Ander - Chapter 5, Subchapter 79
79 Nilia's muscles ached and her lungs burned with every inhale. She was cold and tired, but the weight on her back was a constant reminder not to slow down. She could feel his blood running down her spine, the smell of it so thick and cloying she...
Ander - Chapter 5, Subchapter 78
78 Dorin knew something was wrong the moment he saw that column of smoke rising up from beyond the village walls. It was too thick and black to be a cooking fire, the scent too acrid. He recognised that smell. It was a smell he had breathed into his...
Ander - Chapter 5, Subchapter 77
77 Sorrin was huffing and grunting like a bear, but that wasn't what woke Danado up. He had felt something in the depths of sleep. It wasn't a dream, just a sense of urgency. He felt like he needed to wake up, and do it right away, before it was too...
Ander - Chapter 5, Subchapter 76
76 Something grabbed him around the neck and jerked him back. Dorin screamed and, although he would never admit it to anyone, for a second he thought it was Lana's arm around his throat, risen from the dead to exact her revenge personally. He fell...
Ander - Chapter 5, Subchapter 75
75 He looked at her hand for a very, very long time. They had dropped her in a ditch overgrown with bushes, and her hand was sticking out of the brambles, as if asking a kindly passer-by to help her back up. Dorin was afraid of what he would find if...
Ander - Chapter 5, Subchapter 73
73 There was a giant pit dug at the base of the Cora statue, at least four strides wide; a gaping, crumbling hole. There were wooden stakes planted all around the edge, anchoring dozens of chains that fed into the shadowy depths like spokes on a...
Ander - Chapter 5, Subchapter 72
72 It was the longest, most tiring journey of his life. The sun had already started to crest the mountain by the time they finally made it back home. The gate swung open with a groan, scraping the ground clear of snow. It made a shape like a pair of...
Ander - Chapter 6, Subchapter 76
76 The sound of her laughter came flooding back from the darkest corners of Sorrin's mind, unlocking memories he had spent many sleepless nights sealing away with his tears. _Higher, Daddy! Higher!_ The weight of her tiny body in his arms, the...
Ander - Chapter 6, Subchapter 75
75 Just like Nilia, Banno appeared to be at a standstill, but in reality he was concentrating incredibly hard. His focus, however, was not aimed at the Wolves or the Foxes (he couldn't care less about what might be going on in whatever passed for a...
Ander - Chapter 6, Subchapter 74
74 Nilia did not move. She did not speak. She did not act in any way. To an outsider, it would appear as though she was simply standing there like everyone else, waiting for something to happen, but in truth, she was far from idle. Nilia was...
Ander - Chapter 6, Subchapter 73
73 Ander knew that question would leave Hezzi's lips someday, and that he would have no choice but to answer it when it did. But why did it have to come _now_, when they were all standing on the brink? Why couldn't it have waited just a single day...
Ander - Chapter 6, Subchapter 72
72 - stop it!!" There was a time Hezzi would have been horrified to have so many eyes on him again. It was always followed by some terrible event. _Always_. But now he wasn't even aware of their empty stares, their blood-crazed eyes. He had grabbed...