Vilea finds the trip dull.

The journey to the court of the royal house of Seekya was a bumpy, dusty, and largely monotonous one for Vilea. She had made the trip more times than she could possible count, but for Jilleen, it was but her second time to the city of Talak, the seat of power for the King and his family.

The small villages they passed were, in reality usually nothing more than a few shabby shacks gathered around a well to water ones horses before quickly moving on. It was two days journey to Talak, and Vilea had already informed by courier the inn where she stopped on her way to the city to expect her carriage at sundown. The inn was a modest affair by the standards of the city, but clean and well run with good if pedestrian meals to be had. It was run by an old veteran soldier and his wife. He had fought for many years under the banner of the King’s father. Vilea knew the man could be trusted, and the inn was a place of security. She also knew that in order to assure her safety as well as that of her new handmaiden, Jilleen and her driver they had to get to the inn before sundown. To do other wise would put all of them in peril.

Jilleen found the trip enthralling, and waved happily to those few peasants the passed along the road, and saw out tending their crops. Smiling happily. She loved her new clothes, and while wary of Vilea’s motives, she was thankful that the courtesan had given her this opportunity. She and Vilea made small talk for some time but, soon gave up doing so, the noise of the heavy wheels of the carriage running over the rough road being nearly deafening in its volume.

The two women soon fell into a deep, if unrestful sleep, and when Vilea awoke sometime later she was distressed by the dark hue of the sky. It was twilight! And by her reckoning they still at least ten miles from the inn. She shouted orders to her driver to push the horses to their limit, and the carriage jumped forward seconds later, waking Jilleen, who knew they should not be out along the road after dark. Robbers **** and murderers of all types as well as slavers were known to wait in ambush for unwary travelers, and Vilea was determined that they not become among their victims. Rationally, she knew this was not the fate of all who traveled along the road, and that many passed without incident, even in the dark of night.

So it was with some trepidation that she view the silhouettes of the horsemen on the horizon of the road just ahead.