Kael left at dawn, two days after the decree, riding north with Dax and thirty of his best, to find the nest of a raven.
She felt him go. That was the thing she had not been ready for. Mira had warned her of the Mark; no one had warned her of the distance. As the miles opened, the bright warm presence in her chest thinned and stretched, a wire pulled thinner and thinner, until it was only a faint, steady ache, like the memory of a hand held. She woke, on the second morning, reaching for him across a bed that was not his, and lay staring at the ceiling, furious at how much she minded. He had left a note on her pillow: Back in six days. Eat. Do not go anywhere without Brann. K. She had read it eleven times.
It did not help that she was keeping secrets. The verse sat in her like a swallowed
