In truth, your imprisonment in Utrio's dungeons was brief, but that doesn't take away from the relief you now feel at being free. You and Drazha have gone perhaps half a mile from the city's walls when you turn around and sit down in the long grass. With a soft wind blowing in from the west and clouds scudding lazily across the sky, you can almost imagine that you're back on the Great Steppe.
Suddenly Drazha grabs you and pulls you down into the grass, a finger pressed to her lips. "We've got company," she whispers, pointing in the direction of the city. You raise your head slightly and look back in the direction you came from. A group of four armed figures, dressed—like you—in the uniform of Utrio's guards, have emerged from the gate in the wall through which you left Anselm's Landing, and they're beginning to make their way toward you.
"Our escape is not being taken lightly," Drazha says. "The grass will hide us for the time being, but we'll be seen as soon as we stand up."