Hope objected vehemently. Want it for yourself! and Can’t trust a Shantasi, and Where do we go from there? It did not descend into an argument—not quite—mainly because A’Meer was still so tired from her injuries. Hope’s distrust simmered, but eventually the others discussed the matter and talked her around. Even Hope finally admitted that it was the only place to go. North to the Duke was madness, not only because it would send them against the pursuing Monks, but because the Duke no longer held power. He may well have the dregs of an army, but none of Rafe’s protectors had any faith in a failed leader. Directly east was Ventgoria and eventually the Poison Forests; west took them closer to the Monk’s Monastery, a place they did not need to be. And any way they went, the Mages could well be on their trail. We can fight them, Hope whispered, trying not to let Rafe hear. Sitting on his own at the edge of the forest, he was as distant as he had been all day. We have magic!

Fighting is exactly what they want, A’Meer said, and that silenced them all. None of them had seen the Cataclysmic War, but they all knew the stories. They had no wish to see its like in their time. And yet, the storms were gathering. Kosar felt more and more controlled, edged along a preordained path that none of them would have chosen. A descent toward pain and conflict seemed inevitable. Kosar was angry at Fate for entangling him in this, because at last he had begun to feel settled. Trengborne was a nothing village with nothing going for it, but it had started to feel like home.

Now here he was again, wandering the land, heading toward places he had not visited for decades, if at all. And though he was not wise or particularly learned, this journey felt more ill-fated than any he had ever undertaken.

That night, huddled beneath a blanket with A’Meer and enjoying their sharing of warmth, he had told her of his thoughts. She had not answered.

They slept without eating. Trey and Kosar gathered roots, fruits and some edible bark from within the woods, but upon returning to their makeshift camp and starting to prepare the produce, they found it to be rotten. Maggots crawled through the tuskfruit, themselves stinking of decay. The steady shifting of the trees, the soft low groaning of timbers grinding together in the breeze, took on new connotations. In Rafe, new magic slept, but old magic had turned the land sour.