"None of them returned," Bellan repeated slowly. "Not one."
"Not one who traveled alone," Sela said, rising to retrieve something from a locked chest against the far wall. "There's a distinction worth noting."
Corwin leaned forward. "What distinction."
Sela returned with a weathered map case, setting it carefully on the table between them. "The message the merchant found wasn't the only thing recovered. There were notes, fragments, theories the scholar had developed before she vanished. She believed the mountain doesn't simply guard the Hollow Root. It tests whoever approaches it."
"Tests how," Bellan asked.
"She didn't know for certain. Only that something about the pass seemed to respond differently depending on who walked it, and how many walked together." Sela unrolled the map slo
