Twenty days after fleeing Ironcloud, Malrec reached the mountain outlet in a covered coach bearing the crest of a merchant who had never met him.
The wound beneath his ribs was gone. A private healer had closed it on the third night of his journey, inside a country estate owned through two false companies. Since then, Malrec had changed identities four times, crossed the same border at two different checkpoints, and allowed three separate trails to suggest that he had fled toward the coast. The journey required twenty days because disappearing properly required patience.
The coach stopped at an abandoned tollhouse overlooking the eastern mountains. Malrec dismissed the driver with instructions to return after midnight, exchanged his traveling coat for plain mountain clothing stored beneath the rear seat, and continued toward the ravine alone.
