153

As your horse tramples the angry reeves, desperately they thrust at you with their spears and wound you in the leg: lose 3 ENDURANCE points.

Tenaciously you fight to remain in the saddle despite the pain of your injury, and your horse carries you away from the yelling reeves and back to the main street. You draw upon your healing skills to mend your gashed leg as you escape along the street and ride across the square that lies at its end. There are several exits from this square, but you choose the least-busy one to make your escape. This tree-lined avenue bears west towards Tekaro Cathedral. The Eldenorans have turned the city’s magnificent building into a dormitory for their troops and, as you pass by its grand doors, you glimpse hundreds of soldiers sleeping on the floor of its central nave. Guards posted on the steps regard your blood-spattered breeches with suspicion as your horse plods its way forward. Gently you urge him to increase his pace for fear that they may stop and challenge you.

At the end of a street flanked by warehouses and guildhalls, you come to the city’s south gatehouse. A guard casts a cursory glance at you and, upon seeing that you are a scout, he pulls a chain which operates the heavy oak portal. As the gate creaks open you ride through it and out onto the highway beyond. This broad road runs parallel to the shimmering waters of the River Storn and you follow it for a few miles before turning your horse away towards the river. As you approach the rushing waters, you happen upon a derelict hut in the middle of a copse of apple trees picked bare by the invading army. The hut is empty but there is some straw on the ground that will feed your horse, and so you decide to rest here for the few hours that remain before dawn.

Unless you possess the Discipline of Grand Huntmastery, you must now eat a Meal or lose 3 ENDURANCE points.

To continue, turn to 272.