The high road climbed in long pale stretches that seemed empty enough for the silence after Varn Thal to be almost unreal. There was only the wind, and broken stones, and the sound of their own boots for a while. The city's horns had gone behind the ridges. Sera walked with her cloak pulled tight and eyes on the road ahead, the tension that had driven the escape in her shoulders still present. Istra kept to the left flank and Rhel and her two Quiet Line companions held the rear and the other point looking up the rises like men who did not trust open land.
Lucian saw the change before any of them spoke.
It was not the messy hunger of house hunters or the stiff pressure of Authority process. This attention had a cleaner and heavier feel to it as if the road had been marked in advance.
"hold," he said.
Rhel stopped immediately. "You feel them too."
"Yes."
