Chapter 88

Mara's POV

We saw smoke from the refuge before we saw its walls. Lucien said the chimney was drawing well, which seemed like the first reliable report I had received about Ronan in days. The valley below us held a frozen river, black pines, and a line of old stone built for a garrison larger than the two people coming toward it.

At the last bend we found tracks from three horses heading away from the refuge. Lucien dismounted to examine them. One print was narrow and sharp, with the sort of nail pattern Severin's riders used on the southern road. The tracks were a day old. Whoever made them hadn't reached the door, but they knew where Ronan was.

I knelt beside Lucien to look at the prints. A crust of new snow lay inside each one. Farther off, the bank held the drag of a boot where someone had stopped to watch the refuge. We followed the line with