His friend had done him a good turn with the horse. A very good turn indeed. She rode well, seemed even tempered and didn’t bat an eye at the change of terrain. Honey flattened his ears and let her know in a change of pace and the jarring nature of his steps that he was not pleased. She understood and if she could have told him she was no more pleased than he, she would have. 

Trails were a poor substitute for the King’s road, even one as indifferently maintained at the King’s road. But there was no helping for it. The one thing that could be said about the trails was that they made sense in a way that the road did not. Animals walked the easiest route, the safest when possible and so while the trails were not straight point-A-to-point-B affairs they moved with the landscape rather than fighting against it. 

After indulging himself in a huff for a while, Honey gave it up, finding it was too much trouble to show his displeasure to his rider who was very good at playing indifferent. Katherine was sure she’d feel his displeasure in her bottom that evening despite her years of riding, but it was worth it to have outlasted the overgrown mule. She focused on the trail, noting forks and choosing to the best of her ability which path to take. Her mind was as much on speed as on safety and she chose accordingly. She did not let them stop for lunch simply calling back to her charge to eat from his saddlebags. They had to shave time off every chance they got. She knew he’d pay for it but figured he’d let her know when the cost was too high, he’d seemed sensible enough. She had salve in her bag for the saddle-sores he was no doubt going to get and that would have to be enough. 

At one point, just as the afternoon light was slanting low, glinting in beneath the canopy to occasionally dazzle horse and rider, she stopped twisted in her saddle to look at Alexi. The twist was partially to see him and partially to stretch and shift the pressure of sitting, she could only imagine how stiff he must be. 

“Do you want to go on? We have light left but if you are done you need to say as much. We won’t get far if you are crippled.”