3
The cool morning still lay beneath a thick covering of fog. The white mist drifted over the courtyard and cast everything in gray, unmoving shadows. I stepped across the short distance to the stables just across the way from the kitchen. The stables were long and narrow, and there was little light but for the cracks through the boards in the walls. Deep shadows lay in the corners and stalls.
There were enough stalls on either side of the dirt-floored aisle to house two dozen fine steeds. The horses entered through a wide door in the center of the building far down on my left. A hay loft hung low over the stalls and was filled with that year’s crop of hay. The sweet smell of the dried grass reminded me of my old home.
“Only two days. . .” I murmured.
It had been only two days s
