He trod carefully and quietly, his ears tuned in to every rustle of the forest. He came to a clearing, a crossroads where two branchways intersected, supported in the middle by a massive hollowed-out trunk riddled with woodworm. Three possible directions. He entered the archway of the trunk, looked up to see the vaulted roof above him. Which route should he take?

A sunbeam provided the answer, as it shot through the leaves. There! In one of the doorways, a shred of snagged material. Petronio bent to examine the tiny fragment of cloth. Some of the strands caught the light, as if woven from metal. This was no Dendran cloth. Petronio smiled and was about to stride through the archway when a sight stopped him in his tracks.

Thirty or forty yards away, a figure crouched behind a bush. The figure was clad head to foot in an outfit that appeared to absorb the color from the leaves around until it was hard to make out what was man and what was bush. Even more interesting was the weapon the man cradled expertly in his arms. Petronio had never seen anything like it and he made a point of knowing all things armorial. It was a transparent hollow tube with one end nestled into the man’s shoulder; his finger appeared to be clamped on to a curve of silver halfway along the tube.

Petronio shivered. He had no desire to find out what the weapon could do. He had a feeling that his own dagger would be no competition. He’d reached his goal. This must be Fenestra’s destination. This was a soldier from Maw. Despite the camouflage, everything about him screamed out foreignness. What was he doing here? Petronio calmed his breathing. It might be better if he retreated. Fenestra was right after all. He’d done his part.

But another part of him was curious, drinking in the sight. He even thought, madly, of walking up to the man and asking him about the shoulder stick. He had to find out more. The hollowed-out trunk gave him an idea. Where there was wood, steps will follow went the saying. He looked again and found a series of crumbling steps leading up and around. Petronio carefully placed a foot on the first stair, testing it for creaks, making his way up toward the sky and a better vantage point.