"HORSE!!!!" Adam shouted, going mad with excitement when they stepped out of the inn to find horses awaiting them in the courtyard, held by a pimple-faced groom. He ran up to the nearest, a placid brown mare, and tried to haul himself up. Tynan smiled and walked up to the boy, picking him up and placing him onthe saddle. The mare cast Tynan a reproachful look as the boy bounced on her back and making galloping noises.

"Yours is that one," Tynan said to Feather, pointing to a fine looking stallion as their packs were loaded on the saddles of the two horses. He had reasoned that somewhere along the line, Feather would have to run. Knowing she had a good horse under her comforted him for some reason. He winced inwardly, hating what he was going to say but said it anyway. "We'll stop by the temple in the next town for Arum and Ransik, so they can join us or yo- we can say goodbye. Or something."

There was the vague impression that Tynan was trying very hard to control himself, and keep himself neutral. The sound of cloth sliding against eachother as something came untied, two shadows in the dark, replayed in his head. He kept his face neutral as he helped Feather up onto her horse, and discovered that she lived up to her name.

"Arum isn't joining us?" Adam asked forlornly as Tynan mounted behind him, grunting with the effort. He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes, but he seemed to be recovering.

"I don't know, Adam." he said simply as the horses turned and walked out of the courtyard without, the perplexed groom noticed, any kind of signal from the riders.

The town Ica was further down from the snowline than Trickle, and sat at the very spot where allthe tributaries joined into the River Tharn. Unlike Trickle, it was bustling with gem merchants, blacksmiths, tanners and furriers of all sorts. Ica was far more civilized than Trickle, and offered many of the luxuries that Trickle lacked - like cobbled streets and sanitation.

The temple there was a modest looking building with the typical curved spires tiled with small orange mosaic tiles at the north, south, east and west sides of the temple that resembled flames eternally reaching to the sky. The central dome had once been wreathed with the customary gold leaf, but now was merely painted yellow. Ica had not been kind to the Church of Fire. Their horses's hooves clopped on the cobbles as they approached the small courtyard of the church and dismounted. The townsmen ignored them, holding them in very obvious disdain as they passed. One came up to Feather as she dismounted her horse and tossed a penny at her feet.

"Don't take it." Tynan told her, a hardness in his voice as he helped Adam down. "That was an insult."