"Come on, Luca, let's get out of here," Hermi urged.
Even as she spurred him past the fortress gates, her neck kept snapping around, checking if a shock of unruly red hair was thundering after her atop a massive black stallion.
From the fortress city's gates, the company made their way down the southern path. As they rode, the landscape shifted from basalt cliffs to a rolling horizon of silt-covered dunes.
Though this path was said to bisect the Silt Skulkers' primary territory, the men were not suicidal, nor were they clueless about the terrain they knew by heart. They made a deliberate effort to follow a winding trail that clung to the rocky outcrops, staying away from the low-lying silt basins where the Skulkers enjoyed gathering.
Even if the monsters decided to strike, the company would have a fifteen-minute window to retreat before the Skulkers could tunnel through the dunes to reach them.
