When they arrived, Gideon and Raptor strode at the behest of a scrambling ranger camp. Lanterns gathered in a wave as innumerable Woodsmen rushed out of their hideouts and into the open. The encroaching lights served as their warning, the direction from which Jessica and her friends raced.

They have to be warned.

Jessica and her friends halted next to Gideon, where she attempted but failed to part lips. Danielle stomped up to her uncle, reloading her rifle, mutely, with an ...