By the third hour past midnight's peak, their weary company was on the march once more. The night's cloying blackness seemed to swallow them whole as they departed the keep's confines, rank upon rank of haggard soldiers leading strings of laden packhorses.
Jaegar rode just behind the vanguard, his enhanced sight allowing him to pick out any potential threats or hazards in the gloom. Kaeso and Drasus travelled in the middle ranks, the former brimming with simmering pride at their accomplishments and the latter silently stewing over the murky secrets surrounding their strange new "guest."
Twice more, they were forced to halt and make camp before the night surrendered to dawn's crimson tendrils. Though fitful, these brief respites allowed the exhausted men a moment's recovery while the rest could catch their wind. Every halt brought the chance of an ambush from their retreating foes, but the night remained blissfully calm and silent.
