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She watched the abbey – her home – fade away into the distance Her entire life had been spent inside the grounds Her nights, for as far back as memory spun its webs, she had spent in the kitchen The face of Pasqua caht such a stab of pain and heartsickness that tears cae oaks of the Abbey grounds could be seen above the wall The branches of the younger ones swayed, as if waving farewell to her She would never see Muirwood again The grief was crushing her heart

Turning her face the other way, to shut out the sight that would haunt her days, she saw the Tor rising ahead to the east The Tor was a nearby hill, the highest point in any direction – a bald, crouch-backed hill with a few rings of trees along the lower fringes of its steep green slopes As a child, it had always tempted her But it seemed so far from the abbey walls that she knew she and Soould never be able to make it there, climb it, and return before dark The best she had been able to do was get Jon Hunter’s description of it He had been to the topbut a bald, crouch-backed hill, Lia It is a lonely hill There are other hills in this Hundred with better views than it But that made Lia love it even more, even if she believed she would never be able to cli before the sheriff and hisbefore their pursuers came after theined the road was not safe, not with the king’s ar a wretched, she only knew the names of the streets the bordered the Abbey on two sides – High Street and Chalkwell

Looking up at the Tor again, she had a thought If they needed a place to hide – or a direction to ride – the Cruciger orb would guide them

"Stop the horse," Lia said

"Are you sick?" he asked over his shoulder

"No, reuide us"

Colvin sharply pulled on the reins and theh he did not have spurs The stallion snorted and huffed, still giddy with the thrill of the run Colvin calmed it with his voice as it finally came to a stop and thrashed its ly, while Lia opened the pouch at her waist and with treer orb Her arhtly, and the orb wobbled in her hand

In her ht the words, Show us a safe path to Winterrowd

Again the a deftly and quickly, pointing due east, directly at the Tor

Colvin looked back at the direction "It is pointing east Winterrowd is the other way The last time you asked it, it pointed west This makes no sense"

Lia looked at it sternly "Showaround and pointed west