And there it was--her favorite look of indignant bewilderment like he'd started speaking Greek and posing the Sphinx's riddles at her. In the brief time he'd known her, Jess was getting the impression Raven never left home without it, like a woman with her favorite purse.

"Good, then that's somewhere concrete to start."

He used his arm to brush aside the snagging branches of a bush. Beyond it was a tree, and as they passed it he took out a knife and blazed a small arrow on one side, marking their trail.

"It should be possible to work backward based on where it was in the sky and what constellations you could see," he explained while he carved out the second arrow on the other side. "If we know the arrangement of constellations, we can figure out what part of the world you were in. Following me?"