And yet . . . and yet . . .
. . . and yet, there was something else . . .
‘Malina, why do you look so worried?’
Malina looking about, suddenly feeling trapped, said in a small voice, ‘I don’t know. I just feel like something bad is going to happen.’
Theuli was unnerved by this, and gazed herself out the window in the direction her husband had gone with some anxiety. A Pixie’s instincts, however diminished, were not to be taken lightly.
‘Do you think I should find a way to warn them?’
Malina was perplexed. ‘I don’t know. It feels like something bad is all around, like a noose.’
The Elf-woman looked around distrustfully. ‘Malina, is it around them, or around us?’
Malina’s eyes widened.
Wishing to avoid being trapped, Pran led Ralph and Doc through open country that was hilly, with concealing clumps of copsewood. A fear was growing upon him that he had to make his way home. Something was greatly amiss here, though he had no clear idea what that something might be.
His worst fears were confirmed when he saw the thinly stretched line of riders ahead of them, directly across their path. They were moving unhurriedly, and he knew then with cold dread that Prince Cir’s Elven soldiers were intent on murder.