By the second day the channel country was behind him. The road ran east through low hills and scattered woodland, the kind of secondary track used by traders who preferred to avoid the main routes and the questions that came with them.
Aiden walked at a steady pace, the A-rank power sitting quiet and ordered under his skin. He no longer needed to reach for it; it was simply there, a constant low awareness of living vitality in the trees, the occasional bird, the distant livestock.
The sensation had settled into something useful rather than distracting. He could feel the slow pulse of the land without effort, and that awareness kept him from walking into trouble he did not need.
He had coin enough for a while, taken from the northern riders and the river lord's earlier supplies. He had the key secured against his body. He had no destination beyond "farther." That was enough for now. The road itself demanded nothing more than continued movement.
