King Jon's POV
I had overslept, despite my firm intention not to. After making my way out of the palace, I paused in the sunlight, calculating that it would soon be nine. I had lost three or four hours already, and I wasn't pleased.
I carefully scrambled down the rock slope, then jumped off a boulder onto a deer trail. I followed that to the edge of a cliff, and there I raised field glasses to my eyes.
Nimbly, easily, I left the cliff, following the scrappy trail west until it veered sharply upward. I left it to cut across a granite rock face. A moment later I stepped between two massive boulders to peer down on the trail below, the trail that I had seen the chief minister go through last night.
I froze. Just for an instant, and then my heart thundered in my ears. Below me the posse m
