“A map of the roads. At Far Boundary Vigil the road is broken. Literally broken. Severed. That’s why the wardens think it is the end of the road. Even the surveyors believe that. That’s what everyone says, that the road was built that far and no farther.”

“But it isn’t?”

“Beyond the broken edge, there lies a gap of Pall. Beyond that gap, the witch road continues. But you can’t see the continuation of the road from Far Boundary’s Vigil tower. To reach the next part of the road, you have to wade through the Pall.”

“Which humans can’t do. So how could a messenger have passed across? You and Kem’s mother did truly make this crossing?”

“Coming from the north, yes. There’s a long stretch of intact witch road through the middle of the Pall. Far Boundary Pall is very wide, it’s more of a sound than a lake. It takes days to walk that causeway. And it takes courage to do it, with Pall all around you and no sight or scent of land. Even then, while you’re still in the Pall, there’s yet another break in the road that has to be crossed. Beyond all that lies a nameless land. Maybe before the Pall it was part of the empire. Or maybe it was the last of the Seven Golden Kingdoms that came before the empire. I don’t know.”

“What are the Seven Golden Kingdoms?”

“The Tranquil Empire was founded by the Lotus Clan three hundred years ago. They overthrew the corrupt rulers of the Seven Golden Kingdoms to bring order and peace to the land.”

“Exactly the kind of story a new empire tells,” he said with a sarcastic lift of his brows.

“Yes, the world is full of stories,” she agreed with a smile. “Some true, some false, some meant to make you believe one thing instead of another, some brutal, some funny, some sad, and some brim-full of the most irresistible joy.”

He almost winced, but it wasn’t a wince, it was a powerful emotion struck through his heart.

“You are a story,” he said, his tone so warm that she flushed, as if the cold air had burst into flame around her.

She pressed a hand to her chest.

He said, softly, gently, “A wild and alluring story, whose mysteries I adore.”

What sweet bliss is this, she thought, that I look at him and want to do nothing but smile? Well, maybe rather more. Maybe that, too.

But she made no move. She, too, had to respect the code of the passage spell.