Chapter 91. Runaways

CAIVAN

The smell of burning thatch is thick in the air, and it still lingers on my coat if all traces of the inferno have vanished. Barely minutes ago, someone had set flames to Eldad. And I sit here, among the soft grass of the plateau, in the quiet peace of the morning sun, watching the last thick tendrils sail upwards, its black soul tarnishing the tranquil blue of the sky above.

The wolf snarls something at me. I scoff quietly but I don’t reply. I wouldn’t know what to say, being half-wolven and all. The irony tugs at the back of my mind and I want to laugh again. I’ve been wanting to do so since the chaos that ensued yesterday. Since coming up here and finding the wolves had been killed in their sleep; how, I know not; but one had the sense to flee the attack. And he’s been behind me since I found him nursing his wounds behind a particularly giant rewan tree near the creek, on one of many reconnaissance missions.

He snarls at me again, and this time, I think h