1
I stared up at the mountain that towered over the surrounding peaks.
It seemed higher than I remembered. The pinnacle was lost in the clouds above, and somewhere up there on a plateau was Valgaard. I shivered just thinking about the thick snow that blanketed the crags.
“Did we have to come here first?” I complained.
“I’d rather not have come here at all,” Maren replied, “but we need to explore every avenue, and Valgaard is the closest school.”
“I know,” I muttered. I knelt and rolled up my bedroll, tying the thin cords on the ends to secure it, and placed it in Sion’s saddle. “I just hate the cold. And Hrodin. Mostly Hrodin.”
Maren smiled playfully and shook her head. “We’ll make this quick and painless,” she said. “Like pulling off a bandage.”
That didn’t change my dread about go
