With the only light in the chamber being that of the flame that crackled in the stone basin in the center of the room, it was difficult to know what time it was when they awoke the next day. But while the flame had roared with life when they went to sleep - they had piled the wood high upon it - now all that remained of it was a few bright red coals, and the chill had begun to seep back into the room.

Elyse found it particularly difficult to rise. There was something about sleeping in a pile of furs, in cozy dark, by the light of a fire, that was even more comfortable than her soft bed in Twin Lamps had been. Even knowing they were on a mountain surrounded by bogge-men, even knowing that the stones that surrounded her may have contained the touch of a dark Art. She knew it was foolish - this was one of the last places she should have felt so comfortable - but she could not help what her body felt. And, oddly, her dreams had been completely free of the bogge-men tonight. She groaned, as she heard the others stirring around her, then shot up, glaring irritably at Kells, who was making all the noise by strapping his armor back on. "Couldn't you do that somewhere else?" she snapped.

The soldier shot her a grin, as he buckled his ketttle-helm beneath his chin. "Sorry, sister. But it's time to move. Light's burning already, and Aela's already off checking the exits to see which are safe."

"Hex him, Elyse," she heard Martimeos call groggily from a pile of furs. "Save me the trouble of lighting his fool head on fire."

"You know," Kells said idly, as he pulled on his thick leather gloves, "Back in the barracks, when a soldier was slow to wake, we used to dump ice water on him. It just so happens I have a waterskin or two that could be easily refilled."

"You try that with me and you won't live to see your barracks again," Martimeos growled. But the wizard slowly rose, blinking blearily as he pulled the furs away from his head, wincing as the cold air hit his skin.

They ate a quick breakfast of bread and sausage, placing their rations on the edge of the stone basin to let the lingering remains of the fire heat the meat. Before Martimeos got dressed, Elyse checked his wounded arm once more. It was still a mottled mass of bruises, though none so dark as they had been the night before.

She worked her healing on it again, quietly, her lips pursed as she concentrated. She had...felt strangely, last night, upon seeing Martim's arm. She had been furious at him, in fact, enraged, that he had gotten himself injured once more. It was not a feeling she had had before, upon seeing Martim injured, and when she thought about it, it seemed very foolish to her. It was not as if the injury had been the wizard's fault. But when the bogge-man had held its sword above his head, out among the snow and pines, when she had thought she was mere moments away from seeing him beheaded...she had felt a sick dread, in the pit of her stomach, even beyond the horror of the moment. Something she hadn't felt since the day her mother had slaughtered the loggers, in the camp by her swamp, all those years ago. She was fond of Martimeos, but she hated him a little bit for making her feel that way when he was in danger.

Sighing, she dropped his arm. She had done the best she could for it, again, and the flesh had not been damaged beyond repair. Martimeos shot her a bashful grin in thanks, those shadowed green eyes of his twinkling, and Elyse found herself resisting the impish urge to bite him.

Aela returned halfway through their breakfast, the Crosscraw woman once more so wrapped in furs and hides that only her fierce green eyes and wild shock of red hair showed. "Ah think we hae fortune on our side," she said, barely intelligble between her thick accent and the wolf-hide wrapped around her face and shoulders. "Ah checked th' exit closest bah mah kill, and nae sign of th' bogge-men in sight. Ef we move quick, we can get mah moose back before sundown."

After they had finished eating, they returned their borrowed fur and hide beds to the room used to store them, and stirred the remains of the fire into the ashes to choke it. Not that there was really much danger in letting it burn, Elyse thought, the whole place here was made of cold stone. They left behind the chamber, with its strange, mysterious wall carvings, and followed Aela into one of the hallways leading out from it.

As they walked down the narrow passage, Elyse tried her luck. She called upon a glamour, a little ball of flame that floated upon her hand, to light their way, and was delighted when it actually appeared. She was proud of the progress she had made with glamour lately, in teaching Martimeos to use it. The wizard had progressed quickly, as well - it seemed he had a bit of a knack for glamour, unlike healing, which he struggled with - but Elyse had not realized that being a teacher to someone taught the teacher nearly as much as it taught the student. Perhaps even more.

There had been a time when a glamour like this, one that cast light, one that looked like something entirely unnatural, would have been far out of her reach. Glamour always worked best when it looked like something normal, something people might expect to see, or might fear to see. A ball of flame burning on nothing, floating in the air, was certainly not that. She did not know whether she could conjour something like this reliably, but it was nice to see that she could do it at all. She laughed as, at her side, Martimeos frowned, and tried to duplicate her illusion, holding his gloved palm outstretched before him, only to fail. The wizard had not caught up with her quite yet.

As they walked on, Elyse realized that whatever this place once was, whatever it had been meant to be, it seemed unfinished. As her glamour lit the hallways around them, she could see that while the walls of the stone hallway were smooth in many places, in some they had the beginnings of carvings, much like the reliefs in the chamber they had come from, though never as detailed or finished as the ones she and Martimeos had looked at last night.

And the hallway contained doorways into rooms, as well; some of which had smooth stone walls, but some of which simply led into natural caverns, as if the builders had not had time to finish their work with them. And eventually, even the hallway itself ended abruptly, the smoothed stone of the walls changing to the natural rough, craggy rock of a narrow cave passage. It left her with an odd sense of sadness, as they left the carved hallway behind. The builders, whoever they had been, had wanted this place to be grand. And now, it would never be finished, and eventually, time would wear away all that had ever been done here.

She doused her glamour as they approached the exit from the cavern, fresh air filling her lungs as the bright light of day illuminated the cave. When they stepped outside, they were on a narrow path leading out from a craggy cliff face, their view of the ground below blocked off by a craggy fence of rock. It was a tight fit, for them all to stand outsite the cave entrance - much of the place was taken up by tangled, dead branches and brambles. As they moved away, Aela rearranged these delicately, and Elyse was impressed with the result. She would have never been able to see the cave entrance for these branches, and they looked as if they were simply the result of natural brush that had grown up on the cliff.

Pebbles bounced between their feet as they made their way down the path leading away from the cave, knocked loose by their passing. Once they reached the ground, a vast expanse of white greeted them, an endless sea of pines covered by freshly-fallen snow. The sun was out, a burning white ball in a clear blue sky, and it glittered quite prettily off of that quiet white blanket of snowfall. Or at least Elyse thought so; she looked oddly at Martimeos as he cursed, wincing, holding up a hand to shield his face. "What is it?" she asked curiously.

"Too bright," the wizard muttered, keeping his eyes shielded. "All that light off the snow. Hurts the eyes."

"Really...?" Elyse frowned, staring out again at the forest stretching before them. "It doesn't hurt my eyes at all."

"I've seen soldiers lose their sight in winter because of it," Kells said, leaning on his spear, the bright morning sun reflecting off his armor. He grinned at Elyse, and tapped beneath his gray eyes with one finger. "I've never had a problem with it, though. Think some folk are more susceptible to it than others."

"Aye, ye can go snowblind," Aela replied, busily rummaging among the layers of furs she wore. From somewhere within, she drew out a long strip of gauzy, translucent cloth, as light as fine silk, which she tied around her eyes. "Blocks the light," she explained."Ah dinnae hae more o' this, or else Ah would share. We Crosscraw dinnae even make it. 'Twas a gift from mah brother, who found et in his travels."

"I think I'll be fine." Kells tapped his spear against his shoulder, eyeing Martimeos, who still kept a hand over his eyes. "Though perhaps our wizard should have invested in a hat."

"Aha!" Elyse cried, sweeping her hat off her head, reaching up to deposit it on top of Martim's shaggy hair. The wizard slowly lowered his hand as the wide brim of her witch's hat cast shade across his face, blocking at least some of the sun from his eyes. "My eyes are just fine in all this. Though you really ought to buy one of your own."

Martimeos grumbled that he felt a little ridiculous, but did not protest, as he tied Elyse's hat beneath his chin. Elyse glanced at Kells, as the wizard did so. The soldier was staring off into the pine forest, tapping his spear against his shoulder, stormy gray eyes not squinting in the least at the light reflecting off the snow. Elyse had heard the comments before, about how much she looked like one of Kells' people - they were both pale, and dark of hair, and of a slim buid, though Kells had much more muscle than she. The only difference was the eyes; his gray, and hers dark blue. But, Elyse thought, it was true that her mother had had gray eyes. She had never spoken of where she had come from, but Elyse wondered whether it was true that her mother had been one of Kells' folk.

They set off through the forest, their feet crunching through the snow, the forest utterly quiet around them. It might have been winter, Elyse thought, but she was surprised by just how little wildlife they had seen. Flit, who darted from tree to tree, searching for other birds to talk with, and Cecil, who trotted along by her side, were the only animals they had seen on the mountain so far. And the trees themselves remained, of course, utterly untalkative. It felt eerie and strange, all this quiet. Elyse was used to forests where you might hear the trill of birds, or the rustly of deer through the brush, or at the very least, the trees murmuring to each other. Here, with no wind blowing, there was nothing but the sound of their boots in the snow.

She and Martim walked forth with their crossbows in hand, and Kells kept his spear at the ready, eyes always darting around for any sign of the bogge-men. Aela, however, seemed remarkably unconcerned. She kept her short bow slung across her back, and though her eyes were not visible beneatht he cloth tied around them, she could apparently see through it, her head swivelling back and forth casually as she led them through the pines. "There are some places," she told them, when asked, "where the bogge-men are afeart tae go. They will nae linger close bah any place where Grizel has worked her Art, true, but other places too. Nae enough tae make a proper life, of course, but enough fir some o' us tae survive."

"I wanted to ask," Kells said, using his spear as a walking-stick through the snow, "I know a little about the Crosscraw. Which clan are you?"

Aela cast a sidelong glance at the soldier, quiet for a moment, biting her lip as if considering answering at all. She looked back at Martimeos and Elyse as well, trotting up behind, frowining. "Ah s'pose ye three seem like good enough types fir lowlanders an' queensmen," she muttered. "Settin' bogge-men on fire an' killin' them and such. An' helpin Maddie an' all, ef yer tellin' th' truth o' that. Nae that Ah dinnae believe ye, but...look, I wouldnae hae left ye fir the bogge-men tae kill ef Ah could help it....but let's nae speak o' clan an' kin. Ah'm glad tae bring yet tae Grizel in exchange fir th' help, and..." She looked somewhat abashed, tugging at her long red curls. "Ah ken we broke bread an' all, but...the Chief would already be upset wit' me fir bein as friendly wit ye as Ah hae been."

"Would your chief have approved of you saving us?" Martimeos asked curiously.

"Nae likely," Aela muttered sullenly. "He would hae tol' me tae leave ye tae die."

"Well, thank you for disobeying his wishes, I suppose." Kells nimbly stepped aside to avoid a small avalanche of snow sloughing off the branches of the pines they were walking beneath. "You should know, though, that I never served the White Queen. And neither did yon witch, for what it's worth." He nodded towards Elyse.

"Nae...?" Though Aela had her eyes covered, her curiousity could not have been more obvious. She fidgeted, tugging at her hair until Elyse thought she might pull some of it out. "Ah mean...mebbe...wait." Suddenly, the Crosscraw woman cocked her head to the side, freezing where she stood. "D'ye hear that? Shhh."

They all froze where they stood, holding their breaths, their ears straining to detect any sound. Elyse could hear nothing. There was only the silence of the snow-muffled forest surrounding them, perfectly still in the breezeless day, not even the sound of birdcall breaking the stillness. And then...

A low, rumbling, snorting grunt.

Elyse immediately dove for a tree, putting her back up against it, holding her crossbow to her chest, eyes darting around the pines for any sign of a black cloak, or an animal skull, or a glimpse of blazing yellow eyes. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Martimeos had done the same, the wizard's eyes wide with alarm beneath the brim of her hat, nose poking out over his red scarf, flaring.

Kells remained where he stood, however, hefting his spear, head tilted as he tried to listen for further noise. Aela had unslung her bow from her back and drawn an arrow from her quiver, nocking it, while she remained paused, tense, muscles trembling.

Further sounds could be hears now; more grunting, and an odd snuffling noise, and the pad of something walking through the snow. Aela loosened her taut bow, shoulders sagging. "Nae the bogge-men," she muttered, though she did not look too pleased about that. "Follow me."

They crept forwar cautiously through the snow, following the Crosscraw woman, Martimeos and Elyse keeping their crossbows at the ready. Elyse saw Martimeos watching the skies nervously, and knew the wizard was looking for Flit - wherever the little cardinal had gone, he had flown too far for Martim to whistle him back. She felt badly; she was glad to have Cecil pawing at her side right now. As they walked, the sounds of the snuffling and grunting grew louder, until finally, Elyse gasped when she saw the source.

Rocky boulders jutting from the ground, rising nearly twice as tall as she, marked the entrance to a small clearing in the pine forest. In the center of the clearing a large mound of snow had been piled up, smooth and irregular, as if covering something large beneath - no natural snowfall, this, it had clearly been made by human hands. And pawing at this mound, sniffing at it, was an absolutely monstrous black bear.

To say it was as big as a house would have only been a small exaggeration. Even on all fours, its shoulders rose up far taller than any of them; its massive, furry bulk swayed back and forth as it pawed at the ground with claws the size of daggers. Silver scars marked its black fur, here and there, and even from this distance, as it raised its snout to the sky to sniff, Elyse could tell that something was wrong with its face. It was missing an eye, and half of its snout was unfurred, the flesh there warped and drooping and gray.

They dove behind the boulders to hide, the sheer mass of the thing nearly as frightening as any bogge-man was. "That cannot be natural," Martimeos muttered, shivering as he pressed himself into the snow-covered stone. "No bear grows that large. Are there fae in these lands?"

"'Tis Mors Rothach," Aela sighed, as she climbed the boulder to peer over it into the clearing. "Grizel's familiar. And the reason the bogge-men are afeart tae enter this part o' the wood."

Elyse frowned, absent-mindedly reaching down to pet Cecil as her curled around her legs nervously. "Well...that's good then, isn't it," she whispered. "Grizel's familiar would not attack her own people....right?"

Elyse could not help but notice that the Crosscraw woman's limbs were trembling as Aela gave an unsteady smile in return. "Probably nae...?" she mumbled, tugging hard at her red curls. "But he es a wild one. Mors would come runnin' ef ever Grizel were in danger, but other than that, he does as he pleases." She growled in frustration as she dropped down from the top of the boulder, landing with a flumph in the snow. "I hae mah kill buried there. Et looks like he wants et."

"I bet you a bag of gold a bear like that gets what he wants every time," Kells muttered, leather gloves creaking as he gripped his spear tightly.

"But he cannae!" Aela insisted, her face going red with anger. "We need tha' food tae eat!"

Kells opened his mouth to reply, then slammed it shut abruptly when a deep, rumbling voice, almost a small roar, echoed through the forest.

"I CAN SMELL YOU. FOUR OF YOU. AND A CAT, LEST YOU THINK I MISSED THAT. DO YOU THINK TO SCAVENGE MY MEAT? COME OUT AND PARLAY."

"Oh right," Aela mumbled. "Mors can talk."

"QUICKLY NOW," the rumbling, deep growl continued. "YOU HAVE TO THE COUNT OF FIVE BEFORE I DECIDE TO HUNT DOWN AND DEVOUR EVERYTHING WITHIN A MILE. ONE. TWO-"

With a sigh, her legs shaking violently with fear, Aela stepped out from behind the rock, walking into the clearing. Martimeos, Kells and Elyse followed quickly behind her, almost frantic in their efforts to ensure the bear did not reach the count of five. Cecil mewled and yowled at the sight of the bear, as they drew closer, and Elyse did her best to keep him quiet. She did not want to upset this beast in any way.

Mors Rothach lay beside the mound of snow beneath which Aela's kill was buried, his front paws folded before him. Even laying down, he was nearly as tall as Martimeos and Kells were. The massive bear grinned at them with a snout the size of a barrel, revealing a mouth full of yellowed fangs almost as long as swords. "CLOSER," he rumbled, as they lingered by the edge of the clearing, and they stumbled forward until they could feel the heat of his breath as he exhaled. "WELL NOW, LITTLE FOXHAIR. WHAT BRINGS YOU BY MY MEAL, AND WITH STRANGERS UPON THE MOUNTAIN, NO LESS?"

Aela glanced around, licking her lips nervously, hands shaking, almost as if she wished that someone else could answer for her. "Ah-ah beg yer pardon, Mors," she stammered. She paused, drawing a deep breath, steeling herself, and then said, "But that es mah kill."

"YOU THINK SO, DO YOU." The bear turned its head to stare at them all with its one good eye, orange and nearly the size of a fist, peering out at them from its dark fur. "YOU IGNORE MY CONTRIBUTION, DO YOU NOT? IT IS BECAUSE OF ME THAT YOU COULD HAVE HUNTED HERE SAFELY. ALREADY I HAVE FEASTED UPON TWO OF THE TWISTED ONES AND FRIGHTENED THE OTHERS AWAY. FOUL, BUT MEAT IS MEAT. AND MEAT IS RARE, THESE DAYS. ONE WOULD THINK WITH HOW MANY OF YOU FOXHAIRS HAVE DIED OFF THAT PREY WOULD BE IN ABUNDANCE, BUT THE TWISTED ONES STAIN THE LAND. STILL, A LITTLE REMAINS."

"But ye see," Aela replied, shifting back and forth on her feet and tugging at her hair, "That's jest et. The Crosscraw need this meat. People go hungry already."

"I DO NOT CARE IF EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU FOXHAIRS DIES, SO LONG AS GRIZEL LIVES." The bear raked the earth with one massive paw, digging past the snow to churn up brown dirt, flinging great clods of it at Aela with one mighty swipe. She flinched as the mud spattered onto her hides and face. "EAT EACH OTHER, IF NEED BE."

Aela slowly wiped the dirt from her face. "Alright," she said, her voice meek and tiny. "How about...ye take half the moose, and we leave wit the other half."

"IS THAT YOUR OFFER?" Mors mused, his tongue lolling out of his mouth in a pantomime of a grin. The dead half of his face sagged hideously as he bared his teeth once more. "HERE IS MINE. I WILL TAKE THE WHOLE MOOSE, AND ALSO EAT TWO OF YOU. I WILL BE GENEROUS, AND LET YOU CHOOSE WHO WILL BE DEVOURED."

Elyse felt fear flood into her heart, and she raised her crossbow in trembling hands, though she thought a bolt from it would be like nothing but the bite of a gnat to a beast of this size. She heard the hiss of steel being drawn from a scabbard, and glanced to her side, seeing Martimeos had dropped his crossbow in favor of his longsword. The wizard's green eyes flashed as he slowly backed away from the bear, and she saw that he was groping behing himself, reaching futilely for his pack, trying to find a torch to bring to hand. Kells held his spear in both hands, tensed and ready to thrust. She thought that spear might be their best hope against this thing, and maybe even Kells' armor might slow down the beast's claws and bite. Only Aela, who was closest to the bear, close enough that it might reach out and swipe her to pieces with the rake of one mighty claw, remained still.

Mors' massive head swiveled back and forth between them, though the bear remained lying down. That one empty eye socket leered at them all, hollow and black. "I COULD JUST EAT YOU ALL," he rumbled, clearly amused.

"I warn you, beast," Martimeos called, his voice wavering, though he tried to keep it firm. "I know of the Art."

The bear's head turned to face Martimeos, and a rumbling growl, loud enough to shake snow from the trees, emerged from its throat. "OH GOOD," it said, baring a mouth full of slavering fangs. "I HAVE NEVER TASTED A WIZARD BEFORE." Its nose flared, and Elyse could feel the heat of its breath, even as far away as she was, as it snuffled at the air. "WAIT. YOU SMELL...FAMILIAR. COME HERE."

Martimeos blinked, his eyes widening in surprise, but he made no move to move forward, and did not lower his sword. "No...?" he said, uncertain of what the bear was trying to pull here.

Mors gave a growling sigh of exasperation, and Elyse's felt her heart hammer in her chest as the massive beast lumbered to its feet, looming over them. "STOP, FOOLISH MANLING," it said, orange eye glaring fiercely at Kells, who had begun to inch forward into striking distance with his spear. "I DO NOT ACTUALLY INTEND TO EAT ANY OF YOU. I JUST WISHED TO SCARE YOU FROM ATTEMPTING TO CLAIM THE CARCASS. I DID NOT NEED A BAND OF CLEVER LITTLE MEN WITH THEIR CLEVER LITTLE PLANS TRYING TO STEAL IT FROM ME."

"Why should we believe you, now?" Martimeos called. His eyes widened further when Mors did not answer, but instead took two steps forward, massive enough to make the earth tremble slightly beneath their feet. The wizard scrambled backwards, keeping his sword held out in front of him, as the bear approached him.

But Mors did not charge at Martimeos. Instead, he raised his snout into the air. For a long moment, there was nothing but the sound of the bear's breath, scenting the air, tasting it, as Mors closed his one large, orange eye. When he opened it again, the beast seemed...subdued. "YOU SEE MY EMPTY EYE," he said, his voice a lower rumble than before. "AND MY SCARRED FACE. YEARS BACK, I WAS TRAPPED BY A HUNTER WHO PUT OUT MY EYE WITH AN ARROW, AND HIS WIZARD COMPANION. THE WIZARD SMELLED LIKE....YOU. I DO NOT FORGET A SCENT. I OWE THOSE MEN A DEBT."

Martimeos gulped, feeling his mouth go dry. "I...believe that was my brother," he whispered. "Do you intend to take revenge, then?"

Mors stared at Martimeos with his one good eye, flat and deadly, large enough to cross the distance between them in two bounds and strong enough to tear the wizard to pieces before he could blink. "NO," he rumbled, relatively quietly. "I KNOW BETTER THAN TO TRIFLE WITH A WIZARD SUCH AS THAT. OR THE HUNTER, FOR THAT MATTER. I MEANT AN HONEST DEBT. FOR THOSE MEN HAD ME IN THEIR POWER, AND COULD HAVE KILLED ME IF THEY DESIRED. INSTEAD, THEY SPARED ME. THEY TOOK AN EYE, BUT THAT WEIGHS FAR LESS THAN THE LIFE THEY GAVE."

After that, Mors fell silent, except for the heavy, measured sound of the beast's gusting breaths. Elyse found herself wondering again just what kind of wizard Martim's brother had been, as she looked the bear up and down, twice as tall as she was, and with jaws that could easily fit around her waist. The tales she heard of him kept growing. First to have healed Martim of a deadly wound that should have been impossible to heal, and then to have killed an entire detachment of soldiers when he attacked Kells' father, and now to have overpowered and frightened a beast like this. And all when he had been nearly the age that Martimeos was now. These were deeds she had heard told of fell wizards in their old age accomplishing, not those who had just first set out on the road.

"Do you know where they went, afterward?" Martimeos called, his voice hopeful. The wizard stood with his fear forgotten, green eyes flashing excitement, long, shaggy brown hair spilling down his shoulders, and his face hidden in the shadows of her hat. And for a moment, just for a moment, an odd vision filled Elyse's mind. Of a field of brilliant crimson roses, growing between the trees of an autumn forest, red leaves falling like rain, and the shadow of a stag-horned man, and his wild, echoing laughter.

"I KNOW THEY TALKED WITH GRIZEL. AFTER THAT, I COULD NOT SAY. I GAVE THEIR SCENT WIDE BERTH." Mors twisted his massive bulk around to peer at Aela, pinning her with his wild half-stare. "FORTUNE SMILES ON YOU, FOXHAIR. FOR THE WIZARD'S SAKE, I TAKE YOUR OFFER. HALF THE CARCASS TO ME."

And with a roar that shook the forest, Mors Rothach turned to the mound of snow, and struck out so fiercely with paws so massive that Elyse stumbled from the shaking of the ground. She caught a glimpse of something large, brown and furred beneath the snow, as the bear struck, before claws tore through flesh, and bright red blood stained the snow. Massive jaws flashed, bone cracked and snapped, until with a mighty twist of his head, flesh tore, and Mors dragged away....something, from the mound. Something with large, broad antlers, and dark brown fur, and long, hoofed legs. The top half of it, at least. Elyse had never seen a moose before, not even in a drawing, though she had read of them. It looked strange, with a long face, like a horse's, but with drooping, fleshy lips and nose. And, she realized, it was massive - it was only Mors' gargantuan stature that made it seem small, as he carved a trail of blood through the snow, dragging the upper half of the moose away, into the pines.

Before he disappeared into the trees, though, Mors dropped the carcass from his mouth, and raised his mighty jaws, dripping blood, to them once more. "SOME ADVICE," he rumbled, spraying blood onto the snow beneath him as he did so. "MOVE YOUR KILL QUICKLY. THE BOGGE-KING WALKED THE LAND NEARBY, LAST NIGHT. EVEN I WOULD NOT DARE TEST HIM."

And then Mors Rothach was gone, disappearing between the pines with his kill, the trees shaking in his wake.