12
For the next three days they rode toward the city of Frostmire. Villages dotted the roadside more frequently, but at each one they found only burned-out shells of buildings and the leaning, charred remains of the stockades that surrounded them. For two nights they slept in the open on the cold ground with rotating shifts of four men on watch.
Henry and his knights grew more grim by the mile. The villages, Henry informed Thomas, had been intact when he had come through a month earlier. Baron Bellew’s men did not look surprised at the destruction. When Henry questioned them, they told of seeing the lights of the raiders’ fires. The church troops simply looked scared, and Father Roberts made signs of blessing over the villages as they passed.
As afternoon was fading on the third day, Ma
