“We will,” Crow nodded when Penelope advised him to avoid the knights’ camp. He planned to take the same route past Norcrest that they had on their way to Whitebridge to stay well clear of the knights. It would probably add at least an extra half a day or more to their overall journey to Grimsby, but it would be worth it to avoid a confrontation with the nobles. The thieves had mostly recovered from the last battle as well—aside from Rikki, whose injured leg was going to take a while longer to heal—but they wanted to save all their energy for the next fight. Getting into a skirmish with the knights before then would be a waste of time and energy for all of them.

As Penelope went on to say that they should meet up again two days after the battle, he nodded once more in agreement, “Of course. We’ll probably be leaving in four days, but if you discover anything important between now and then, come and find me in the ravine.” He stood up from the table with her, drawing the hood of his cloak as they prepared to leave. “Other than that, I’ll see you after the battle.”

[color=fff79a][b]“Be safe, Crow.”[/b][/color]

The concern in Penelope’s voice caught his attention, and he turned to look at her. He shifted his weight slightly. Every time he thought he had started to figure out how to act around her, she said something that made him question it all again. He had thought they were moving on to just be acquaintances, but her expression and tone told him otherwise. Perhaps she was hoping they could be friends again? He wasn’t sure what to do with that. While he wanted to be closer to her, he didn’t want to just stay friends with her. After everything they had gone through together, it would be too hard to get close to her while knowing they had no future together anymore.

“You too,” Crow offered her a smile and followed her to the door of the tavern. Even though he was torn about getting close to her again, he still wanted to end the night on good terms.

As they walked onto the road, he turned to head South towards the ravine, but then paused as he caught sight of a movement to his right. A small group of local knights were making their way towards them from the other side of the street. The thief averted his gaze so they wouldn’t see his face. Usually, as long as he didn’t do anything to stand out, they would leave him alone. He took a step forward to leave, but the sound of a voice made him freeze in his tracks.

“Hey, you two!” one of the knights called out as they walked closer. “Hold on a moment. We have some questions.”

Crow muttered a curse under his breath, but didn’t turn around. He wondered why the knights wanted to speak with them. It was strange for the local guards to stop a couple of peasants—or what they probably thought were just a couple of peasants—for questioning. There must have been an incident in the village that day that the knights were gathering information about. [i]What terrible luck,[/i] he thought, glancing towards Penelope. They couldn’t just wait around and comply with the guards. He was a wanted criminal, and she a knight in an obvious peasant disguise. If either of them was seen, it could mean trouble.

“We need to get out of here before they recognize us,” Crow said quietly to her. “I know a part of the forest in the west where we can lose them.” He peeked over his shoulder at the knights, who were slowly getting closer, before turning back to hold her gaze. “Do you trust me?”