She shoed me out and closed the door while she began attending to her comatose daughter. When I returned to the living room, Jack was holding two bott...les of beer in his hands. He handed one to me."Since you didn't get to drink at the party tonight," he said, "I thought you might like a cold one before you headed home."I took it and looked at him, at the surgical scar on his chest. "You're not supposed to drink, are you?" I asked lightly."Screw those doctors," he told me. "If the beer knocks. Woh unke liye fruits le gayi.Relatives, “Are bahu to bohut sundar lag rahi ha, beta Holi nahi kheli kya.”Asha, “Kheli bohut kheli.”Relatives, “To itni jaldi naha kyun liya?”Asha, “Woh ab ghar ko nikalna hai. Wahan vikram ke dost aaenge Holi par.”Relatives, “Aao chalo fir hum teeka hi lagate hain.”Asha, “Koi nahi aaj Holi hai, laga lijiye rang.”Fir sabne use teeka aur chutki bhar rang uske gaalon mein lagaya. Woh wahin unke paas baithkar aaram se hanste khil khilate baate kar rahi thi. Aisa lag. They were noisy and had obviously been partying so some were even obnoxious. As Kari moved across the lobby she walked into a very large man who smiled and said “sorry babe”. Kari simply smiled. When he eyed her some more he smiled again and asked if he could buy her a drink. Kari mumbled something he probably didn’t hear and walked past him, smiling back at him as if to say thank you. Now, where was Daddy? Just then she saw him. In the lobby bar talking with two guys. She wasn’t sure whether. The rest of us hurried down the trail to Hildestun. We changed mounts all the time. We rode early in the morning to when it got too dark to continue. The cadets were exhausted by this. We discussed possible scenarios when we could. We had no idea if Arienh had made it or not.We caught up to Dolf and Aagt after the first day. It was the sheer number of mounts that was slowing us down. I debated abandoning them or just passing Dolf and Aagt. Both knew about the cannon though. The horses would.