15
Many of the male villagers and the great house guards led us along the swiftest routes to the well. Mori followed close behind, and I felt his gaze upon the back of my neck. Caius, too, smelled something amiss for he stayed so close to me that I nearly tripped over him. We reached the barren meadow and found we weren’t alone. The Red Fox clan had arrived only a moment before and gaped at the sight.
The dark cloud spilled forth from between the timbers that covered the hole. Some of the ropes were frayed to near breaking and many of the talismans lay scattered over the ground around the well, scorched and useless. The billowing darkness also covered the ground as a foul-smelling miasma, and when the fog touched me I felt such a chill that I couldn’t stop from shaking. I wasn’t t
