It was a much nicer carriage than they were used to traveling in. The job had paid out far better than they'd expected—apparently they had gone "above and beyond" what they were asked to do, though none of them could agree on exactly how—and Kailar had splurged a little, because they had a long way to go and it would be nice to be comfortable the whole way, for once. But she'd still opted to drive it herself. There was no need to get
too fancy.
"I just don't feel right about it, K. We did a good job, but all we did was the job. It just feels like stealing."
"Gustav..."
"It's not the same. You know it isn't."
Kailar sighed. "I know, but there isn't anything we can do about it now. When we get back to Sutterford I'll send them a letter offering free work, whatever they need, to balance it out. Is that acceptable to you?"
"Ye—whoa!" He leaned over and grabbed her arm, making her pull the horses sideways with unnecessary force, and then bringing them to a halt. "Sorry!" he said, over muffled expletives from their friends inside the carriage. "Look." There was, she now saw, someone lying in the road.
Gustav blurred into shadow, and a moment later was beside the fallen figure. Kailar climbed down after him at a more reasonable pace. "Looks like a priest," she said as she approached. "Any idea who of?"
"Not remotely."
"Let me see." Aspen had most likely exited the carriage as soon as it had been safe to do so, and now she knelt by the priest, examining their robes. "No one I know. I can get Loilinar to look into it, but if it's someone minor it might take us a while."
"That's fine, it's not the most important thing anyway. Henderson can do some medical stuff, right?"
"Only very basic...stuff," Gustav said, "but we're not too far from home now, and we might be able to stop off somewhere on the way. Shall we get them inside?"
Henderson sat taut in the carriage, clearly prepared to act at the first sign of danger, though what exactly he would do in that scenario was less apparent. He was visibly confused by this turn of events but did not relax. "Are we in the business of collecting priests now?"
"What do you expect us to do? Just run them over?" Kailar said.
"Well, no, but you never know why someone might be lying in the middle of the road," he said, "and we'll be vulnerable until we've had a chance to properly rest. Especially in an enclosed space, with no one else around..."
"I'll stay back here, then," Gustav said. "Three against one is pretty good odds. We should get moving, though. If this priest is being chased—that seems more likely to me, I have to say—then we don't want to stick around for whoever might be coming."
"Right." Kailar climbed back out and up to the box seat. It took some convincing to get the horses moving again, after the unsettling nature of their stop, but she managed to steer them back in the right direction, and they continued toward Sutterford.