“Goodnight,” Crow said in return to Penelope before he stepped over to join the other two men in the middle of the room. Their bed would be the floor for the night, so he didn’t remove his surcoat like he had before. It would be his substitute for a blanket to fend off the chilly winter air. Instead, he only took off his boots and laid down in the gap between Preston and Percival, who seemed to have decided to take up the outer edges before he’d returned from his brief getaway with the knight. He wondered absently if Otto had ordered them to do that, so he would have the warmest spot in the middle, or if they had made the decision on their own. Either way, there was no reason to question them about it, so he said nothing as he wadded his cloak up into a makeshift pillow and slipped it under his head to sleep.

--

The next morning, Crow stirred at the sound of a bed creaking. He stretched wearily and rolled from his side onto his back. His body was slightly stiff from laying on hard planks of wood all night in combination with the cool air in the room that had made him tense his muscles to keep warm, but he’d woken up feeling worse. These days, if he managed to make it until daybreak without being startled awake by a nightmare, he counted it as a restful sleep. A little stiffness was nothing compared to the burden of feeling exhausted all day.

As he oriented himself to reality, he noticed belatedly that Otto was the one who had roused him from his slumber. The baron had climbed out of his bed and had begun putting his armor back on while everyone else slowly woke up in response to the rattling and clanking of the metal plates. It wasn’t the most pleasant way to get up in the morning, but it was better than being shaken and prodded like some people preferred to do, so the viceroy couldn’t complain. He sat upright with his weight supported on the palm of one hand, rubbing his eyes tiredly with the heel of the other. At his side, Preston looked even more drowsy, but the attendant still forced himself to clamber to his feet to start putting their belongings together for the next leg of the trip. On his other side, Percival was already seated and was in the middle of pulling his long hair into a braid to keep it out of his face before they left.

The knight glanced at him when he noticed the former thief looking his way and nodded formally, “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Crow’s response was far sloppier as it was interrupted halfway with a broad yawn.

“I hope everyone slept well,” Otto said, though his tone was more curt than it was warm. “We have another long trip ahead of us, and we need to leave soon to try to get a large enough room at the inn in Silverpool.”

[i]Silverpool.[/i] Crow blinked as the realization struck him that he would probably see Evelyn again while he was there. He felt a mixture of excitement and nervousness, eager to catch up with her but uncertain how she would react when she found out what he’d been up to since the last time they had seen each other. Like most peasants, she wasn’t fond of noblemen. Nevertheless, she knew him better than most people did, so he hoped that the bond they’d formed over the years would be stronger than any resentment she might feel when she learned he’d taken on the title of viceroy. With that thought in mind, he rose to his feet to put his boots and cloak back on.