" I remained cheery, too, as if the universe had slipped into a kind of dream existence. I was by now far beyond mere tiredness, so that nothing seemed real. In fact, until I topped a rise and saw the twenty wagons stretched out in a formidable line directly below me, the worst reaction I had to rain, to stumbles, to my burning eyes, was a tendency to snicker. The wagons sobered me. I stayed where I was, squarely in the center of the muddy road, and waited for them to ascend my hill. I had plenty of time to count them, all twenty, as they rumbled slowly toward me, pulled by teams of draught horses. When I caught the quick gleam of metal on the hill beyond them--the glint of an errant ray of sun on helms and shields--my heart started a rapid tattoo inside my chest. But I stayed where I was. Twenty wagons. If the unknown riders were reinforcements to the enemy, I couldn’t be in worse trouble than I already was. “Halt,” I said, when the first wagon driver was in earshot. He’d already begun to pull up the horses, but I felt it sounded good to begin on an aggressive note. “Out of the way,” the man sitting next to the driver bawled. Despite their both being clad in the rough clothing of wagoneers, their bearing betrayed the fact that they were warriors. That and the long swords lying between them on the bench. “But your way lies back to the south.” I pointed. The second driver in line, a female, even bigger and tougher looking than the leader, had dismounted. She stood next to the first wagon, squinting up at me in a decidedly unfriendly manner. She and the leader exchanged looks, then she said, “We have a delivery to make in yon town.” “The road to the town lies that way,” I said, pointing behind me. “You’re heading straight for the mountains. There’s nothing up here.” They both grinned. “That’s a matter for us and not for you. Be about your business, citizen, or we’ll have to send you on your way.” “And you won’t like the way we do the sending,” the woman added. They both laughed nastily. I crossed my arms. “You can drop the paving stones here if you wish, but you’ll have to take the kinthus back to Denlieff.” Their smiles disappeared. I glanced up--to see that the road behind the last wagon was empty. The mysterious helmed riders had disappeared. What did that mean? No time to find out. “Now, how did you know about that?” the man said, and this time there was no mistaking the threat in his voice. He laid his hand significantly on his sword hilt. “It’s my business, as you said.” I tried my best to sound assured, waving my sodden arm airily in my best Court mode. The woman bowed with exaggerated politeness. “And who might you be, Your Royal Highness?” she asked loudly. The leader, and the third and fourth drivers who had just joined the merry group, guffawed. “I am Meliara Astiar, Countess of Tlanth,” I said. "