They left at first light on the third day.
Aria was on the small grey mare they’d assigned her for the road. Kael rode next to her on his black stallion. Senna came behind them on a steady old gelding Tarn had picked it out himself, because Senna hadn’t ridden any real distance in fifty years and Tarn wasn’t taking chances with her. Five warriors made a loose ring around the three of them. Tarn out front. Brann and Cale on either flank. Roen and Hess at the rear, the younger two, still learning how to sit a long ride without fidgeting. Eight riders total. The smallest column Ashenveil had ever sent out carrying a queen.
No one gathered at the gate to watch them go.
That had been Vael’s call, and Aria had agreed with it. A proper sendoff would’ve cracked half the Lycans who’d spent the l
