When she arose, she found Trace gone already, but the Rider had fired up the little stove making the tent toasty warm. Karigan took her time, yawning and stretching, and getting ready for the day.

Finally stepping out into the world, she found no Green Riders in sight, but discovered Yates in the dining tent spooning hot porridge into his mouth.

“Where is everyone?” she asked, sitting down beside him with her own bowl.

“Alton has them all in a meeting in the tower to talk about assignments.”

“Already?”

He shrugged, and she remembered Alton had requested the help of more Riders months ago. She couldn’t blame him for being anxious to get everyone working as soon as possible.

“Lynx went off into the woods to talk to the animals or something,” Yates continued. “Too much civilization.”

“Ard?”

“Still snoring away in his tent.”

“And Estral?”

“In the tower with the others.”

Karigan sighed. She hoped they weren’t going to be in there all day, otherwise, how would she occupy herself?

“What are you up to today?”

“When Edna over there gets off breakfast shift, we’re going to enjoy each other’s company.” Yates smiled and gave a little wave to one of the cooks ladling out porridge to other latecomers. She was a pretty, petite thing.

Well, Karigan thought, there was always Condor for companionship, and she would soon be missing him, but she couldn’t help feeling rather desolate.

When she left the dining tent, she collected her riding gear and visited Condor, grooming him till his coat gleamed, brushing away winter coat that fell out by the handfuls. He bobbed his head and nickered in approval.

She then tacked him up and mounted, and rode through the encampment to the wall. Instead of heading west toward the breach, she reined Condor east. She put him through his paces, sometimes riding at an easy walk or lope, and then riding harder as the terrain allowed. All the while the wall remained unrelenting beside her. She could ride all the way to the Eastern Sea and the wall’s cold, hard facade would not change.

As she rode, she tried to remain in the present, taking conscious note of how the woods smelled, how sunlight played on the tips of evergreens. She listened to the chatter of birds and watched squirrels pursue one another around the boles of trees, oblivious to the dangers the wall protected them from. It was hard to believe that behind just a few feet of stone a whole other world existed, like a dark mirror of the one she now rode through.

Tomorrow, the equinox would bring not just balance between day and night, but spring. While this side of the wall grew brighter, enlivened by birds returning from southern regions and green growth replacing patches of snow and ice, she wondered what spring did in Blackveil, or if seasons there were irrelevant.

Whatever the case, she wanted to imprint on her mind what she might otherwise take for granted. No matter how she tried to stay in the present, however, it was impossible to prevent the noise of thoughts and concerns from filling her mind: what to do about Alton, when would the Eletians arrive, what would it do to her father if she did not survive Blackveil.

At midday she halted to eat the cold meal provided by the encampment cooks. She leaned against the wall, peeling a hard-boiled egg and watching Condor crop at the withered greenery. What would happen to Condor if she didn’t return? She expected he’d find a new Rider, just as he’d found her. It was hard imagining him partnered with someone else. It was as if he’d always been hers.

When she finished eating, there was nothing to do but turn back. As she reined Condor around, there was a fluttering above in one of the trees. A great winter owl still in its snow plumage perched on a crooked branch. It seemed to watch her without actually looking at her.

The owl nudged something deep in her mind, a hidden memory she could not grasp, and try as she would, she could not bring it to the surface. She shrugged. If it were important, it would come to her eventually.

She felt privileged to encounter such a magnificent bird on her ride, but in moments the owl itself became no more than a memory when it launched up through the branches of trees and beyond until it was out of view. Karigan let out a breath as though released from a spell.

She arrived back at the encampment just before supper. She’d taken her time on the return, as this would probably be her last ride of any length on Condor for quite a while. He seemed to sense it as well, for when she finished untacking and grooming him, he set his head on her shoulder and she wrapped her arm around his neck. He heaved a great sigh as she stroked him.

“Dale will be keeping an eye on you for me,” she told him. “So you better behave.”

He flicked his tail in a halfhearted way.

There was no way to heave horses over the wall to get them into Blackveil, plus the forest was no place for an oversized prey animal, so Karigan and her fellow Sacoridians, and presumably the Eletians, would be entering the forest on foot. There was something that felt very wrong about Green Riders being separated from their horses.

She would bid Condor her final farewell in the morning when they rode to the breach. She patted him on the shoulder, gathered her gear, and walked away.

At supper, the young Riders were as boisterous as ever. Yates was presumably with his Edna, and Lynx prowling the forest. She found Garth sitting with Ard, but no sign of Dale, Alton, or Estral.

When she joined Garth and Ard with a bowl of stew, Ard said, “Grant says we’re to be at the breach tomorrow before sunrise. I let Lynx know a while ago before he disappeared again. Told Yates at midday when his lass had to work another shift.”