The blue sky of a clear, winter morning allowed sunlight to filter through the skeletal trees to a muddy slope. Hebar’s Hill, it was called, a lump in the earth that stood twenty feet high at best. The surrounding area was dominated by a stagnant swamp, making it less than ideal for a campsite, but it did provide some privacy.
Miri slipped between two trees with a hand resting on her holstered pistol, pursing her lips as she inspected her students. “Careful now,” she said. “All of you.”
Zoe was a tiny slip of a girl in workman’s clothes that seemed to hang off her body. She couldn’t be more than sixteen years old, and the freckles on her pale cheeks made her look even younger. Freckles and blue eyes with flecks of green, hair as red as a flameu. At first glance, you might think she had g
