Why are they staring at me as such? I’m cleaner than I was and dressed this time. I know now that they are bandits. I suppose by association this makes me one as well. How poor of a choice I am for Sean. Who could not point me out? Even in the dark I could be betrayed by my eyes.

Is this what they look like when they know they have become the prey? The look in their eyes is not one of fear, it’s something else…not quite survival, not quite sane either. It looks like a game. Like a dangerous game we played on our mounts where Death’s stakes were higher, but defying the odds of the game! Life and death held within the fractions of time with the wind tearing angrily at your person hundreds of feet off the ground. One false move, one miscalculation, one mistake…was your mount quick enough to save you from death. Shaking my head I come back from the past.

They have stopped staring and started to move. The sun was in my eyes the riders could have been anyone. But they are outlaws. I am an outlaw?

There is a flurry of activity. I stand there motionless starting ahead at nothing but a stone wall. I feel strangely numb. I notice Baine. Her eyes meet mine. They do not look the same as the others. Hers reflect something else, something unnatural. No, not unnatural…something quite natural. My eyes widen.

My head swims in darkness. I do not know what is passing before my eyes. Someone jostles me. Why can’t I seem to keep to the present? The Goddess has not touched me so in the past…

Sean shakes me by the shoulders. I try to focus. “Why are you standing there,” he asks me.

”I…I will stay behind.”

”WHAT?..No!”

”They do not know me,” I answer…