Chapter 87

THEY LEFT the same way they'd come. Dallin didn't remember much of their arrival, just a vague image of dead leaves and dried-up pricker bushes, but the set of the sun was nearly the same, and the weather hadn't changed--still cold and sunny, just edging on true winter but not quite there yet. He missed his coat, but at least he had the cloak. Even the wind was sighing past the tops of the walls as it had the day they'd first arrived. Dallin fervently hoped this day, as alike as it seemed, would turn out markedly different. He made sure both he and Wil had their hats in place, hunched in as small as he could, and took rear guard while Calder took point. Wil walked between them, munching nervously and without much enthusiasm on a biscuit.