Kingdom of Ash

with the army trailing behind, Chaol marveled
at the speed of their travel, at how, after three
days, they cleared the mountains themselves
and stepped onto the flat, snow-blasted
western plains beyond.
He’d never set foot in the territory, though
it was technically his. The official border of
Adarlan claimed the plains past the Fangs for
a good distance before they yielded to the
unnamed territories of the Wastes. But it still
felt like the Wastes, eerily quiet and
sprawling, a strange expanse that stretched,
unbreaking, to the horizon.
Even the stoic khaganate warriors did not
look too long toward the Wastes at their left
as they rode northward. At night, they huddled
closer to their fires.
All of them did. Yrene clung a bit tighter at
night, whispering about the strangeness of the
land, its hollow silence. As if the land itself