Guided by a Column of Smoke

Frederigo was thinking that yet again things might have turned out for the best. When Andrea had run off, he had decided that he might as well return to the surface. Not only had navigation in the tunnels proved unexpectedly difficult, but his main reason for travelling underground - to avoid any slight risk that Andrea might somehow discover that Astra and Simon might yet be rescued - had gone. Before long he had found a way up, and discovered that he was still well within the Wood, in fact only two miles or so from where he had entered the tunnels.

The dead appearance of the Wood had told him that Astra and Simon must somehow have escaped from the Tree. Perhaps Aethir had regained consciousness and somehow rescued the other two? A column of smoke was rising from the heart of the Wood, and he had headed for it in the hope of learning what had happened. There he had found Astra and Aethir, together with Simon, who was apparently asleep.

Astra had been distressed when she learnt that Andrea had become a wolfwoman again. How could such a thing be possible? She had become very fond of the girl, evven though she occasionally felt that she would like to take hold of her and shake some sense into her. The only straw she could clutch at was that, when they returned to Belboz, the necromancer might have some way of locating her.

As they waited where they were for a while, hoping that Simon might regain consciousness, Astra asked Frederigo: "I can understand your thinking it was better for you to try to get Andrea safely away than to attempt to rescue Simon and me, but how did the two of you manage to escape?" Frederigo supposed he ought to have anticipated that question.

1. "Well," he began...

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