| They still had a long way to go, at least a week's journey unless they
could somehow acquire some horses. They estimated that they would soon
cross the border into the Great Kingdom, but most of its population was
concentrated far from this region. For at least another three or four days
they would be passing through wild country that was almost uninhabited.
The rocky, hilly landscape gave way after a few hours to thick pine forest, but they managed to find a path through the trees heading in the direction that they wanted to take. That night, by now deep in the forest, they made camp just off the path. Though they had felt uneasy about doing so, they had taken food and water-gourds from the packs of some of the dead soldiers, so they were able to have an evening meal. Then Anina settled down to sleep, for Astra had volunteered to take the first watch. They had no way of estimating time reliably, so Astra would have to guess when it was time to wake Anina for her to take over. After a while, Astra heard:
|
The howling of wolves. 