Kael rode out at dusk.
He took Tarn, Brann, and three warriors I had not yet learned the names of. They rode dark horses, dressed in dark cloth, carrying only what they could move fast with. Shadowsteel at their belts. Bows on their backs. No banners. No standards. Nothing to announce who was riding.
I stood on the inner wall above the gate and watched them go.
Kael did not look back.
That was deliberate. Vael had told me, half an hour earlier as she helped me into the heavier coat I would wear on the wall, that Lycans did not look back at partings. *We say goodbye once, with our mouths*, she said. *Then we trust the road*.
I tried to trust the road too.
I did not entirely succeed.
When the riders had crossed the southern boundary and disappeared into the trees, I stood there for a
