Begryn finally climbed up the rocky wall and, upon reaching the top, was horrified. Ertai and Drako were nowhere to be seen, which was obvious, but Anthos was lying in a pool of blood that stood out starkly against the white snow. The blood seemed to come from a wound on his head.

  She ran over, checked the guide’s pulse, and felt that it was very faint. She went to the travel supplies and, fortunately, Ertai hadn’t taken everything with him. Her pouch with healing herbs was still there. She took out her bowl and pestle and began to prepare a concoction of dried plants and some flowers she kept separated in small bags.

  While she was working, she saw Anthos open his eyes. The young man looked around, clearly confused.

  “And this is…?” He turned and looked at her, though he didn’t seem to recognize her. “Are you…? Where is Adken?”

  “You must relax, Anthos… you must…” She didn’t finish the sentence. The guide began to tremble and foam at the mouth. His eyes bulged from their sockets, and every muscle in his body stiffened.

  The elf hurried to place a tree branch in his mouth, which he bit down on with incredible force. Then she rolled him onto his side, letting the foam spill into the snow.

  When the guide finally calmed, she began to spread the salve she had prepared directly onto the wound on his head. She also rubbed some onto his lips so that he would swallow a little. He wasn’t bleeding out, but the concussion could be deadly.

  “Begryn!” She heard Kalen’s voice.

  “I’m here!” The elf leaned over the ledge.

  “We won’t be able to bring Galfrido up. He’s alive, thanks to Leiorus, but he still needs time to recover. We’ll have to set up a makeshift shelter right here.”

  “Anthos isn’t doing well either…” The elf turned to glance at the guide before looking back. “He took a very hard blow to the head. I don’t know if he’ll recover. But I suppose it will be easier to lower him with the rope than to bring Galfrido up.”

  The paladin nodded, gazing at the elf through his thick blond brows, his golden hair shifting now and then in the icy breeze that swept through the place.

  When the elf disappeared from sight, he immediately began searching for dry branches and stones to build a sort of shelter against the wall. They had trusted too much, and now they were paying the price. That wretched Ertai had earned their trust—at least in part—but he had seized a crucial opportunity and exploited an unforgivable lapse.

  They had let their guard down.

  Anthos was walking among the remains of the devastated village. Fires still burned in many of the ruins, sending black crackling smoke into the gray twilight sky. They had been relentless, swift, and cruel.

  “War spares no one,” Adken’s voice echoed in his mind. But this was not war. This was a senseless massacre.

  Who the hell had paid them to raid and destroy the refugee villages of Rimdail? Was there anything noble in slaughtering innocent people fleeing the civil war of their homeland? He was no paragon of good, but he didn’t consider himself complete scum either—not until now. He had spent a decade with the Blood Claws, and this was the first time he had seen something like this.

  Suddenly, he heard the screams of a young girl. He rushed toward the sound and found Flint Redbeard struggling with a girl who couldn’t have been older than fifteen.

  His comrade’s fiery beard was stained with dried blood and caked with mud. His sky-blue eyes, always outlined with black paint, were wide open, filled with unrestrained lust. He had the girl’s wrists bound as he tried to lick and bite at her pale, flawless neck.

  The young girl’s tears fell like the blood dripping from the impaled bodies scattered around the slaughter. She babbled in a strange Nordic dialect that neither he nor Flint could understand.

  “Enough, Flint. She’s just a girl… Leave her be.”

  “She’s part of my spoils, mate!” Flint drooled as he spoke, his eyes locked on the girl’s exposed chest. She now looked resigned. “And you, shut up, you little whore! You can do this breathing, or with a blade through your belly… makes no difference to me!”

  Unable to stop himself, the young mercenary seized his companion by the shoulders and violently shoved him away.

  “I said stop… We’re not animals.”

  Flint glared at him with fury, his pants still down, saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth. The girl clutched her body, her face ashen and streaked with tears as she watched.

  “You don’t get to tell me what to do, you worthless piece of shit…”

  “Want to bet?” Anthos placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

  Flint mirrored him, reaching for the handle of the axe strapped to his back, his trousers still hanging loose.

  Then, suddenly, they were interrupted. The girl had seized the fleeting chance and bolted from the ruins, running as fast as she could.

  In a swift motion, Flint swung his axe and hurled it with all his strength before Anthos could react. The blade tore into the girl’s back, shattering her bones and spinning her body through the air before she fell lifeless on her back.

  “There’s your girl, Anthos!” Flint spat on the ground and walked away, shoving his shoulder against his comrade’s as he passed.

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  Anthos stood frozen, his gaze empty, disbelief plastered across his face at the girl’s needless death. Slowly, he walked toward her body and saw her face twisted in a grimace of pain. Her crystalline eyes stared into infinity, filled with the horror and terror wrought by the Blood Claws.

  “I’m sure, when they woke up this morning, they never imagined their day would end like this.”

  The voice was deep and thunderous. He turned and found himself face to face with Adken the Wolf.

  His leader’s long black hair was wild, slicked back. His dark skin was covered in tattoos and dried blood. A massive two-handed axe rested on his back. He didn’t smile, but cynicism radiated from every pore.

  He turned his gaze back to the girl, only to find a corpse in an advanced state of decay, crawling with worms. He startled, and when he looked around, everything had vanished, replaced only by fire.

  "Aaaah!" he screamed as the corpse rose to grab him by the neck.

  Kalen had managed to light a fire and, together with Begryn, they had built a sort of shelter against the wall, made with stones and branches. Galfrido and Anthos were lying near the fire, covered with furs. The massive warrior breathed peacefully, but Anthos seemed to be going through a nasty nightmare.

  “How did we let our guard down like that?” Kalen asked, his eyes fixed on the dance of the flames.

  “We weren’t going to let that man die…” Begryn stirred a soup he was heating. “Nor were we going to abandon him to his fate in this inhospitable part of the region. We tried to take every precaution…”

  “He took Drako, nearly killed two of our companions… Do you think he’s working for Faradax?”

  “I don’t know. What I do know is that we must hunt him down.”

  “—Aaaah!” Anthos’s scream startled them. The guide looked at them, deeply disturbed. “What happened? Where am I?”

  “Easy, calm down. You’re safe,” Begryn’s gentle voice was like a balm to Anthos’s ears. “Ertai betrayed us and took Drako. He struck you hard on the head and stabbed Galfrido. Come, have some soup… it will warm your body.”

  “That son of a bitch… I knew it… That’s why I wanted to go up with him, but I let my guard down… I let it down…”

  “We all trusted him, friend,” Kalen interrupted. “Now we need to look forward and figure out how we’re going to catch him.”

  “I’ll go after that bastard… if he thinks I can’t follow his trail…” He looked with hatred and unease at Galfrido, who still had his neck bandaged and was fast asleep.

  “Rest now. Let’s get through the night, and tomorrow we’ll plan our next step properly. There’s no sense in leaving under these conditions. We’re desperate, but we’re not reckless. Besides, Leiorus will not allow that dark druid to get away with this.” Saying this, the knight caressed his sword, resting against his right shoulder.

  The next day dawned cold, somewhat overcast, with a chill breeze that felt like it was going to the bone. Begryn had stayed awake to keep watch over the two wounded men, while the paladin took the chance to rest for a few hours. Fortunately, Anthos woke up without trouble. Perhaps with a bit of a headache, but with no other symptoms beyond the blood and the pain from the blow. He was still a little dizzy, though that was surely due to just having woken up. Galfrido, for his part, was still asleep.

  They ate breakfast in silence until Kalen finally spoke.

  “Anthos, can you follow Ertai’s trail?”

  Begryn looked at the knight, answering before the guide could utter the first word.

  “Kalen, you know my tracking ability far surpasses that of any human. I’m the one who should go after Ertai.”

  The knight sighed.

  “Begryn, I understand that you want revenge like everyone else, but I need you to stay with Galfrido. Anthos isn’t in a condition to do it. Nor to fight, I know. That’s why I’ll go. I just want to know if our guide can also act as a tracker and accompany me.”

  “Of course… I wouldn’t be a good guide without those skills.”

  “Kalen… stop keeping me away from the fight.”

  Begryn stood up, looking annoyed at the knight.

  “I’m not keeping you away from the fight. But I’m the one going after Ertai. I need you here, watching over our friend.”

  “Do you think I can’t handle the dark druid? Is that it? Well, listen carefully, knight. I’ve fought more years than you’ve been alive… don’t you dare lecture me on my combat abilities!”

  “It’s not that…”

  Kalen fully trusted Begryn’s abilities. In fact, he knew she was better than him in many ways. But after what had happened, he feared losing her, and… how could he put it?

  Suddenly, Anthos stood up.

  “Listen to both of you… I’ll be the one going after Ertai for what he did. I have the right and the tracking skills to do it. Whoever wants to come with me is welcome. If you come, Begryn, we’d be two trackers, which doesn’t make much sense. No one doubts your combat skills, but this time, it’s better if I go with Kalen. Use your skills to get Galfrido safely to the nearest village, because in his state, I don’t think he could survive another night outdoors. Also, this area is crawling with wolves. If they didn’t attack us last night, it was surely because of our numbers… but now you’ll be alone with a wounded man, and we trust you can handle it.”

  He paused. “Do we agree?”

  Kalen and Begryn exchanged glances but eventually nodded.

  The sunlight filtering through the gray clouds helped warm the travelers. Kalen and Anthos prepared, packing some provisions, but traveling light for the hunt they were about to undertake. Galfrido was still asleep by the fire, wrapped in furs.

  At one point, Anthos moved ahead to climb and bring the rope up, saving time, not without first giving the elf some instructions about the path and the direction she should take toward the village of Rivero.

  Then Begryn seized that moment of solitude and approached the knight.

  “Kalen, I… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted that way.”

  The knight stood, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  “No, Begryn, I’m the one who’s sorry. I didn’t mean to cast doubt on your abilities. I know what you are… I know who you are. You’re the only person I could trust with my friend’s care. But you’re also the person I’d want by my side in the worst situations. I wish you could come with me to hunt Ertai.”

  “Just come back in one piece… and with Drako.”

  “I will.”

  Anthos leaned over the ledge and threw the rope. With hand signals, he indicated to Kalen that he had found the trail. The knight looked into the elf’s eyes, and for a moment, they were both lost in each other’s gaze.

  The paladin nodded and moved toward the climbing wall, ascended to grab the rope, and reached the top. Before disappearing into the heights, he gave a fleeting glance to the elf and his friend.

  Begryn let out a sigh. If what Anthos had said about the wolves was true, she might have trouble tonight. She hoped to keep them away with a large ring of fire around the shelter. She knew she wouldn’t be able to carry Galfrido to the village. No one could.

  She trusted that the warrior would wake up any moment now, sooner rather than later.

  Now everything had been said. Whoever Ertai worked for, he had Drako in his power. The only possible path that he could take led east, across the frozen region, toward Elbarie. Anthos and Kalen were not going to give up.

  The hunt had only just begun. The wheel of fortune had started to turn…