Chapter 5Rohene
Normally a bustling plethora of beer, dancing, and midnight trysts, the marketplace was eerily quiet. Only droplets of water leaking from the guttering onto the pathway broke the silence. I spent a while razing various dark shapes and turrets for evidence of lookouts and spies, but my senses detected nothing. No lone drinkers or illicit sweethearts, and no guards. It was as if the whole population of the town had vanished, not to mention Nora and twenty trained soldiers.
Worse, an unnatural mist veiled the square. Not quite green, orange or any identifiable color, it writhed and wriggled in a loathsome spectacle.
My guts twisted and churned. The whole place reeked of magic. I wanted nothing more than to return the way I’d come and gallop away into the forests. But I coul
