Chapter 12The column of smoke rose like an unnatural sapling from the green shadow-streaked canopy. Its lower reaches were dark and ominous while higher up it became a pallid grey at the touch of the early evening sun before bending and twisting erratically and finally dispersing into a soft haze as though striking an unseen ceiling.
‘What is it?’ Hyrald asked.
‘A camp fire,’ Endryk replied, not without a hint of surprise that such a question should even be asked.
‘Someone from the village?’ There was an element of clinging to hope in Hyrald’s voice. It was immediately dashed.
‘No, nor from any of the villages in this region. No one needs to come out here. No one does. Grazing, hunting, farming, they’re all better to the south. Not many even come as far as my cottage. Whoever it is, is
