My beloved Zann,

I had been to the laur before, though not in a long time. I remembered grassy hillsides and plashing brooks and leafy groves. This wasn’t like that.

We stepped out onto a rocky hilltop. There were other such hills and large rocks all around us. The sky, instead of its usual pale blue, was dark pink with a brown sun. Nothing grew. There was no sign of Wande or Jhus.

“What is this?” I asked Ellewen. “Is this a part of the laur that I just never saw? Or did something happen?”

“Something happened,” he said.

“What was it?” I looked around. On a plain beyond the bare hills was a tall red fortress, a tall tower surrounded by great earthworks. High blue fires burned in a ring all around it.

“You know,” he told me gently.

“I do? Did… did we do this to you? With our snowballs?” It didn’t seem likely, but…

“I think we should go back,” he said. “Soon.”

The air smelled of smoke and metal. “I have to find Wande and Jhusdhe. If they’re here, I can’t leave them here.”

“I know you came here for a purpose. But we don’t know that purpose. Let us achieve what we can quickly, and depart. And I doubt your leman and her heir are here.”

I didn’t see anything but the fortress that looked like it ought to be looked at, so I started in its direction. “You do? Why?”

“Why would they be here?”

“It’s a good question.” The hill was steep, and I jumped and skidded to the bottom. Behind me, Ellewen stepped lightly and easily.

“Your wizard’s augury, I mind, was about what you should do next, not about what you should do next to find Goodwife Wande. Unless I misremember?”

I couldn’t remember for sure. “No?”

“Then let us act with speed. There is great danger here.”

“But to do what? If Wande’s not here.”

“I don’t know. We will have to be alert. I was hoping the crossroads would provide a different answer for our quest. I don’t know why you needed to come here.”

We walked on, dodging the elbows of the barren hills around us.

Love,

Ybel