Annie's POV:
Jasper came back to the wagon every hour.
The road ran through the low hills east of the pack lands. The column raised dust that hung in the air like fog. The warriors rode in their ranks. The carts groaned. Jack sat between me and the herbs, watched everything with his whole face.
"Water, Annie?" Jasper would ride alongside, pass a skin through the rail. "Are you warm enough? The wind picks up on the flats. If the wagon is too rough, I can have a horse readied for you."
"Jasper," I said gently. "I'm fine."
"You've never ridden a march before," he said like a kindness, and it was. "There's no shame in it."
I smiled, took the water, and didn't tell him.
I didn't tell him that before Jon went silent, I had crossed these same forests on foot, night and day, in rain and sno
