Chapter 373 - Bonefire

The carriage rolled slowly through the forest, wheels grinding over the uneven trail with a rhythmic, almost meditative creak. The canopy above had thickened, shrouding the path in a green-gray hush where the moonlight struggled to pierce the veil of tangled branches. Every so often, a flutter of leaves stirred with the soft passage of wind, and night birds called from deeper within the woods, short, shrill cries that vanished into the trees like ghosts with nowhere left to haunt. The road had narrowed now to a path of earth cut between low hills and stone-buried roots.