The morning sun found me wrapped in a blanket roll a mile outside of Saint Charles, a small town near the Missouri. We had ridden hard until midnight, and found a solitary stand of cottonwoods away from the byways we rode; and feeling exhausted and unwilling to cross unmarked country in the pitch black night, we tethered our horses and built a small, sheltered fire in the overhang of some boulders by a creek that run down to the Missouri a few miles away, as best we could reckon it.

I woke with a start, lost in a deep dream in which Katherine had brought me the great news that I had been found not guilty, and was about to kiss me in congratulations, when the bubble of my dream crashed on the edge of the real world and birdsong dragged me to my senses under the trees. I was glad to be alive, but I was sore from hard riding and my leap from the burning building the evening before, and I wished bitterly I could have seen the dream to fulfillment. Kit was already up and had stirred the fire awake, and had drug out a trail pan, scratched and dented, but serviceable, and was boiling up some coffee in it. I dragged my boots out from under my sleeping roll and shook them down, pulled them on and crawled to me feet. He handed me a tin mug full of bitter,muddy coffee, thick with grounds, but as I swallowed it it sang my nerves awake until I could hear the birds rustling among the leaves as they sang; it seemed the best I had ever drunk.

"Another debt I owe you, Kit. I'd be bleeding to death in the ashes back there if you hadn't come along."

"Well, I dunno; you looked about ready to defend yourself, but I was in a hurry, you know?" He smiled.

"Damn good thing for my sorry hide, I'd say!" And I smiled back. "So now what?   Where do we go from here?"

"Well, I happen to know of a safe harbor for you about a day's ride from here. We'll head for there, and sort out the next to come after we have us a breathing spell. I thought for sure those boys were gonna light out after us, but I guess they hadn't any mounts nearby."

"Yes, I guess -- well, besides, mobs don't often have a lot of persistence, in my experience. When the excitement breaks up, they kind of wander away."

"I've heard some do, and then some don't. Depends on whose leading 'em. You did a smart thing taking that feller down."

"Who, Rowzee Ceres? Do you think so? Only thing I could think of, after I saw him fall, was the likely indictment for murder in the second degree."

"I don't think that'll be a problem, as long as you stay out of that town. Besides, you cut off the head of the Hydra."

This was the first time, and not the last, that Kit surprised me with what he knew. There was a lot more to that head of his than he let show.

"Well, I dunno what you think a safe harbor is, but I guess, all things considered, it's 'bout what I need."

"All in good time. Rest assured, you still have some friends. Let's make some miles while we can, before the grapevine catches up with us."

It seemed like good advice, and we wrapped our little camp spot quickly and saddled up our horses. I felt glad to be back on Hera, as solid and constant a friend as I ever had in the world, and riding with Kit, who was quickly proving himself to be another. I knew I should be wary, and feel hunted, and be on the alert. But I felt free.