Veil of Shadows

Chapter 37. Devil Deals the Cards

Wolf studied the map for a few moments. "There should be another town up ahead. I don't smell any smoke, so I'll assume nothing horrifying has happened. We should reach it within a few hours."

Ranger looked around, and had a vague sense that she recognized the landscape. Which was impossible, since she'd only been this far north once. She tried to think of any towns that Wolf might be talking about that matched the sense of recognition, but came up empty.

"What's the town called?" Ranger said, hating the fact that she had to ask. She adjusted her horse's reins and paused to hear Wolf's answer.

Wolf glanced again at the map. "According to this thing, the name of the town is Greenvale." She stopped talking as Ranger almost tripped.

"Say that again." Ranger said, and her face was deathly pale. Her eyes had taken on a haunted look, and Wolf replied "The town is called Greenvale. Is that bad?"

"No. No no no no no no." Ranger repeated over and over again, and her pupils dilated. "We cannot go there. No matter what, we cannot go there. I will go anywhere but there."

"What do you mean? It'll only take an hour or so. Plus, there's no other towns around here. Unless we camp in the woods, which I really don't think is safe." Pro said.

Ranger thought frantically, trying to think of an excuse. "I just can't go there. You have to understand."

"We don't have any choice. This is the only town around here for miles." Blaze replied. "If you want to go ahead of us and meet at the next town, go ahead, but we're going to Greenvale."

"We can't go there. We just can't. We can go to the next town we find. Just go around Greenvale." Ranger winced as she said the name of the town, and Toxic began to wonder if there was more to this than met the eye.

"We are meeting in Greenvale, and that is final. You can go ahead of us if you want, but we are staying in Greenvale for the night." Wolf said firmly. Ranger looked between the others, hoping to see someone who might agree that they shouldn't go to Greenvale.

She found no one.

Ranger mounted her horse without a word. The others followed suit - except for Wolf and Myst, who had decided to fly - and started off for Greenvale. Before they all fell into pace, Pro glanced over her shoulder at Ranger. She had pulled the hood of her cloak low over her face, as if trying to block out the world.

Wondering if it might have been best to follow Ranger's advice, Pro turned back to the group.

(Sorry if this is really short. I'm trying to finish it before my iPad dies.)