CHAPTER 55 — Closing the Distance
The white-water river was a deafening, relentless monster, its frantic, roaring currents echoing violently off the sheer, vertical rock faces of the western gorge. Deep down within the belly of the canyon, Aurora, Martha, and Lily pressed forward without a single moment of mercy. Their feet slipped and skidded against the wet, moss-covered shale as they traveled relentlessly toward the distant safety of the capital. Every step was an exercise in pure survival. They avoided every major mountain pass, steered entirely clear of the frontier villages, and bypassed known patrol routes, keeping themselves tightly buried deep within the suffocating, freezing fog of the river valley.
The physical strain was pushing Aurora to the absolute, terrifying precipice of
