But the girls are small, and they are silent as clouds sweep across the moon, drenching the world in deeper shadows. El hops over the ditch and steals a cloak hung out on the back porch of one of the little cottages. There’s a pair of boots too. They’re too large, but she can’t resist, so she grabs them and slings them by tied laces around her neck. Behind her a dog growls. She turns to see a big hound staring at her. It backs up, head lowered and ears down, but it doesn’t bark. She dodges around it and jumps back over the ditch.

Ao waits beneath another grandfather yew. Every community has one, usually growing outside the ditch or moat amid the ruins of an ancient building. While El was stealing the cloak, Ao rigged up their woven belts to turn the sacks El pilfered into packs they can sling over their backs instead of clumsily hauling in their arms.

“Now where?” Ao whispers as they shoulder their supplies.

“North, to the Blue Sea. We’ll join the Sea Wolves.”

“I thought they killed people.”

“The masters kill people too. Do you have a better idea?”

Ao rubs her face nervously. “I’m scared.”

“So am I.”

“I don’t think you are,” says Ao with a resentful shake of her head. “You never seem scared. I wish I was like you.”

El grabs her sister’s hand. “You are fine as you are. Peace? We need to go.”

“Peace,” Ao agrees, trembling.

They don’t climb up the embankment. For one thing, the sentry would spot them, but for another, it’s forbidden by the white-haired god. The road itself will destroy any blasphemous retainer or atoner who walks upon it. The one time Elen had a moment of solitude to test a foot upon the holy pavement, it did sting her as if it were filled with angry bees, although she’s still alive, whatever that means.

But the girls don’t need to walk on the road. There’s a tramped-down throughway that runs parallel alongside it, used by locals and lowborn. They’ll travel at night, El thinks, and hide during the day.

They are about to turn north when they hear the rumble of horses from the east, the way they came. The moon slides out from behind the clouds. A shout rings out. They’ve been spotted. A horn blasts to alert the sentry in the fortlet, followed by a voice that carries easily across the quiet night.

“There! I told you! The scullery girl said she saw them taking off like thieves and leaving the rest to die! Come on, lads! We’ll teach those girls a lesson they won’t forget!” El recognizes the cruel cackle of the Lord Thelan’s northern sergeant.