'Twas difficult enough to scout well in this tangled place, but, forbye my duty to the dominion, I had the business of taking one who was the light of my life into this dark land of bloody secrets.
The youth and gaiety were going out of my quest.

I could only plod along dismally, attentive to every movement of Shalah, praying incessantly that we might get well out of it all.

To make matters worse, the travelling became desperate hard.

In the Tidewater there were bridle paths, and in the vales of the foothills the going had been good, with hard, dry soil in the woods, and no hindrances save a thicket of vines or a rare windfall.

But in this glen, where the hill rains beat, there was no end to obstacles.