1564024802

Chaol had yielded their room to a family of
five, the children too young to make the trip
to the Wastes, even on a ruk’s back. In the
frigid air, an infant might go blue with cold in
minutes.
Yrene ran a hand over the waist-high stone
wall. Thick, ancient stone. She beseeched it to
hold out.
Catapults. There were catapults in the army
below. She’d heard Falkan’s latest report at
breakfast. The plain itself was still littered
with enough boulders from the days it had
been a part of the lake that Morath would have
no problem finding things to hurl at them.
The warning had kept Yrene busy all day,
relocating families who had taken rooms on
the lake side of the keep or those who slept
too close to windows or outer walls. Last-
minute, and foolish not to consider it before
now, but she’d been so focused these past five