37
Gates of the North
“You seem less tense here. In the Forest of All Things.”
“The Forest of All. No ‘things,’” Jesse gently corrected. “If I seem less tense, it’s because this is the first time I’ve felt safe since we left Warwicktown.”
“And are we? Safe?”
“Safer than anywhere else in the kingdom.” Jesse guided his horse over tree roots and dense underbrush. They had to move slowly here. One wrong move and they’d lose a beast to a broken limb. There were no paths in the Forest of All. One knew their way, or they did not. Jesse did not, but… yet… he felt compelled. Aimed true. That scared him as much as it encouraged him, for he’d only know for certain if this instinct was real if he arrived unmolested to a place he’d only heard tales of.
“Because men won’t venture here?”
“Correct.
