"Alanna! Wake up! It's almost dawn and my Lord Provost's men are looking for three people in this inn! We HAVE TO LEAVE!" At this, Alanna jumped out of bed and raced to put up her things, but saw that they were ready, waiting by the door. Wow, I'm glad that we sleep in the next day's clothing.

The three plotters rode off into the foggy morning, dust from the road the only thing on their heels. "Oh, thanks Robyn for gathering my many items. Now! To Corus!" Alanna said as she rode up to her friend, and then to the front of their small traveling party. They had stolen the three horses before they had gotten to the last village; the owner of the horses, thanks to Alanna's hallucination spell, thought that he had given them over to Mithros, the Goddess, and the Wavewalker themselves.

"You're welcome. Hey, Alanna. Did you know that Luke has more clothing than you do?" Alanna smiled as Robyn kept on teasing a blushing Luke.

Alanna went through the plan in her head while keeping her eyes on the lookout for other travelers. First, I will go and get one of the prince's friend's sample of writings. Then, Luke will forge two letters; one, should I get caught in the palace, and the other for the excuse letter. I just have to then meet the prince at the masquerade ball, talk for a moment, and then slip out. After he (and probably some court lady) retire(s) to his rooms and falls asleep, I rob him. If he wakes, I just give him the two letters. I then slip back out and return to the inn in which we are staying, and we live in riches until we rob the next rich victim. That'll probably be one of the prince's lady friends; Luke will get that job. It will be perfect. ?

"Hey, Alanna. You said that you were a noble also, correct?" Alanna nodded to Robyn, still watching the road. "Won't someone notice you at the palace, then? As you know, my parents abandoned me at the wonderful convent, but surely you had met the court. I mean, someone has to recognize a girl with fire-red hair and purple eyes." Alanna sighed, having gone over this with them before.

"No. No one will notice me. My wonderful father," As she spat out the word, Alanna's expression turned cold with anger. "never took us anywhere out of Trebond. Even when we were at the convent, I had on a magiced disguise. I made sure that that way, if I ever needed to hide, I could just go normally. Besides, people never believe me when I tell them that this is my natural self. Even you didn't believe." Robyn nodded, remembering when the teenage girl that she escaped the convent with suddenly turned into a totally different person, save attitude.

They rode on in a comfortable silence until Alanna noticed something strange. "Luke, you said that we would reach Corus by midafternoon. The sun is setting. Why?"

"Why, Lady Alanna, I thought you knew. The sun sets every day, often with another strange phenomenon called a sunset. Notice the two words the one is made of. Sun. Set. After this amazing happening, comes something even stranger. I believe it's called night. Also-" When Luke heard Alanna's growl of annoyance, he cut his mocking short. When she kept silent, he noticed that she was waiting for the answer to her question. "Oh, uh, right…um, I think I messed up on the map?" His answer sounded more like a question than a statement of fact.

Her next question was only a whisper. "How much?"

Luke gulped, fearing this new Alanna. Usually, her anger ran hot instead of this lethal cold. Obviously, someone wanted more than the two hours of sleep that they all had last night. "Uh, beg pardon?"

Her voice was so quiet that Luke had to strain to hear anything at all. "How much did you mess up?"

"Oh. Um, looks only like three days short if we cut through the woods." Alanna stared at him for a moment, then gave a slight nod as she pulled her horse off of the woods for the night, the other two following suit.

A little later, Alanna was in a somewhat better mood. "Last call for latrine before I ward camp." When the response was a negative, she gave a tired smile. This will be the first time in months that we'll get to turn in early.