Eryx.
I shifted the moment I cleared the palace gates.
No horse. No men.
Just me and my wolf and the night air and whatever trail was still warm enough to follow.
I hit the ground running.
The scent trail was there but it was careful. Whoever had done this knew what they were doing. They hadn't gone in a straight line.
They had split, doubled back, crossed water at two different points to break the trail, moved through sections of the forest where the pine was dense enough to overwhelm everything else.
Professional.
This wasn't opportunistic. This had been planned down to the route.
I pushed harder and followed what I could.
The first trail went cold at the riverbank half a mile east of the palace. I stood in the shallows and turned in every direction and found nothing downstre
