Two guardsmen Skye did not recognize barred the bridge, but with Niles as her escort she had little problem crossing in her traveling cloak.

“Our wagon has cracked a shaft,” Skye explained easily. “I must fetch my father.”

The guardsmen looked toward Niles. “It is as she says,” he agreed, waving them off. “Let her pass. She must ride into the mountains past nightfall as it is.”

At the far side of the bridge the lanky Sledder slid off Shep's broad back with its distinctive dark line and handed Skye the dun pony's rope lead as he scanned the clouds beginning to form. “It looks like rain,” he said softly. “You'll not make it to the Notch before full dark.”

Skye eyed him silently, remembering her mother's instructions. Could she pass the outlet of the Lavender Rill without turning up the familiar road towards her farm at the base of the Tear Drop, she wondered? Wouldn't she do better to ignore her mother's wishes and instead ride home to her father and tell him what had happened? Surely Kendrick would know how to rescue her mother.

“There is a flour mill just up the turnoff to our track, the Mill on the Rill,” Skye began, her face growing hot as she searched for a way to form truth into a lie. “They have a stall in the main tent.”

“Under the purple banner,” Niles remembered. “I tasted the honeyed scones.”

“Like no other,” Skye added, with a wistful smile. “They are friends of the family. The grandfather Gaffer stayed behind to mind the mill. Mayhap I shall overnight there with the ponies.”

“Overnight there with the ponies,” Niles echoed, under her spell. “A good idea.” He smiled, unaware of her deceit. “Take care of yourself, then. If I find Warren, I will find some way to get word to you.”

“And I you,” Skye replied.

“To Top Notch,” he conjectured. “Or mayhap your Mill on the Rill.”

Skye nodded, thinking that most likely she would never see him again. With a satisfied wave, he loped back toward the bridge and was gone.

Silently Skye fought against the one way traffic streaming into Middlemarch. It was slow going, trying to ride one pony while leading the other. But she had a feeling she would need both ponies when she caught up to Sierra, so she plodded on through the mud. How far ahead of her were the soldiers with Sierra, she wondered? And had they even taken this track? Skye suspected not, for she knew that the military roads led through the highlands, not the river valleys. Their trails were steeper but shorter and closed to all who failed to show the Northland Crest on a tunic or jacket or special token that allowed passage. Warren had traversed their sled trails beyond the Notch numerous times and come back elated. He was sometimes spotted but never captured. But in the end it had not mattered, because they had come for him to help fight their war.