Chapter 27Farnor was found the following day by a search party of villagers and Valderen. He was leaning against a rock at the entrance to the cave, exhausted and covered in blood. Apart from some bad bruising, however, he was unhurt.
There was all manner of speculation about what had happened to Rannick and the creature, but despite every entreaty Farnor would say nothing except, ‘They’re gone.’
Besides Farnor’s mysterious reappearance and the apparent destruction at his hand of Rannick and the creature, many other tales from that night went down into village and Valderen legend. Marna’s desperate leap through the burning gate to rescue the four strangers. Rannick’s screaming flight into the night. The death of Nilsson. And the strange and terrible fire that had consumed even the stonew
