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I said, “Your favorite.”

“Aye, ye remembered.”

Torin paid extra for a skin of small ale and two boiled eggs.

He grumbled. “Tis not a full meal so much as somethin’ tae eat in the saddle.”

I said, “But it’ll keep our hunger at bay. We can get more food at the next village, right?”

“Aye, by midday.”

I tore a bannock as we rode and the barley grit caught in my teeth. It tasted of peat smoke and salt.

I chewed and chewed. Then half-joked, with a burst of dry crumbs from my mouth, “Well, it’s better than hunger.”

Torin knocked his hunk of bannock on the pommel with a clonk clonk sound. “Tis dry enough tae stick tae our ribs.”

He looked over at Dude, his ears sticking up, there was a strap hanging over his conveyance, his paw batting at it, pulling it in and chewing on it.

“Did ye eat already, Dude, ye hae had a fine meal? Ye dinna think tae share?”

Dude meowed and kept playing with that strap.

I said, it’s fine, “I’ve seen Dude’s diet, I’m okay with not having some.”

I morosely chewed the dry bread as we rode.

29

ALEXANDRIA

1308 - THE JOURNEY TO KILLIN

Later that day, the road climbed into Glen Lochy and then dropped toward Tyndrum. I knew this because Torin explained it all, the names of paths and fields, the villages and mountains that we passed. Sometimes he stopped and spoke quickly with other travelers, always in a language I didn’t understand, but sometimes it just seemed like he knew it, in his bones.

But I asked anyway, “How do you know all of this? Have you been here a lot?”

“Max and I hae come through a couple of times.”

“Wild, I barely know street names that I’ve driven many times.”

The horses were moving slowly, a gentle rocking back and forth along the trail, enough to go to sleep. I chuckled to myself that I needed to figure out how to get on Cathbarr so that I could fall asleep in Torin’s arms.

He glanced back. “Ye are smiling?”

“I’m tired, I was thinking about how to talk you into getting onto your horse so I could sleep in your arms.”

He grinned. “Alas, though I do like ye between m’legs, mo leannan, I am too sore still tae hae ye between m’arms, reachin’ around ye tae ride.” He had the reins casually on his thigh, looking back at me as he rode.

“Yeah I agree. But if I fall asleep will I fall off the horse?”

“Ye just fold over, mo leannan. Ye will be safe.”

“I miss caffeine. I’m used to going faster.”

“This is why ye daena ken the place names in yer town. Yer journeys go too fast. Here ye are nae much more than a walkin’ pace. Ye note the trees, the crossroads, and the farms as ye pass.”

Soon we met a man coming the other way, leading a pack pony. “Och, good, I will ask him if any danger lies ahead.” Torin raised a hand, in that easy way he had with strangers, and began speaking Gaelic, while I wished I understood what he said.