The following morning, Crow woke up early with the first light of the sun. Since he had been sleeping outside and had nothing to block out the light to keep resting, he decided he might as well get up and make some use of the extra time he’d been granted. Sitting up on his bed, he stretched tiredly in an attempt to loosen his muscles that had grown stiff from sleeping on the rough ground. He was feeling especially sore today, as he had wanted to travel light, so he hadn’t brought a mat or anything else to put beneath his bedroll for cushioning.

Accepting the fact that he was just going to have to put up with the faint ache in his back, he stood up and began clearing out his campsite. He rolled up his bed and destroyed the remains of the fire he had built to remove any sign that he had been there. Once he was satisfied that anyone who passed through wouldn’t notice that someone had made camp in the area, he shouldered his bag and headed back to Whitebridge to visit the market.

It seemed that even though there had been battles recently, the villagers were intent on keeping up with their usual routines, just like the ones he had seen in Silverpool when he had been visiting Evelyn. He looked over the bustling crowds that were buying and selling various products at stands that had been set up along the edges of a wide road. If he didn’t know better, he never would have guessed they had just endured two battles. Their hardiness was inspiring.

He walked along the outside of the crowd, eyeing different merchants as he looked for the ones who were selling food. It didn’t take long before he spotted a woman with loaves of leavened bread. Weaving between the villagers, he made his way over to her, purchasing some of the bread from her as well as a few other food products from the other vendors near her stand. Once he had bought everything he needed, he stepped aside to get out of the way of the other peasants who were trying to buy food.

He frowned as he peered into his nearly empty coin purse. It hadn’t taken much to exhaust the money he had brought from his camp. Sighing to himself, he shoved the pouch back into his pocket and folded him arms over his chest as he looked out over the bustling market. Since he had woken up early, he still had a bit of time left before he was supposed to meet with the knights. Perhaps he could get lucky and sell off enough of the medicines to bring back some gold for his companions.

Having come to a decision, he walked along the row of merchants until he found an empty spot where he could set up his own makeshift station. He slipped his bag from his shoulders and pulled out his bedroll, unfurling it and laying it out on the ground. It would have to suffice, since he didn’t have a wooden stand like the other vendors who set up in Whitebridge regularly. Once he had flattened the blanket, he began pulling the containers of medicine out of his bag and setting them out on top of it where they would be visible to the villagers who walked by. It wasn’t the most visually appealing merchant stand in the market, but he hoped that would just attract more people who would be curious to see what he was selling.

With everything set up and ready, he stood behind the blanket and glanced around the area to make sure there were no guards before he lowered the hood of his cloak. In addition to having an unusual station, he intended to use his reputation to draw people in, since it was known amongst the outer villages that whatever he stole came from nobles and was therefore of high quality.

As expected, it didn’t take long before peasants began to gather to see what he had to offer.

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By midday, Crow had managed to sell off half of the medicines he had brought. He had hoped to sell more, but most of the villagers of Whitebridge couldn’t afford the price he’d needed to set in order to bring back enough money for himself and his companions to make it until the fall season. Wanting to be generous, he hadn’t made his wares too costly, but most of the peasants only had copper coins to spare, which was simply too little for him to accept, even though he wished he could.

He exhaled sadly as he made his way back to the road where he was going to meet with the knights. After seeing the desperation on the villagers’ faces for noble medicine, he was tempted to go back to raid the knights’ camp for more, just to give it to them without asking for gold in return. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that, especially after the knights had lost more than half of their supplies to Jaxon’s thieves. They needed what they had left to make it through the war, and he couldn’t justify sabotaging his own kingdom to give the peasants of Whitebridge free medicine. All care for the outcome of the war aside, he wanted to make sure Penelope was safe, and tampering with the nobles’ remaining supplies would put her at risk if Younis attacked.

When he reached the edge of the village, he leaned against a tree and watched the road that led into the southern part of the forest. His heart beat a little quicker with excitement at the thought of seeing Penelope again and finding out if her baroness had agreed to let her travel to Aramoor with him. Now that the prospect of traveling with her had been put on the table, his hopes had risen that they wouldn’t have to part for the next few days, and he couldn’t wait to find out if she had convinced her leader to let her go.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he tapped his index finger against his bicep, fidgeting with nervous energy as he waited for the knights to reach him.