Chapter Six
The walk through the snow-laden pines surrounding the house, culminating as it did in the descent into the darkness of the caves, struck Konrad as eerily familiar. Everything was too much the same: the sounds of his companions’ passage through the blanketing snow, muffled by ongoing snowfall; the dark shapes of the fir trees, stark against the prevailing white; the sudden cessation of daylight as he followed Tasha into the narrow passage that led into the depths, and the flicker of wan torchlight upon the rock walls. Had it only been a week since he had last made this journey? Less? It could have been the same day, the same hour, save that this new incursion comprised greater numbers, greater strength.
He hoped it would be enough.
Tasha led the way. She walked with a reassur
