It was colder here than it had been in Valinarus, and Olive felt stiff and numb when the Confessor came to drag her out of the wagon. She blinked back from the light out here in the open, quickly taking in her surroundings. The cold wind, the looming mountains, the locked wagons that Olive immediately surmised were full of people. People like her. And were eerily silent.
The mountains were great here and snow was just beginning to fall, floating slowly and gracefully down from the sky. She shivered. Her warm clothes had been given to the twins and to Orchid and had, afterwards, burned with them. Her breath was white and frosty before her. She understood that they were at the borders of Connlaoth. And while Mercuxio and the other Confessors were going south, back into their homeland, Olive understood that she was not. She, and the unseen mages in the closed wagons, were leaving Connlaoth. Leaving their homeland. Leaving the sight of any eyes that might still guard over them. What would happen there, she wondered, beyond the mountains? Beyond her country, her homeland? The question put an icy, sinking feeling in her stomach. Mercuxio might be heading south, but Olive began to fear that she never would.
"Come on," the Confessor grumbled, breaking her reverie and pulling her over to the Mordecai. They handed her roughly over, though she gave no resistance. She didn't struggle. Olive felt oddly calm. "This one's a trouble maker," the Confessor warned the Mordecai as he handed her over.
The Mordecai didn't say anything. He just glanced down at Olive, then nodded curtly to the Confessor. Even the Mordecai, it seemed, were intimidated by the Order of St Agratha. He led her to one of the wagons, and a soldier unlocked the door. Before she entered, she glanced over her shoulder back at Mercuxio. This time, it wasn't a look filled with anger or hatred or indictment. It was just a look, clear-eyed and calm. Then the soldier gave her a shove, and she disappeared into the wagon.
The door to the wagon shut heavily, and the lock clicked.