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“We should look out for Edris and his friends,” I said Not that I’d stopped doing exactly that at any point “Oh, and that necro out ahten Edris with just a look, return the dead, and ht was the stuff of nightht yet have an agent on our tailand if those corpses knohere to—”

“How about we just look out for trouble?” And Snorri led the way north

• • •

We spent another night on high ground, our beds as cold and stony as the one before, the shadows just as threatening Worse—if it could get worse—as the sun set Snorri grew distant and strange, his eyes drinking in the gloohtering his foe and painting the slopes red The way he looked atpiece of the sun fell behind theaway as soon as he slept Though minutes later he seemed returned to his old self and reht

With the mountains de the border with Scorron, which would soon be the border with Gelleth Snorri kept his eyes always fixed on the horizon, hunting the north, mine always turned south, towards hoht be on our heels Borderlands offer swift travel to those not seeking to cross over as the folks there are often occupied with their neighbours and not so keen to question travellers, to detain them, or to seek taxes froer Many of my oorst experiences occurred on Red March’s border with Scorron—all of them in fact, until I met Snorri

In the province of Aperleon the kingdom of Rhone meets the duchy of Gelleth and the principality of Scorron Monuments to the dead of a hundred battles crowd the elevations, most in ruin, but the land is lush and people return to resettle it ti the approach to the town of Compere, famed for its cider and for the quality of tapestries woven there Where he learned this stuff I couldn’t say, but the Norseman would alin soes with passersby

The su beneath our travel-stained rags, throwing dark shadows and swatting at flies We sa people, then fewer still, all steering away upon their own paths, drawing back as if we ion

Further on, the land took on a neglected air Ron and Sleipnir plodded placidly between high hedgerows, Snorri’s white skin turned red in the sun, and for a moment I started to feel at ease, lulled by the heat and the arable peace It didn’t last We soon found fields untended and overgrown, farone In one place churned earth, an abandoned helm, a crow-pecked hand A chill returned to me, despite the warmth of the day

The castle of Rewerd’s Curse—the ancestral seat of the House Wainton—stands on a high bluff of pale rock some miles from Compere Town It watched us with empty eyes, the walls black with smoke, the cliffs beneath it still stained a rusty colour as if the blood of the last defenders had poured froates and overflowed the plateau The sun had started to sink behind the fortification,its shadow questing towards us, an accusing finger, long and dark

“This is fresh” Snorri drew a long breath through his nose “You can smell the char”

“And the rot” I regretted sniffing so deeply “Let’s find another path”

Snorri shook his head “You think any path is safe? Whatever happened here has passed” He pointed to a faint haze ahead, indistinct trails of s to join it “The fires have all but burned out You’ll find more peace in ruins than in any other place The rest is all waiting to be ruins Here it’s already happened”

And so we rode on and ca to the desolation of Compere

• • •

“This was vengeance” The walls had been toppled, standing nowhere higher than three stones atop each other “Punishround Beyond a forest of blackened spars a carpet of cinderssmoke overwrote it

“Murder” Snorri towered at my shoulder, a stillness in him

“They never meant to hold this place,” I said “Whoever ‘they’ were” It could have been Gelleth troopers, a raid out of Scorron, or even a Rhonish ar what had been taken “I’ve never seen the like” I knew the Hundred’s squabbles left such dae in their wake, but I’d not seen it, not like this