The old border line did not pass through the forest like a straight road. Sometimes it hid beneath tree roots, sometimes it appeared among the moss like a pale blue vein, and sometimes it vanished completely, only to find direction again through the cold pulse of the mark on Elara's wrist. The gray World Government road had been left behind them, but the metallic hum was still moving somewhere far within the forest. It had not lost them completely. It was simply no longer coming directly toward them.
Elara knew this was only a brief breath. The false path Rowan had woven around her wrist had dragged the devices north, but the true trace had not gone silent. The World Government was not coming only with metal and scanning sounds. It could read old seals too. They had tied magic to technology. That was why the false path could deceive them for a while, but not forever.
