Between the high school campus and the grounds owned by the Mercenary Guild stood a small copse of trees. She left the backpack in the crook of two tree branches, then continued through the woods toward the stable behind the Hall. She climbed the split rail fence and cut across one empty paddock, crossing mental fingers Max wasn’t up this early, and that if he was, he didn’t look out his office window right this second.
“Toria!” David, the Guild’s resident Master of Horses, rose from behind his desk when she entered the small office attached to the main stable. “You’ve come to check on Greenstar?”
Toria stopped in front of the desk, jolted out of her meticulous plans by David’s question. “Greenstar?” She hoped she didn’t have a look of stupidity on her face to match the way she felt.
“Y
