but I'm worried that I might mess it up."

"So this is your first kiss?" Scott seemed to find that bittersweet. "Well, I don't have that much experience myself, but I can tell you this much: tilt your head to your left when I tilt to my left."

"Sheesh, I know that much, buddy! I've a big sister to tell me such things." And, suddenly emboldened by the memories of what Samantha had drilled her in, Naveli rose from her sitting pose, wrapped wet arms around the boy of her dreams, and planted her lips onto his, tilting her head to the left. He seemed surprised by losing the initiative, but tilted left himself and pursed his lips to kiss her back soundly. It was a first kiss that Naveli knew she would remember to the end of her days, uniquely awkward and sweet.

And then there was an odd rumbling noise, and they broke apart, and looked out through the rain. "Okay... so why are there now three-legged giant green reptil-insects beginning to stampede up the hill at us?"

Scott shrugged. "Well, we *are* dreaming, so presumably they're dream imagery from one of us. It might be us, if that doesn't seem like a familiar dream to you."

"I... I'm not sure," Naveli admitted. "Well, we run for it first, and if that doesn't work, we try riding them. How about it?"

Scott grinned and grabbed her hand in his. "Let's go."

----------

Tuma shook her awake. "Oh, hi there. What's going on?" she mumbled blearily.

"He said that we're around fifteen minutes away from Wayne's Corners," Tuma said in a conversational tone of voice. "Thought that you'd like to look at the scenery as we approached the city."

Naveli didn't think that the scenery was all that interesting, especially with the rain still drizzling down, but she didn't argue. Maybe Tuma had her own reasons for waking her, that he didn't want to speak of out loud, like just making sure that she would be alert and aware when they had to leave the coach and get their bearings in a large, strange town. The coach didn't stop on the edge of Wayne's Corners, as it had left from the edge of Dice Rock, but drove further into the center of town, to a 'bus yard' that was pretty close to the crossroads around which the community had grown, as far as she could make out. (The only part that confused her was what the word 'bus' referred to.) Once the driver parked his vehicle, all of them were quickly urged out so that new paying customers could be urged on.

"Are they going back to Dice Rock?" Naveli asked. "They'll get there at high midnight I should think." A moment's pause made her giggle. "And just about nobody back there will be awake."

"The gamblers will be, probably, but nearly no-one else," Tuma admitted. "I don't think Dice Rock is as far as everybody will be going, though."

"Hmm?" For answer, Tuma pointed up to a sign that had been hung in the corner of the coach's window, which read a number of other place names. Dice Rock was the first on the list, but she realized that the rest of then were in Tennesee, ending with Memphis. Still... it probably wouldn't take the coach until morning to get there from here, would it? Well, maybe if it stopped for a little while in each place to take on new passengers, allow anybody who needed the chance to use a latrine facility...

"Come on," Tuma insisted, bringing her back to the there and then. "We need to find somewhere safe to spend the night. An inn, a hostel, maybe even a pub with a few free beds available..." He sighed.

"And for that, we'll probably need more than the cash that you've got on hand." She sighed. "Want to try the pawn shop routine right now?"

"Hmm... probably." Tuma looked around. "Let's go into that little alcove for a little shelter, and you can show me what you've got to pawn." So they got set up, and Ereyu escaped out of Naveli's pack and started to glare at both of them reproachfully. Naveli extracted a small bundle, handed it to Tuma so that he could unwrap it and consider the jewels within, and focused her own attention on the ferret.

"There'll probably be a lot more tight squeezes for you if you mean to stay with us all the way to Ashville, and this is probably a good place to settle down and hunt," she said softly. "I... I know that this isn't where you came from, but if you want to leave us here and make your own way I won't mind. You've done all that a friend could ask for, and... and I guess whatever I can do to be a good friend, I'll do it."

"Thank you, very much," Ereyu answered. "But at this point... I guess I couldn't manage to stay behind, not knowing for ages if you'd be okay. Maybe there's nothing more I can do to help you out, but I'll keep tagging along as long as there's a way that I can."

"Alright... thanks," Naveli whispered. "So whatcha think Tuma?"

"This ring definitely," he said, showing a very plain one. "This is twenty three carat gold, right?"

"Yeah, I think so... you think it'll bring us much?"

"Gold is always valuable, even just a little bit like this," he pointed out. "And maybe this silver chain with the garnet on it." He help up a necklace and pendant. "We don't want to show anything that's terribly elaborate or expensive. We don't need very much money, after all."

"That... that necklace was what Sarah got me for my fourteenth birthday," Naveli said, tears coming to her eyes as she thought of her little sister - and thus, of the pain that all her family must be going through, not sure where she was or even if she were still alive. Tuma knew about the chain's origins - he had been at the party, after all, and he seemed to notice and remember everything. "Of course, she didn't buy it herself, it was probably just one of a few dozen possible gifts that they let her choose from, but still... I always liked it."

"I... I'm sorry," Tuma muttered. "Well, I suppose we could sub..."

"No," she said. "If we need to sell a second piece, and that's the most appropriate one, then don't let my sentiment get in the way of what needs to be done. I'll remember Sarah's gift even more fondly if it helps us get out of this okay."

"Alright." Tuma wrapped up the rest of the jewels and handed them back to her. Then they headed back out into the street. "Ereyu, maybe in a place like this, you actually wouldn't attract too much attention sitting on Naveli's shoulder. You'd sort of look like a trained pet that way... if it isn't beneath your ferretey dignity."

"Um, really?" Ereyu asked softly, surprised by the notion... as was Naveli herself.

"We can try it out at least," Naveli muttered, reaching out for Ereyu to scurry onto her palm. "Don't say anything while other people are around, obviously.

"Well duh."

"Yes," Tuma agreed with one of his tight smiles. "And that brings me to something else. While I'm in the pawn shop, I'll have to leave the Princess behind to get the gentlewoman's lackey ploy to work. And that means that you're going to have to help defend her."

"Hey!" Naveli interjected. "I can take care of myself okay, thank you very much."

"I know... but be careful," he muttered.

"Alright, if you answer one more question."

"Yeah?"

"Do you really have any clue how to find a pawnshop in a town this size, or are you just wandering at random?" Tuma shook his head slightly. "You know, we could ask someone for directions again."

-----------

Soon enough they found, not a pawn shop, but a jeweler's that did buy 'off the street,' which Tuma decided would do just as well. He insisted that she shouldn't come too close to the store with him, and they got into an argument about whether she could go into a tavern to wait for him.

"I'll be less conspicuous inside and doing something like eating, instead of standing on a street corner like I'm a... well, you know. Or a vagrant."

"The tavern might seem more secure, but you never know what the clientele will be like - or the staff, for that matter. And a young, pretty girl eating alone will definitely set up some bells ringing." He sighed. "And we'll eat, together, once I've got the cash."

Eventually Naveli went along with what he asked, though she felt very foolish leaning against the side of somebody's house in the rain, with a ferret sitting on her shoulder, peeking out from under a heavy cloak, and her knapsack slung over the other arm. Tuma had headed off to the store a few minutes ago, and said that he shouldn't be more than half an hour. "If I'm not back by then, run off, find an abandoned shed or somewhere like that to wait out the night. I'll try to find you, but in the morning just do whatever you can to get passage to Ashville on your own."

"Aren't... aren't you being very melodramatic about this?" she had asked. "Of course you'll come back okay." Tuma's only reply was an arched eyeridge.

When danger arrived, she had had no warning of it, no impending sense of foreboding. She hadn't even heard the footsteps coming up behind her on account of the rain, and the various vehicles, both motorized and a few that were animal-drawn, out in the street. But she definitely felt the impact of a cudgel through the material of her hood.

Even though the pain was startling, she realized she was lucky, or the attacker had been incompetent, or both. She'd happened to be swaying to the left as the blow came in from the right, essentially letting her roll with the impact without even meaning to. As she tumbled, Naveli managed to turn around to face her enemy, tried to reach out a leg to try and sweep his feet out from under him, which didn't work very well. Ereyu let out a screech and leapt out of her hood towards the dark shadowy figure, which was gratefully appreciated, but Naveli honestly wasn't sure how much the ferret would be able to accomplish.

And he was bringing his weapon up to club her again. Was this the only rebel agent here, or did he have friends? Naveli instinctively assumed the worst and acted accordingly. By the time she had finished her first spell, the attacker had managed to shake off the distraction of an angry ferret and throw her away from him, and his attack motion had so much force behind it that Naveli had to scramble out of the way on her own. But the dazzling flash that erupted behind her, blinding the guy, and probably anyone else who had been watching the struggle, was gratifying.

Once the light of the spell faded, rebel number one was so out of it that Naveli didn't think she needed to go through the effort of a heat beam - she pushed him down, kicked him in the ribs for good measure, and hurried across the lane to the back door of the tavern that she'd wanted to go into in the first place. Surely Tuma couldn't blame her for trying out plan B when she'd been attacked out in the street. Suddenly she realized that someone else was charging her, waving a big knife threateningly. She fired the heat beam spell that she'd been preparing, but was so badly rattled by this point that it missed and struck a streetlamp pole, charring the wood. Completely freaked, she tried to duck aside at the last moment and trip him, and surprisingly enough *that* worked. Once he hit the paving stones of the rough, quaint lane, Naveli took a few quick, quiet spells and recited the unseen spell in her mind. Once the second thug got back up again, there was no sign of his mark.

Naveli was watching him as he searched the area, (not getting close enough to bump into her,) and then shrugged and headed off in search of another mark. That was when she clued in that neither of them had really been rebel agents, just common muggers plying their trade on a likely-looking young woman. (They'd probably have been disappointed with the contents of her pockets, if they had managed to incapacitate her - until and unless they found the rest of her jewelry hidden away in the napsack.) After waiting a long time, with no sign of the second man returning, of any third thief arriving on the scene, or the first man stirring, Naveli moved and broke the spell, looking behind her.

An oddly uneasy feeling came into her as she saw a woman of around her big sister's age walking quickly towards her. This didn't look like another robber, but seeing anybody paying attention to her now was unwelcome. The uneasy feeling got worse when the woman called out, "Was that magik?"

"I... what do you mean?" Naveli said, flustered. "I... I think that somebody might have been helping me, but I'm not sure who or how..."

"Oh, come on, lay off the act - you're not that good at it," the woman said impertinently. There was some sort of bright light that blinded the first mugger and distracted the second one, a ray of energy that definitely came from you... and when you wanted to hide, you suddenly became invisible. That doesn't sound like the sort of magik that some mysterious benefactor would use to resolve the situation, but it does make sense for a nervous and excitable student sorceress, who doesn't have many spells at her command and isn't sure how to use them in a crisis. Where did you study? What are you doing here in a neighborhood like this??"

Naveli sighed. "How... how do you know so much about magik yourself?" Deep inside, Naveli wondered if she would laugh or break down crying if the other girl said that she was a librarian and a curious reader.

"Well, my husband is a... I guess it's hard to explain very quickly. Don't worry, though... I'm your friend, I won't..."

"My friend?" Naveli exclaimed. "How can you say that, you don't even know me!"

"Well, I meant to say..."

"BACK AWAY FROM EACH OTHER!" The words were called from fairly far down the street, in unmistakeable tones of authority, and Naveli recognized Tuma's voice. She did step away from the stranger, who also followed instructions though she seemed curious. Tuma hurried over to her. "What's going on?" he asked in an undertone. "I... I heard that you sounded upset, and this... that seemed like the best way of giving you some breathing room."

"Umm, yeah, thanks," she muttered. "There - there were muggers, and... and I had to use spells, and this girl saw and she seems to know something about magik herself and won't say how." She took a deep breath. "Ereyu tried to help me... I haven't seen her in a few minutes, actually."

"I... I see," Tuma said in a solemn voice, and turned to the woman. "You can call me Varrant. Do you intend to tell anybody about what you've seen here tonight?"

"I... honestly, yes," she muttered, clearly a little intimidated. "My husband... I know that he'd be interested, and I don't keep secrets from him. But I'll swear him to secrecy about it, if you want me to."

"Really?" Naveli pressed. "He doesn't owe loyalty to any other organization, to report news of this sort?"

"He... he feels that the vows we have sworn take precedence over any other loyalties, and has proven so many times."

"Alright." Naveli sighed. "I... in some ways, I wish that I could explain, but... it just doesn't seem like a good idea right now."

"Okay. Sorry if I made a bad evening worse." And with a little wave, the woman headed off.

"I hope that we can trust her to hold up her end of the deal," Tuma muttered. "Well, let's go find your ferret, my lady. And then... we should be able to eat well tonight."

-----------

They did eat well enough, at a small pub called the Crasher, where the other customers seemed friendly if cliquish and the staff were so charming it almost seemed obsequious. Naveli dug into her roast pork with relish, and cleaned all of the trimmings off her place, following dinner up with a thin but charming white wine. (But not very much of it, just in case.)

A few paper bills that Tuma handed over got them a shared room up above the dining floor, and Ereyu immediately set off after the mice who were apparently nesting under the bed. Naveli flopped down and tried not to pay too much attention to the sounds of the chase beneath her. "Okay, so what's the plan for tomorrow?"

"There's a morning train for Ashville that leaves ten minutes after dawn," Tuma said. "That's our best bet."

"A train?" The idea made Naveli perk up a bit. She'd always wanted to ride on a locomotive train, and wondered if there'd ever be a chance to. She knew that Mother had made a train tour of the northeast provinces when she was just four years old, but the security arrangements had apparently been difficult to work out, and there had been one assasination attempt. "Alright, so we'll need to leave here before it's light then?"

"Yeah, I think so," Tuma admitted, taking a small device out of his own pack. "This should serve as our wake-up call." He started to adjust it - peering closer Naveli realized that there were two cylindrical halves that met in a sort of a wide dial.

"Where did you get that? Was it among the woodsmen's tools?"

"No, umm... while you were sleeping on the coach, I made a few trades with a passenger across the aisle."

"Oh - what did we give up?" Naveli tried to think of what had been in Tuma's pack. "Blankets, clothes, the knife, the matches?"

"You - you don't need to worry about it. It's something that's no use to us anymore."

That response puzzled her. Tuma would have told her what he'd given up in the trade, unless there was some reason that it was something he couldn't admit. Not something of hers, or something that would impugn her honor in any way, of course - there was no way that he'd have admitted to any such thing for minor gimcracks. So... maybe it was a personal keepsake of his own that he had forfeited - a memento of Daneecha's? He wouldn't like to speak of such things in front of her, she knew. But why would he have given something like that up, either? There was still something that didn't add up, but she didn't want to pry into the situation, especially if the answer was something like what she suspected.

"Okay. Geez, I'm tired but I don't really feel sleepy."

"Between napping on the coach and... and the blood rush of what you just went through before dinner, I'm not too surprised." Tuma started to make a rough bedroll out of blankets on the floor. "Just try to rest, and sooner or later the sleep will come."

"You should take the bed - you'll get more benefit out of it."

"No." Tuma held up a hand to forestall her objection about chivalry being out of place. "If I get too much closer to the smell of the blood, I'd tear up the bed and join Ereyu in hunting rats, and I don't think that's good for either of us."

Naveli laughed. "Didn't you have enough meat at dinner?"

"I thought so... but maybe it was too well cooked." He stretched out. "Goodnight?"

"Goodnight, my loyal friend and guardian," she said softly, and stretched out on the bed. Tuma turned out the electric light, and she stared up into the darkness.