Four hours after leaving the estate outside Verera, Liam had decided that Mezos's estimate of a two-hour journey deserved to be formally investigated for fraud.
The cars had taken them as far as the last maintained road in northern Edrava, where the valley narrowed between steep forested hills and the old Nurian infrastructure disappeared beneath decades of neglect. From there, continuing by vehicle would have made them visible from half the mountain, so Severin had hidden both cars inside an abandoned forestry station while Mezos disabled every system capable of broadcasting their location.
They had walked ever since.
