Chapter 86

Mara's POV

The western path was passable until the snow covered its markers. Lucien rode ahead with the route book balanced on one knee. I trusted his eye for ground more than Soren's drawing of a bridge that no longer existed, though I checked each turn against the ridge Elara and I had marked.

“If we miss the hunter's cabin,” Lucien said, “we end up at a valley with neither firewood nor useful opinions.”

“You'd have to supply both.”

“Then let us pray for the cabin.”

We found it before dusk. Half its roof had been repaired with mismatched slate, but the hearth drew well. Lucien put the horses in a lean-to and came inside carrying a bundle of wood beneath his uninjured arm. His other shoulder still hurt him. He wouldn't let me take the bundle until I reminded him that a man need not