Dunlending

Ethel knew much of the cruelty of men and beasts, after seeing her father coming home bleeding and with broken bones over the years, and she had on more occasions than one helped the healers take care of both him and other people, including the elf named Seregrian at one point - now a Forever-Friend to her, by ancient elven ritual. But never had she known such evil in her home, on her own doorstep, in her very own room.

Soaked and stinking of Isen-marsh, Gryffudd climbed the high hill west of Tros Hynt. He paid his feet no heed except when he stumbled, which was often. Looking up, he watched the clouds as they grazed their gentle fingers across the moon. The crescent was a sliver in the sky—a wink. Swaying, the man pushed an upright pointer finger against his lips, shushed, and winked back.

After his perilous journey from Enedwaith and month into living amidst the Avanc-lûth, Iofan meets the princeling of the Eryr-lûth,

Muirne paints a spell over Khyus as he prepares for the

There were fires burning in the distance, somewhere in the east. From the guard-post outside the stockade of Tros Hynt, Cerrynt couldn't tell how large, or how far, they were. That one might be a small campfire from some hunter of the Eryr-lûth nearby roasting a grouse, or it might be the burning ruins of some huge forgoil farm from which brave cymry were currently stealing horses. She had no way to know. She could only stare into the distance until her eyes swam and all points seemed as near as all others, fretting about the raid she was supposed to be part of, but was missing.

Gwennol knelt before the fire, as a thick white plume of smoke rose, fragrant with herbs thrown in among the oak logs. She watched the flames, her eyes slightly dark underneath and she murmured a repetitive chant, rolling her thumb against the antler charm around her neck. Pren had been gone for weeks on the errand that sent him north with the man who had been at times both friend and enemy. Her worry grew as the time passed, not only for her journey home but that the man she had come to look to as a protector and friend, now future husband, had not returned.