Camilla settled down by the fire, wrapping the coat around her shoulders. She felt like a woman who had traded a fights worth of leathal stab wounds for an equivalent amount of scrapes bruises and contusions. Ranald alone knew how she was ever going to get her hair presentable.

[b]"We call them the Ska'van,"[/b] she said quietly, wrapping the welcome cloak around her against cold worse than the mountain air.

[b]"And there the wretched shades must sing,
Where twisted profane prayers take wing,
And cursed eternal grim Mirarsa." [/b]

She intoned the lyrics of the ancient Tilean dirge and shivered again, the half remembered tune tumbling from her lips. The moon was rising over the tree tops and she cast a fearful look back at the mountains. Reaching out she took Cydric's hand.

[b]"I think we should stick together Herr Renier,"[/b] she responded, leaning back against the rock.

[b]"It seems to work out for the best."[/b]

Cydric took the first watch this time and even the terrors of the past hours couldn't keep Camilla awake. She fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. She woke in the night, tugged back to wakefulness by some instinct she didn't understand. Cydric was awake watching the fire. Giving him a reasuring pat on the shoulder she headed into the bushes to answer the call of nature. By chance she turned and looked towards the mountain as she did so. On a crag, clearly siloutted against the moon stood an unmoving human figure. Terror seized her and she froze in place. For long moments nothing happened, then a cloud rolled between the two of them when it cleared the figure was gone.

Shaking slightly she stumbled back into camp. Cydric arched an eyebrow at her.

[b]"I saw someone out there,"[/b] she said, [b]"far off on the crag. He is gone now."[/b] She sat down by the fire pressing close to its light and heat.

[b]"Cydric, he had no eyes,"[/b] she whispered. Far in the distance a wolf howled at the sinking moon.

CHAPTER END
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