They left at dawn.
Maret had been up before them, which was becoming a pattern Darion had stopped being surprised by.
He knew of early wakers and Maret was sure one of them.
She had packed food and water for the road — wrapped bread, dried meat, a small cloth bundle of something that turned out to be dried fruit when he opened it on horseback an hour later.
Aldra handed the bags to them at the gate and they rode out into the grey morning light with Percvale quiet behind them.
Garren stood at the gate and watched them go. He didn't say anything other than 'Safe journey'. He had said what needed saying the night before.
The road south was different from the road to Valdenmoor. If was flatter, more open in the early stretches, the terrain switching between patchy farmland and long stretches of scrub where nothing had been cultivated in years.
The sky was clear and the morning was cold and the horses moved well on the empty road.
