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James takes the stick and tries to hide the amused grin that’s threatening to spread across his face. Jiron seemed just a little too eager to do as she requested, not to mention the speed with which he’d gotten up from where he’d been sitting once he knew she needed something. Even if that something was taking the animals from her for roasting.

As the flames begin licking the carcasses and the fat drips with a sizzle to their ravenous heat, she eyes them speculatively. “Just what does the Empire want with you guys anyway?” she asks.

“What do you mean?” James asks her with a sidelong glance to Jiron.

“That was no mere patrol that chased us up into the mountains,” she explains. “They had already gone past, but then returned and entered the trees just where you happened to be. How do you explain that?”

“Just a lucky guess?” stammers James.

The look she gives him says she doesn’t believe it was ‘a lucky guess’. “They knew right where you were,” she continues.

“They did, didn’t they?” says James suddenly thinking. If the warrior priest is using the same technique with a mirror or other magical device to keep track of us, we’re in serious trouble. He glances to Jiron and can tell he’s having the same thought.

“Now, come on,” she demands. “What’s going on?”

James pauses as he considers what, if anything, she deserves to know. “It’s true, the Empire wants us in a bad way. We’ve recently spent some time deep within its borders and caused some trouble.”

Jiron chuckles and adds, “You got that right.”

“You see, a friend of ours had been captured during the fall of the City of Light and we went to retrieve him,” James explains. “Ended up killing a few soldiers and destroyed some buildings. Now we have a mage or something behind us who’s trying to prevent us from reaching Cardri.”

“I see,” she says.

They watch her for awhile to see what, if any, her reaction may be to what he had just said. After sitting quietly in contemplation for several minutes, she glances to Jiron and says, “You better turn that, it’s starting to blacken.”

Realizing he’s been staring at her and not paying any attention to the animal he’s roasting, he pulls it off the fire and examines it. The charred sections aren’t too extensive so he just turns the stick and begins roasting the other side. He catches her looking at him and he blushes slightly.

Seeing his friend blush surprises James. He’s never seen him flustered or embarrassed in the presence of a woman before, always has been cool and collected.

Later that evening when they begin settling down for sleep, James offers to take first watch. He notices that she keeps a knife in her hand as she lies down to sleep. Most likely in case either one of them try to force their attentions on her during the night.

James can’t help but thinking about the army behind them. He doesn’t believe they gave up on them, but there has been no sign of them since they initially fled into the forest. He would have thought they would have caught up to them by now. Not even the faintest trace of the tingle which indicates magic in the area has come to him.

He walks around the camp to keep awake, occasionally throwing another log on the fire to keep the cold of night at bay as best he can. During his second trip around the camp, he sees Jiron get up from where he’d been lying and come over to him.

Jiron indicates for them to move away from camp with a nod of his head and they move out away from the camp so they won’t wake Aleya. When the darkness of night envelopes them, Jiron stops and asks, “Do you think that warrior priest behind us is still there?”

“I don’t know,” replies James. “I haven’t felt anything since we fled into the mountains. Usually I can always feel something whenever one of them is around, at least I did when around Abula-Mazki. Why?”

“It just doesn’t feel right,” he says. “All the other times they’ve pressed with great vigilance, but not this time.”

“I know, it’s got me worried too,” admits James. “But whatever the reason, I’m just thankful they’re not trying to kill us right now.”

“True,” he agrees.