The rest of that day and the two that followed went by without a hitch. Crow and the rest of the nobles never did see Otto again, but they covered quite a bit of ground with the Younisians that led them through their kingdom. To the former thief, it was a welcomed change of pace. He had grown accustomed to always watching his own back and keeping his guard up wherever her went, since he’d lived most of his life being pursued by knights and bounty hunters. While his old habit of keeping watch over his surroundings didn’t die, he felt much more relaxed than usual and enjoyed being able to travel in plain sight along a main road instead of sneaking through the shadows.

He also liked being back in Younis for the first time in years. Well, more specifically, further into the northern kingdom than just the border. The path they took was the same one that he had traveled along with Penelope, William and Abraxas the first time when he’d been sent to retrieve the king’s staff. Being back again brought up a flood of memories and mixed emotions inside of him from that trip, especially when they passed through the town where they had met Hartley.

So much had changed since then and as he looked around at the buildings and markets and people, it almost felt like the first visit had been a distant fever dream. Back then, he had still been an arrogant, bitter thief with a crush on one of his guards. Now, he had shot up the social ladder to the highest title in Brerra outside the royal family and was actively courting the woman who had once been assigned to keep him from running away. The speed of it all was dizzying, but he had to attribute some of the positive changes to the land they were riding through now. If it hadn’t been for the people they had met and the things that had happened to them in Younis, who knew what would have become of him and Penelope? He was thankful for the northern kingdom and the ways that he’d left it as a changed man.

Aside from the viceroy’s nostalgia, the three days they traveled with the Younisian knights were productive. They covered long stretches of road at a time, motivated both by their eagerness to get to the castle and the lingering worry that Otto would come back to finish whatever he had been scheming behind their backs before. Even Naida had stopped complaining about their speed, although Crow suspected her change of attitude was due to the fact that she’d taken an obvious interest in Edwin. Throughout the ride, she chatted happily with the Younisian man, exchanging questions and talking about their apparent shared interest in a game that the former thief had never heard of before. He doubted their father would allow her to be with a low-ranking knight from another kingdom, since Albin seemed to care a lot about protecting his oldest daughter, but he didn’t want to dash her hopes, so he kept his theory to himself.

When they weren’t on their horses, the group spent their nights at the local inns. As planned, they asked Rayner whatever they could think of about their missing baron as soon as they were behind closed doors. It seemed to everyone that Otto was long gone, but Crow refused to take any chances after he’d made the mistake of being optimistic in the past. Unfortunately, the lieutenant didn’t have anything useful to tell them and only grew more frustrated the more they interrogated him about his father. He was genuinely clueless about the whole thing and eventually stopped talking to the others out of spite on the third night of questions. With a curt demand to just go to sleep, he took up the bed in the furthest corner of the room and buried himself in the blankets, and the rest of the nobles finally gave up on getting anything more out of him.

The next morning started out the same as usual. Crow and his company rose early after a full night of sleep, got breakfast at the tavern below the inn, and set out on the road with Edwin and Osbert. He directed Baine to fall in line toward the middle of the group and brought a hand up to smother a yawn as they headed toward the next town. He’d been getting better sleep over the past few nights, but it was still exhausting to travel almost nonstop every day, and his weariness was catching up to him from the lengthy rides.

“At least we only have about three more days left of travel before we make it to the castle,” Percival said at his side, noticing the viceroy’s tiredness and offering him a sympathetic look.

“Thank the gods for that,” Crow groaned. “My legs and back are killing me. How do you knights do this all the time?”

“Most of us grew up riding horses,” he shrugged. “You adjust to it.”

“No, I don’t think I will,” the former thief decided with a wrinkle of his nose.

A tame chuckle escaped from the knight’s throat, and they lapsed into silence again. As the procession went onward, Crow let his eyes wander idly over the surrounding trees. They had moved on from the last town and now found themselves in a small section of forest that buffered the next populated area up ahead. A cool breeze wafted by, and he drew his travel cloak more securely around his shoulders to stave off the cold. The further north they rode, the further the temper dropped, and he couldn’t wait to get to the Younisian king’s castle to escape from the winter weather for a while. Hopefully there would be—

“Look out!”

The sudden bark of Percival’s voice sent a jolt up Crow’s spine, and he yanked on his reins just as an arrow whizzed past his nose. Had he not directed Baine to slow down, it would have gone straight through his head. Heart pounding, he turned toward Percy as the knight drew his sword from its scabbard. “There are men in the trees!” Percival yelled, uncharacteristically animated as he took charge of the situation.

The rest of the group shook themselves awake and readied their weapons as well, turning to face the threat just as a group of men in cloaks rushed towards them with blades and bows. They’d fallen right into an ambush.