Cicera had been right. They walked in as straight a line as possible until they left the wild field, and soon the grass became shorter, more tame. When Vica began to find animal droppings scattered here and there, her suspicions were confirmed.
"This is someone's grazing land," she said. "Does it belong to someone friendly, or are we just passing through to get where we need to go?"
"I don't know," said the duchess. She sounded awful, like she was about to drop dead any second. "I really don't."
"Well, maybe one of us should go ahead and sort of check things out to make sure it's safe. I don't want to think that Felix would accidentally put us in danger's way when he's the one who, uh, made this escape route or whatever it's supposed to be, but we don't know if we're walking right into
