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* * *
Night came down like a fire burnt to embers. The sun was just an orange stain on the horizon as they passed through the dismal ruins of a small village. Not a single building remained standing. Fire had taken most, but what the flames had not destroyed the minions of the giants had knocked down.
"Do you have a some hidden lair hereabouts?" Ragnar asked.
"No." Emiel shook his head. "This is a crossroad town, or was. The patrols pass this way too often. Besides it is a wasteland all about, every farm, every house, has been utterly destroyed. It will be best for us to travel through the night."
"Thats fine for you, but an hour last night and an hour this afternoon are not enough for me. I will need three, four hours sleep tonight." Ragnar looked about. "But I agree, there is no comfort here.
Emiel said nothing for a few moments, joining Ted in silence. "I'm weary myself, but I had planned to ride all night. By day it will become much more dangerous."
"You have night eyes, I do not. " Ragnar said. "Three hours then."
"They will cost us. How would you travel these lands alone?" Emiel asked.
"I would sleep when I could." Ragnar explained. "And if I had to I would go without, but I fight better rested, and with a good meal in my belly."
"Food we have, time we do not." Emiel replied.
"Time, well... I think we will have more than we can use." said Ragnar.
* * *
The evening was clear and mild, but as the night came down, a chill wind blew from the mountains and brought a wet cold rain along.
Ragnar had repacked his loot, discarded some, and taken the wizard's robe as a short, hooded coat. The black cloth was warm and waterproof, the moisture stopped a hairsbreadth from its threads and slid away.
The track they followed had become a soupy river of mud. The horses splashed through, sending a spray of wet and sticking oerth over their coats and their riders' boots.
Ahead, seen dimly in the cloud obscured moonlight, a pile of stone ran even with the road, some fieldstone wall a hundred years of plowing had helped build.
"We are near a farmer's land." Emiel said. He had let his mount slow to a crawl and as the others passed, joined them. They rode three in a row, side by side.
"I thought you knew every corner of your realm." joked Ragnar.
"I came late to these parts, after Gorna fell." Emiel answered seriously. "But I know them now. There is a cow shed near to here, but whether it still stands, I could not hazard a guess."
"We might as well take our rest now, even if only in a muddy field." Ragnar said.
"Your rest, not ours" Emiel corrected.
"Ted, is that so? Do you want to ride through the night?" Ragnar asked the silent man. Ted mumbled some reply then pulled his hood tight around his head.
* * *
The shed was flattened but unburnt, collapsed on its own from the shaking of a storm and rotten timbers. They propped up one edge and made a rough lean-to. The horses could not fit beneath but they stretched some blankets out as a thin roof to keep the rain off them at least.
Ragnar was dry and tired beneath the old wooden boards, but he could not sleep at first. Emiel and Ted shared the guard, they never seemed to rest. Ted took his turn then settled down, he sat and stared at nothing and did not talk. Finally Ragnar shut his eyes, and opened them, for in a blink of time three hours had gone by.
"You're up." said Emiel. "Good. I'm tired of waking you all the time."
"That was three hours?" Ragnar asked amazed. "Never, I just shut my eyes."
"You've snored away, fit to wake the dead, for three long hours." Emiel said. "I've been sore tempted to smother you with that wizard's cloak you've been wearing."
"What of you?" asked Ragnar.
"What of me?" Emiel replied.
"You seem fresh. Did you sleep at all?"
"I will sleep when this journey is done." Emiel turned and called to Ted. "Are those horses ready."
"Yes, let's go." said Ted.
"He's talkative now." laughed Ragnar. "What's stirred him up?"
* * *
"Knock away those beams." said Emiel. "We want this to look as it did when we first found it."
Ragnar used the flat of his axe to send the wooden supports flying loose. The cow-shed roof came down and threw a splash of mud across them all and sent a nervous whicker through their small, three horse herd.
"Very nice." Emiel said, and wiped the mud from off his clothes. "Everything with a flourish."
* * *
(To Be Continued)