Arran awoke early the next morning, with several hours still to go before dawn.
While he had gone to sleep feeling relaxed and confident, the morning found him unexpectedly filled with worry. Suddenly, he realized that this would be his last day in the borderlands — his last day in relative safety.
Once he entered the Hunters' lands — the Darian Imperium, as he would have to call it — he would be surrounded by enemies, with any mistake he made a threat to his life. And if anyone even suspected him of being a mage, a fate far worse than death might await him.
But that wasn't the only danger.
He would journey into lands where he knew neither the laws nor the customs. And while others traveling into the Imperium could afford to learn slowly, that was not the case for Arran.
