“No arguments here,” Crow grinned at her as they sprinted for the town. Behind them, he could hear the thudding of boots against dirt as their pursuers took chase. Their footsteps blended together, but it sounded like there were about five or six of them in all. He let out an ecstatic holler and ducked as an arrow zipped past his head. No matter which side of it he was on, he had always enjoyed a good chase. He could brag a winning streak of forty-nine to one—the ‘one’ being the time he had been captured and sent to prison—when it came to pursuits like this. He happened to be quite good at them.

Up ahead, Crow could see the outskirts of the village. He cast Penelope an impish look, “Let’s have some fun with them, shall we? This way!” Just before they reached the edge of the road, he made a sharp turn to the left, leading her along the border between the forest and the outer buildings. In one swift motion, he reached up to grab hold of the edge of a wall and swung himself up, landing on top of it. He only paused for Penelope to catch up before he took off again, moving quickly along the wall with catlike balance. When he was close enough to the house that the wall encircled, Crow leaped onto its flat roof, crouching down as another arrow sailed over his head. He glanced back at the knight, who was keeping up with him rather well.

“Come on,” Crow teased. “It’s time you learned how to vanish from a [i]real[/i] escape artist.” He waved a hand for her to follow and then kept going, jumping over to the next rooftop. He stayed close enough to be just within their pursuers’ line of sight, but far enough away that any arrows they shot at them would fall short. He stayed where he was for a moment, pacing back and forth on the roof as if he couldn’t find a way down, until the attackers started climbing the wall to come after them. Once they were all off the ground, the thief crossed over to the beams of some nearby stable rafters and jumped down into some bales of hay that weren’t visible from where their enemies stood. In their current position, he and Penelope now had a significant head start.

“[i]Voila[/i],” Crow said to her, flourishing his hands in a bow before they took off running again. “Who ever said we needed to fight?”