Chapter 17: Oath of TruthMantuan and Tolan looked at the smoldering pile. It was the last of the thirteen fires. They had visited the sites one by one and found the same scene. The fires had all been in different villages, all in the center of a market place. No buildings had been burnt. Instead, in each place they discovered them smoldering remains of a large pile of wood.
They realized from the smell that they had been fueled by leaves as well, ensuring a lot of smoke. The only wood that remained now were name boards like the ones used in the choosing ceremony. He couldn't tell if names had been painted on them or not, but he realized they were making a point.
Most disturbing of all, no one would talk to them.
“What do we do now?” asked Tolan. “It's not possible that no one saw anythi
