They went back to Blackthorn in the second week of November, three of them, on the wool road, and it took eight days because Cassian could not do more than five hours in a saddle.
Maera did not come. "I am sixty-eight and I have a bad chest and I would slow you down and be brave about it," she said, "which is the most annoying kind of person to have on a journey." She pressed a folded paper into Eira's hand at the eastern gate. "Read this if it goes badly."