Lily saw the light start on the Door at sunset.
She was sitting by Ainen's fire with a bowl in her lap that Kayla had told her to finish. She looked up, and the great Door was brightening from the top down, slow and steady.
"Somebody's early," Ainen said.
"Somebody's always early." Lily put the bowl down. "Who's here to meet them?"
Ainen looked around the fire. Corvin was half a day north with the Emperor and Almond. The Matriarch was asleep. Clovelle was lying on a blanket with her arm over her eyes, still too tired to fold a step.
"You," said Ainen. "And me. And Marcus."
"Then let's go and be rude to them," said Lily. "Corvin would want us to."
They came through in the dark.
The first of them came through soon after the first stars. They walked slowly and quietly, in long loose lines, and nobody pushed.
Their robes were gray with a thread of violet at the edges. Many of them walked with their eyes half shut, as if they were listening for something.
