By late afternoon, Rowan had stopped pretending they were following a single trail.
Rowan crouched beside a churned patch of mud and studied it for nearly a minute before rising.
"We shouldn't continue northwest from here," he said, keeping his voice low as he pointed between two densely wooded ridges. "Too many trails are converging ahead. We'll circle west, find higher ground and see whether they're crossing the same area or merely overlapping."
Lucan rested one hand on his sword hilt while examining the forest. After watching Mina stop an Ashback Wolf with her shield earlier, he had spent considerably less time joking about Greyfen.
"When the man who can apparently read mud starts avoiding a direction, I've decided to respect the mud," Lucan remarked, though his eyes remained on the trees rather than Rowan.
Mina grinned at him. "You're learning."
