Adara and Calliope went to the front of the wagon to watch with the others as Lucius, Phoebus and Xanthus walked slowly ahead upon the ancient trackway.
“I should know my own land!” Briana said.
“It has been long, as you say,” Dagon said, his hand upon her arm. “Were I to return to Sarmatia, I would not know where to go either. So much has happened since I was last there.”
Adara thought for a moment what it would feel like to her when they returned to Athenae, for it will not have been so long since she was there. I know every tree and rock of my family’s home, she thought. I can see it now.
Lucius walked forward with his son and Xanthus as the wagon creaked along behind them. It felt strangely familiar now, though it had been a long time since he had last been there, and in a wounded
