By the time they were in the area of the Chancellor’s Estate, Nick was sore and tired. They’d stopped only as long as they needed to rest their horses, since there was nowhere along the way they could safely swap them out for fresh mounts.
For the past half day, Nick had kept up an inner litany of general grouchiness and complaining about the fact he wasn’t riding his horse, his nice horse. The saddle he was using was cheap, and it made his back hurt. Several years ago they’d escaped from the Chancellor’s Estate, and a side bonus from that job had been acquiring Obi and Arenite. It was a rather big bonus, in Nick’s opinion. Todd never missed an opportunity to point out that, although he was the better rider, the horses were in fact Nick’s. He cared for them, related to them, and they seem
