The hut smelled of damp earth and boiled roots.Morning light cut in through the warped gaps in the walls, spilling over the small group still wrapped in bandages.
Caleb broke the silence first."We shouldn't stay here. If Vaeryn's men — or anyone else from that damned river fight — is tracking us, this place is a beacon."
"Leaving in this condition is suicide," Gideon countered. His voice was calm, but there was iron in it. "We've got half a mage, no arrows, no beasts in fighting shape, and no idea where the hell we are."
"Better than sitting still and waiting for someone to find us," Caleb shot back.
Ezra shifted on her bedding, her voice low but cutting through the argument. "If we leave, we need a direction. And we don't have one."
"That's the problem," Eliakim said.He was sitting cross-legged, elbows resting on his knees, eyes fixed on the boy in the corner.Malachi hadn't spoken once since they'd begun. He was grinding herbs with the same steady rhythm, head bowed just enough to seem disengaged — but Eliakim had noticed the way the boy's gaze flickered at certain words.
When Gideon mentioned their lack of arrows, Malachi's grinding slowed for half a heartbeat.When Ezra said "no beasts in fighting shape," the boy's grip on the pestle tightened until his knuckles whitened.
And then, finally, Malachi spoke.
"You'll want to avoid the ridge two miles north," he said, without looking up. "There's a hunting party there. Not Vaeryn's… but you wouldn't survive meeting them right now."
The conversation stopped cold.
Eliakim studied him. "…And how do you know that?"
Malachi shrugged slightly. "Because they came through here three nights ago. Heading east. I heard their captain mention the ridge."
Caleb frowned. "Three nights ago? You mean before you found us?"
"That's right," Malachi said simply. "Before you washed up in the south bend, past the broken bridge."
Ezra tilted her head. "…We never told you which part of the river we came from."
Malachi finally looked up at them then, his expression unreadable."You didn't have to," he said. "I can smell river silt. And the south bend is the only place in twenty miles that would've left your clothes that shade of black."
The hut went quiet again, but the air felt heavier now.
Eliakim leaned back slightly, mind working.Malachi wasn't guessing. He was certain — in the kind of way only someone who had been watching the land, or the people moving through it, for a long time could be.
And that certainty… was starting to feel dangerous.