The feeling was a warning that the coercive net I had woven to prevent me being disabled by grief and regret was reaching its capacity. As soon as we stopped for a proper rest, I would need to unmake it and endure what I had put off feeling. I did not relish the prospect, for any emotion held back distilled and became more potent, but at least repressed grief would not kill me as netted pain stored up too long could do. I wondered if I could bear to suggest that we stop at the springs to rest and eat before heading up into the mountains. If Gahltha kept to the trail we were on, it would be dusk by my reckoning when we got there, too soon for anyone to think of seeking me in the high mountains. No matter how it would hurt, the hot springs would be a fitting place to release the coercive net and mourn what I must leave behind, to endure the pain of that loss. Though it was a lesser thing by far, I would also be able to soak the aches out of my bones before we went on.

Gradually the trees thinned either side of the trail where the ground was broken by stony outcrops and soon I had an unobstructed view of the jagged row of mountains that girded the northernmost end of the untainted Land and the valley of Obernewtyn. They were the highest mountains ringing the valley and yet they were only the lowest outliers of the immense wide range that marched northward across the vast Blacklands.

I wondered if we would enter the mountains in the same place as Gahltha and I had emerged from them, after the Agyllians had healed me. That was a good way west of the springs, but there were places closer to the springs where it would also be possible to ascend and I did not doubt that Gahltha would be able to make his way to the high plateau where he had waited for me, since it was Atthis who had showed him the way in a dream, and he would be able to summon that memory. Beyond the plateau, we would be reliant upon Darga to find a passage and to stay clear of tainted ground.

Of course the worst tainted ground would give off a greenish glow that I would be able to see, but only when both the moon and sun had set, and travelling after dark in the steep and stony mountains would have its own perils. Aside from the possibility of a deadly fall, only slightly less poisonous land could look harmless to the eyes because it was not quite virulent enough to glow, and yet it might still cause blistering or internal bleeding and blindness, followed by a swift and painful death.