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Rojer tried to speak, but his voice caught, and tears filled his eyes

"Shhh, shhh," Leesha whispered, taking his hands and drawing thehter around her "We’ll talk about it when you’re ready" He leaned into her, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair, and he felt hiain

They were two days from the city, not far from where the Painted Man had first found Rojer and Leesha on the road, when he turned his horse and rode into the trees

Leesha kicked her horse ahead, picking her way through the trees until she caside the Painted Man With no natural path to follow, h for two, they had to continually shift and duck to avoid low-hanging liet down fro?" Leesha asked

"To get your griht you said they were in Angiers," she said

"The duchy, not the city," the Painted Man said with a grin

The path soon widened, but still in a way that seemed natural to the untrained eye Leesha was an Herb Gatherer, though, and knew plants better than anything

"You cultivated this," she said "You felled trees and widened the path, then hid your work so it doesn’t seem a path at all"

"I value my privacy," the Painted Man said

"It must have taken years!" Leesha said

The Painted Man shook his head "My strength has so it off easier than a team of horses"

They followed the secret path deep into the woods until it veered off to the left Ignoring the clear path, the Painted Man turned right, and again plunged into the trees The others followed, and when they pushed through the branches they gasped as one

There, hidden in a holloas a stone wall, so covered in ivy and moss that it had been invisible until they were upon it

"I can’t believe this is just sitting here, so close to the road," Rojer said

"There are hundreds of ruins like this in the forest," the Painted Man said "The trees reclaier stops, but others, like this one, have gone unnoticed for centuries"

They followed the wall to a gate, ancient and rusted shut The Painted Man took a key from his robes and inserted it in the lock, which turned with a sates opened silently

Inside was a stable that seemed collapsed from the front, but the rear half of the structure was intact and clear, with a large covered cart and h space for the four horses

"Miraculous that half the stable should survive the years so well, and the other half not," Leesha noted with a grin, lifting some ivy out of the way to reveal fresh wards on the stable’s walls The Painted Man said nothing as they brushed down the horses