either way. “Hammon, as the newest member, you draw the short straw. Denney, you’re joining them.”
Denney let out a wordless protest.
“The dogs can go with you and serve as a lookout while you’re working,” Siobhan told her patiently, having already anticipated this reaction and planned a response to it. “You know they obey you better than anyone else. I can’t spare another person to protect everyone while you’re working. The dogs are a neat solution to the problem.”
Denney slumped in resignation.
“Don’t worry, it shouldn’t be as many stones as last time,” Grae attempted to reassure her. “It’s only…er, how far is it to Sateren exactly?”
“One hundred and eighty-three spans,” Hammon supplied.
“Oh? That far? I assumed it was closer because the itinerary said it would only take them three days to reach it from Quigg.” Grae frowned as he calculated things at high speed. “Probably a little optimistic on someone’s part. Well, regardless, the soil is quite rich around this area, so as long as we have good sunlight, hmmm….” He muttered to himself in complex mathematics that no one at the table could or tried to understand before he nodded, satisfied with his own conclusion. “Yes, we’d only need about ninety stepping stones altogether. So, it’s just 3,150 stones we need to find,” he assured Denney with an innocent smile.
Denney groaned and banged her head against the table.
They spent all of the next day going from one inn to the next, trying to pinpoint where Lirah’s party had stayed. By the time the afternoon sun threatened to sink past the horizon, Siobhan’s feet were throbbing. In fact, her legs were threatening mutiny if she didn’t sit down soon. She finally gave up and went back to the inn with Wolf, meeting other people in the main room who had already called it quits for the day. After an hour of sitting there, however, there was still no sign of Grae or the stone gatherers.
Concerned that Grae, in his preoccupation, would keep them out past dark, she told everyone to order dinner and left the inn, intent on fetching them herself. She’d barely gotten to the main road when she spied Hammon coming her direction and waved him down. “Why are you alone?”
“Denney and Grae are just behind me,” Hammon assured her. He half-turned to look behind him. “I lost them in the crowd crossing the main intersection, though. You don’t suppose Icean got lost, do you?”
She let out a wordless growl. Yes, with Denney, that was entirely possible.
Grae appeared from behind a group of chattering housewives and, spying them, weaved his way toward them. “Siobhan! I lost Denney in the crowd back there. Has she come this way?”
She dropped her head and shook it in absolute despair. “Of course she didn’t go in the right direction.”
“Uh-oh.” Grae glanced behind him. “This isn’t a good city for her to be lost in.”
“Are the dogs with her?”
“No, she sent them back to the inn several minutes ago. They were whining about being hungry.”
So, in other words, Denney was completely alone and without one reliable guide to get her back to the inn. Heaven preserve her.
“Grae, you go back to the inn. If we’re not there in twenty minutes, send out a search party. Hammon, you come with me.”
“Right.” Grae shot a worried look at the darkening sky. “Find her quick.”
“Will do,” she confirmed. Brows knitted together in concern, she started off for the intersection.
At this hour of the day, everyone was going home from work, closing up shops, and making last minute stops to pick up dinner ingredients. The place was a madhouse with people going in every possible direction. Denney, with her directionally challenged senses, likely wouldn’t know up from down after five minutes in this crowd. Siobhan’s concern tripled, and she started calling out the girl’s name as she went down one street and then another, hoping that by some miracle she’d find Denney before trouble did.
“Let go! I said let go! LET GO OF ME!”
Siobhan’s head jerked around, alarm shooting through her. That was Denney’s voice! In this crowd of people, it was hard to see her, but she was absolutely certain that had been Denney, somewhere to the right.
Grabbing Hammon’s arm, she tugged him hard. “This way. Quickly!”
“What is it?” he asked in alarm, instantly following her.
“I think Denney’s in trouble. I heard her yelling just now.”
“Icean?” Hammon raised up on his toes, using his height to see over the crowd. “Yes, I see her. Straight ahead.”