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Along the river road, a allop A thin line of dust hung in the still air behind the heavily in a way that spokeeffort Even at our distance, I could see the billowing of the rider’s short yellow cape that ’s courier and notified every citizen of the duty to speed him on his way

The watcher at the relay station below us had spotted the onco of the bell, and in the nextinto action One ran into the stable, to e a tiny courier’s saddle He held the fresh mount at the ready while anothera water skin and a packet of food for the rider A fresh rider eainst the dust, his short bright yellow cape flapping in the river wind He stood by his e to be passed to hier approached the station and then saw a frightening thing The er only pulled in when his horse was abreast of the fresh ed fro men, leaned down to snatch up the packet of provisions and water skin, and then set spurs to the new horse In an instant he was gone, galloping down the center of the road and through the penal coffle Shackled ed out of his way as the courier passed There were angry shouts and cries as a section of the chained uards when they did not get out of the way quickly enough to avoid the horse Heedless of theto a tiny figure on the ribbon of road leading to the west I stared after hilanced back down at the relay station A stableer’s horse, but the animal suddenly went down on his front knees, and then rolled onto his side in the dust He lay there, kicking vaguely at the air

"His wind’s broke," Duril said sagely "He’ll never carry a courier again Poor beast will be lucky if he lives"

"I wonder what desperate e he bore, that he rode his horse to death and could not pass it on to a fresh rider" My ht attacks by the Specks on the Wildlands border towns, or a fresh uprising aeant Duril said tersely As atched,one of thetoward the e for my father? He knew most of the commanders of the forts on the eastern boundary, and he was kept almost as well apprised of conditions on the frontier as the king hieant’s eyes Duril glanced at the sun and announced abruptly, "Tio in to your books We don’t want Master Quills-and-Ink to be looking at ain, do we?"

And with that, he turned his horse’s head away from the river, the road, and the relay station and led me at an easy lope back to the trail that led down to my father’s entle rise of land that overlooked the river In an indulgence of my mother, my father had planted scattered trees for two acres around it, poplar and oak and birch and alder Water hauled up froated the trees that both shaded the house and grounds and provided a windbreak from the constant wind It was a little island of trees in the vast expanse of prairie all around us, green and shady and inviting Soht it looked sreen fortress of welcome in the ept arid lands We rode toward it, the horses eager now for cool water and a good roll in the paddock

As Sergeant Duril had predicted,us Master Rissle’s ar to look forbidding "Hope he don’t wallop ye too hard for being late, young Nevare Looks like he could be cruel and harsh, hi and all," Duril said in quiet derision before ere in earshot of the ibe He knew he should notscholar come all the way fro and astronoue, he would freely cuffto smile at it So I held my aeant Duril as he led our ue wave of his hand

I longed to run and find ent, but I knew that if I did, I would only bring punishood soldier did his duty and waited for orders fro If I ever hoped to cohed and followed my tutor off to my lessons The academics seemed more tedious than ever that day I tried to applythat the foundation I built noould support ’s Academy