They rode as hard as they could. Heinrich Hackeborn’s horse gave a sudden snort and Reynevan’s heart dropped even lower. He pressed his face to the horse’s mane and felt the animal leaping, jumping a hollow or a ditch on its own initiative.

“Adsumuus!” he heard behind him. “Adsuuumuuuus!”

“Into the ravine!” yelled Samson. “Into the ravine, Scharley!”

Scharley immediately steered his galloping horse into the gully and the chestnut neighed, slipping on the carpet of leaves covering the hillside. Samson and Reynevan hurtled after him, also at full gallop. They raced over moss that muffled the thudding of hooves. Heinrich Hackeborn’s horse snorted more loudly, several times in a row, as did Samson’s, its chest flecked with foam. Scharley’s chestnut wasn’t betraying any signs of fatigue.

The winding sunken lane led them out into a clearing beyond which stood a hazel grove as dense as a primeval forest. They forced their way through until they could urge their snorting horses to a gallop again.

A short while later, Samson slowed and fell behind. As Reynevan did the same, Scharley looked back and reined his chestnut in.

“We must have…” he panted when they caught up with him, “we must have lost them. What have you got us mixed up with this time, Reinmar?”

“Me?”

“Dammit! I saw those riders! I saw you cringe in fear at the sight of them! Who are they? Why were they shouting, ‘We are here!’?”

“I don’t know, I swear—”

“Your oaths are of no use to me. Touch wood, whoever they were, we managed to—”

“Not yet,” said Samson, his voice sounding different. “The danger isn’t over yet. Look out. Look out!”

“What?”

“Something’s approaching.”

“I can’t hear anything!”

“But something comes. Something evil. Something very evil.”

Scharley reined his horse around, standing up in the stirrups to look around and straining his ears for whatever Samson had heard. Reynevan, on the contrary, was cowering in the saddle, terrified by the change in Samson’s voice. Heinrich Hackeborn’s horse snorted and stamped its hooves. Samson shouted. Reynevan yelled.

And then, from God knew where, a swarm of bats rained down on them from the murky sky.

They weren’t ordinary bats. Twice as large as regular bats, they had unnaturally large heads, enormous ears, eyes like glowing coals and mouths full of sharp teeth. Their narrow wings whistled and cut like yataghans.