Southwind was fast, despite his extra passenger, but in the end it made no difference.
Tarquin had made so many hearth lights to guard their way, it was like traveling under a candelabra, and very easy to see the bright red of the frozen blood in the snow.
The first person they saw was the village matriarch, her expression grim on a face as white as the icy ground. Her head lay several lengths from her body. A man Tarquin vaguely remembered had probably died trying to protect the children, given where his body lay. Tarquin tried not to look at the five small bodies in their blood-soaked hats and coats. There was a young woman with a crossbow who had managed to fire it, but he couldn’t see where the arrow might have flown. He hoped it was stuck in the haldur’s eye. The girl was lying acro
