Something about the scene spread out below was bothering him…but what? He raised his eyebrows when he realized: There were no signs of fire, whether normal or the unnaturally dark flames that lived in his nightmares. None of the bodies were burned, their armor bloody and dirty but not scorched. All of the damage seemed to be more of the blunt-force kind, though several of the dead did have strange-looking spikes, almost like a hedgehog’s quills, protruding from their faces.

This truth, completely at odds with the methods used by the fire-wielding demon that was the target of his vengeance, made him chew his lip to the point of drawing blood, which he only realized when he tasted copper on his tongue. “You must’ve had help, you bastard,” he reasoned aloud. “But from whom? One guard couldn’t have pulled this off.” A cult then, he surmised. In his experience, there were enough mad people willing to worship just about anything. Though most cults that arose were quickly stamped out either by their own insanity or by the king’s Knightguard, Ludo wasn’t so naïve to think that none survived like cockroaches scuttling in the shadows. So a cult of murderers then, he thought. One that worships not the gods but a demon—the Fire Eater himself. How long had they been planning to cut him loose? A month? A year? A decade? Longer?

Hours had passed in silence, making him wonder whether he’d find anything other than the dead behind Comman Dur’s walls. And if so, whether he would discover any clues to the Fire Eater’s current whereabouts. If not, his entire journey would’ve led him to a dead end.

With these turbulent thoughts churning through his head, the daylight waned, dusk eventually descending over Finfalla, though shadows crept from their hidey holes throughout Lostwood well before the sun had fully set.

Darkness reigned.

Only then did Ludo clamber down from his perch and make his final approach toward the prison.

Bryony

Just ahead, something dark moved amongst the ruined prison, just a shadow amongst shadows. Some forest animal? No, it was upright, using hands to climb. So human then, or at least humanoid. With her head on fire and her body on ice and fatigue trying to drag her back to the ground, she angled toward the shadow, which made short work of the pile of rubble before disappearing from view.

Somewhere behind her, she heard footfalls, Dagr finally catching up to her as she’d lingered on Comman Dur’s doorstep too long. She tried to hasten her speed, but her legs were like iron. He grabbed her shoulder with a large, pawed hand. “Wait,” he said.