Chapter 16
LORIANE AND the family got up early the next morning, all of them miserable and with not much inclination to talk. A dense mist had settled over the mountainside, dulling any sounds. Loriane kept looking up, expecting to see Eagle Knights searching, or expecting to see hordes of refugees bearing down the mountain, but seeing nothing in that dreadful forest. And she didn’t know what was worse: fearing the refugees might come, or fearing they wouldn’t come, meaning that everyone up there had been killed.
There were sounds she could not identify. Something was up there, just behind them. She knew they were being followed and sooner rather than later this thing, or these people, would catch up. And it scared her, not being able to see any further than those infernal trees all arou
