Fire Dancer waited with the ponies. Han pulled him aside, leaned in, and murmured something in his ear. Dancer nodded, looking at Raisa.

Nightwalker came and draped a Demonai shadow cloak over Raisa’s funeral garb, fastening it at the neck, and letting his hands linger on her shoulders.

The memorial for the queen was scheduled for late afternoon. Their journey would take them the better part of the day since they intended to keep to the mountains, circling around the Vale from Marisa Pines, crossing the Dyrnnewater to the west of Fellsmarch, and coming at Marianna Peak from the northwest.

Elena and Willo rode alongside Raisa, while the Demonai warriors rode ahead and behind. Han and Dancer rode side-by-side, hands on their amulets, stoking them up for what lay ahead. Raisa wondered how much Han’s had been drained by the creation of the “sending.” She hoped it would be worth the cost.

Whenever Raisa looked at them, the two wizards had their heads together, talking quietly as they rode along. Dancer carried two large panniers on his pony, in addition to his bedroll.

It would be a cold, clear day in the mountains, perhaps a bit warmer downslope where the service would be. The stars blinked out to the east as the sun broke over the Spirits, spilling into the Vale below.

“Mother would love this day,” Raisa said to Elena, squinting against the slanting light. “She loved the sun, even if she didn’t love the cold.”

“Mmm.” Elena seemed preoccupied, no doubt worrying about her son, Averill.

Love makes you vulnerable, Raisa thought. And yet she’d always hoped for it.

They crossed the Dyrnnewater in early afternoon, on a high bridge over the river’s foaming roar. Though they were too high to smell it, the water below carried with it all the filth and jetsam of the overcrowded capital to the east.

When I am queen…Raisa thought, as she had so many times before. And stopped.

I am queen.

They climbed high into the northern Spirits again, catching glimpses of the greening Vale below. Raisa eagerly drank in views of the spires, domes, and turrets of faraway Fellsmarch. It glittered in the sunlight like a child’s fairy city, the kind of place that disappeared when you came too close.

I’m coming home, she swore. Tonight, if I have my way.

Northwest of the Vale, they would leave the trail that overlooked it and strike north and east again, to come in behind Marianna and descend between her twin peaks. They paused at the joining of the trails to eat and rest the horses before the long climb ahead.

Leaving Switcher in the hands of Night Bird, Raisa walked a short distance through the trees to where she could take a last look into the Vale before they rounded the shoulder of the mountain and it disappeared from view.