The road from Verrath wound through days of frozen forest, the kind where the trees grew tall and close, their black trunks slick with ice.
Kade moved like a shadow through it all. Focused, lean, with his hood drawn low. The cold had never bothered him much, but he had to admit it bit through him in the north in a way it didn’t in the south. Still, he could go days without warmth, sleep under snow drifts, and wake with his sword hand ready before his eyes even opened.
What the cold couldn’t touch, loneliness could. It had been weeks since he’d spoken more than a few words at a time. Ash was company enough, but a wolf’s voice was never meant to replace hearing a human’s. By the time the trees broke into open ground, the horizon glowed gold with dawn. Smoke piped upward from a distant va
