into the darkling sea.
Reaching the other side, the road cut immediately left, following the White River a stone's throw from the river's edge. After some three miles of this the road began to switch back and forth as it began its steep ascent into the mountains.
By midafternoon they had reached the summit of the first range of mountains, and stopped to rest the horses. Here too, the summits were devoid of trees, and they were able to consider the wide world around them. At their backs, to the north, lay South Valley, through which the White River, now a slender ribbon of silver, flowed. Before them lay the final range of the Blackcrest Mountains, and these were both the highest and the most foreboding. Beyond this range lay the
Narrow Plain, and across this lay the Vordhun Mountains.
The Old Road crossed the Narrow Plain, straight towards the Bridge Fortress on the River Grey, which lay in a shallow valley at the foot of the Vordhun Mountains.
Although they were high in the mountains, and the wind was from the east, and cold with a foretaste of winter, still, it felt warmer than the gelid air radiating from the White River.
It was near midnight when they finally reached the bottom of the final range of Mountains, and they stopped here for the night. Lily found Dorain at the edge of a stream, where she had withdrawn after the watch was set. The harwynglaive had been unusually sombre since they had set out, which Lily thought odd, since Dorain had seemed in good spirits that morning. She now stood watching the brook absently, as though deep in thought. A gust of wind sighed in the trees,