They went south for three days, though they didn’t go particurly fast to avoid wearing out the horse. Given that now they were sleeping on the hard bed of the wagoween a row of crates and the wall, Simon sidered this a real improvement. In his mind, nothing was wrong with being pressed against a woman as lovely as Freya every night, but he k wasn’t perma. They couldn’t just stay in the wagon forever. It was no way to live.

  The first two vilges they stopped in seemed too small for strangers like them to fit in. Still, they were a fine pce to settle for the night. Now they cimed to be peddlers to befit their wagon instead of adventurers, though Simon had no idea what he should charge for the random pots and cutlery the previous owner had been selling, and as Mr. and Mrs. Jackoby, sellers of odds and ends, they seemed to treated much better than Simon the adventurer and his panion Freya.

  Simo a whole afternoon just searg the back of the thing, and it seemed like the previous owner had just stolen whatever wasn’t nailed down and taken it on the road with him. There were copper kettles, cast iron cookware, knives of various quality, strings of garlic, a box of potatoes, and a half-full bag of flour. These were hardly the trade goods he’d have expected of a mert in a fantasy world. There wasn’t a scrap on hide or a vial of fairy dust to be had.

  Still, they received a warm enough wele thanks to his silver, and Simon and Freya put the inn’s beds to good use most nights. He still couldn’t uahough. Sometimes she seemed like she was falling for him, and other times he half expected to wake up and find her gohis mystery was finally resolved when she said, “You know, I always thought that when someone proposed to me, it would be more romantic, but I don’t think there’s a single romantie in your body Simon Jackoby!” during one of their tiffs.

  “Married?” Simon asked dumbly, not eg the dots.

  “What? You’re keen enough to sleep with me and to introduce me as your wife, and now yoing to what… say that it was all some big act just for show?” He could hear the fury in her voice getting ready to erupt if he made a misstep here. However, he wasn’t quite sure what to do, so he tried to el his inner rom- again, even as his mind grappled with the fact that this might not be the random flihought it was.

  “I would be delighted for everyoo know you’re my wife,” he said finally as he pulled her down to sit on the bed beside him, “But I don’t want you to be with me because you know - you have to. Danger and zombies aren’t very romantic, but—”

  Freya eventually shut him up by kissing him before he could ruin the moment. “You stupid, stupid man,” she said softly, “how could I not love the man that saved my life!”

  Simon really didn’t know what to say after that. He’d only ever dated two women lohan six months, and both of those had ended poorly a decade ago. He retty sure that he’d proposed to Freya just now, or she’d proposed to him. He holy wasn’t sure which, so in the end, he just held her while he tried to sort out his feelings about what had happened and how he felt about it.

  Regardless though, she was ier spirits after that, so on the fifth day of their journey away from the undead, they found another small vilge, and while Freya was busy at the iog their supplies and trading them a little bit of this, for a little bit of that, he took a trip over to the bcksmith and paid the man the scraps of gold that would be leftover to turn one of his s into a nice ring for his girl. In the end, it was an ugly thing, and he was sure he’d tragically overpaid for it, but she loved it just the same. They both agreed it was a straionship and aranger courtship, but what could they do with the world falling apart like this?

  “I always thought I’d save up a det dowry and marry one of the men that worked the river boats or maybe one of the city guards,” she said one night, lyio him. They’d mao sell or trade almost half the crap in the back of the wagon now, so there was actually room to y down. “But a fner with a strange at and a knack for killing monsters? Never.”

  Simon didn’t really know what to say either. He never expected to fall for, well - anyone, really. Ahat wasn’t a 2d waifu anyway, but here he was, holding a half-naked woman that might even stay with him ohe danger passed. It seemed too good to be true, but he vowed to enjoy it for as long as he could.

  . . .

  On day eight, they exited the woods they’d been riding through on a particurly dreary day and discovered Crowvar. They’d known it was ing from the st couple of vilges they’d gohrough. Apparently, the little town that occupied a strategic hilltop location iherwise ft region they’d been traveling through wasn’t sidered the pce. The reputation of their lord, Baron Raithewait, wasn’t sidered the best either, but he had something no one else had so far: walls, and that was enough for Simon to decide that this might be the pbsp;

  The quaint little town with its tightly packed houses and their red-tiled roofs spilled out from behind its city wall and part way down the slope, and it wasn’t a proper castle that protected it, but that was still good enough. For Simon, a small and imposing keep beat life on the road indefinitely. He was tired of looking over his shoulder, and he would never know if what was growiween him and Freya was real until they could settle down and have a normal life together. Not that he really knew what normal was in all this.

  Ohey reached the town, Simon saw the buildings weren’t in the best shape, but the guard at the gate did give him many problems. He just asked them for their names and their business ahem on their way. Simon paid for a week at the inn, which definitely wasn’t the worst pce he’d been to, and then they did some expl. The market was hardly thriving, but they discovered there were enough artisans and craftsmen they’d be able to get his needs addressed regarding armor and a neack, which he didn’t really need but desperately wanted.

  “Well,” he asked Freya after they’d finished wandering around the p a few hours. “Could you see yourself staying here a while?”

  Simon had expined his desire to find somewhere defensible, and she’d agreed with that, but despite the lovely chapel and the reasonably friendly people, she didn’t seem vinced.

  “I mean, it’s niough,” she said, holding his hand, “but it’s hard to think of any pce as home when I don’t speak the local tongue.”

  Simon swallowed hard. He hadn’t realized that they’d transitioo a new region or try or whatever, and he had no idea that he’d switched nguages at some point. He’d wao ask her whely it was that he stopped speaking northern and started speaking southern, but he really didn’t want to expin one more strahing about him just yet.

  Instead, he said, “That’s fair. I uand.”

  Her answer was good enough for him, though, and first thing in the m, he decided to see if Lord Raithewait was receiving visitors, so he went to talk to the man’s guards. As it turned out, the answer was rarely, but when he expihat he was a merary that could be useful if trouble made it this far south, they told him they would see if there was any need for his services.

  Simon holy didn’t think he’d be hearing from the Baron a about trying to find a cottage that they could buy or how it was that you got one built in the era before DIY and general tractors, but he didn’t have much luck there either. That was when the Baron’s messenger arrived.

  “My Lord would wele both of you to dionight at six,” the haughty young man said with a sniff. “Please wear something appropriate, if that’s possible.”

  It wasn’t, really. Freya had spent much of the week sewing a new outfit after he’d bought her a few bolts of cloth, but for the moment, her of them had anything but the clothes on their back. Still, they showed up. The worst thing that could happen was that they’d be told to leave, and though Simon liked this spot, he was sure there would be other pces they could find instead.

  Diurned out to be roasted sug pig with the elderly man and his two sons. While Baron Raithewait wasn’t quite out of viliral casting, his gray hair and high cheekbones certainly made it possible that he was the vilin in some horror movie. The room that they ate in didn’t make things aer. It was a rge room that wasn’t quite a dining hall, fnked by twe firepces, and the southern wall was covered in ons and trophies of various victories. Still, he was niough to them both, though, and once Simon name-dropped Baron Corwin, the man became almost warm.

  “Gregor is a good man, though it has been an age since we’ve been able to meet with all the ret troubles,” Lord Raithewait said with a small toast of his gss.

  None of that affected his son’s attitude toward them. Even after the pumpkin soup and the mb chops, the two younger Raithewaits still spent much of the night looking down their them. When they found out that his wife was from near Schwarzenbruck, they asked no end of hurtful questions about the whole affair. Fortunately, she couldn’t uand a word they said, and he could pad the jabs quite easily with a little tact here and a few omissions there.

  “How does it feel to know that everyone you knew is dead now?” became “What was it like to live through that?” and so on. Simon had dealt with passive-aggressive bullies like this his whole life. It was the reason he’d dropped out of school, but he was long past, g what strahought about him. He had a beautiful woman that loved him and a couple spells up his sleeve, and it would have been the easiest thing in the world to burn every asshole at this table alive.

  Instead, he just held Freya’s hand uhe table a little tighter and tried to smile while he told them all about their harrowing and pletely fial escape from a city full of zombies.

  “You two must have been together for a long time then if you were together when Schwarzenbruck was actually overruhat was years ago.” the younger son, Jeffery, said. “You’d better start trying for children sooner rather than ter. Your bride is getting a little long iooth.”

  Jeffery snickered at his own awful joke even though it earned him a rebuke from his father, but Simon was too distracted by what the man had just said to be offended. Years? Had it really been so long sihe city had fallen, and the problem still wasn’t pletely resolved? Did that meaeways were in time as well as space? It was a shog revetion, but it wasly something he could discuss with anyone.

  “Please five my son’s rude behavior,” the Baron said, snapping him out of his reverie.

  “Of course,” Simon said, pretending to be gracious instead of oblivious.

  “I think I might be able to find you the aodation you’re looking for. Though I don’t expect that the zombie hordes will ever get this far south again, there are always good reasons to keep a few sell swords around, just in case,” the Baron said with a cruel smile as he steepled his fingers in front of him. “Of course, I’ll have to see if you actually fight first.”