CHAPTER 63:
Three days later, a rider arrived from the northern valleys — alone, blood streaking his face, his horse collapsing beneath him as he reached the gate. We were there in seconds, lifting him down, carrying him into the great hall where the fire still burned bright. His eyes were wild, darting from face to face as if something followed him even here.
“They’re gone,” he gasped, clutching my arm. “The whole village. Blackstone. All of them. Just… empty. Fires still burning. Food on the tables. No footprints in the snow. No sign of struggle. They just… walked away.”
I exchanged a look with Kael. “Into the mountains?”
“Not south. North. Toward the Ice Spine. Where no one goes. Where nothing lives.” He shuddered, his gaze fixing on the floor. “And they weren’t themselves. I saw th
