We left the waystation before the sun cleared the peaks.
No one looked back. The place had given us walls and a few hours of real sleep, but it was still just another temporary hole in the ground. Vale took the lead, moving along the high ridge where the snow was thinner and the wind kept the tracks from lasting. Elizabeth walked at my side. Seraphina stayed close to Lydia, steadying her when the injured arm made her balance fail. Feng Lan brought up the rear, quiet and careful, one hand resting over the place where the collected claim still sat like a cold stone under her skin.
The northern ranges opened wider the farther we went. The trees thinned. The ground turned to bare stone and patches of hard ice. By midday we reached the edge of a frozen lake that stretched farther than any of us could see. The surface was smooth and dark, the kind of ice that formed over deep water and never quite trusted the weight of the sky.
Vale raised a hand and we stopped.
