They hiked well past dusk. Keeping a quick, steady pace, their travel was nearly wordless for both the sake of the exertion as well as the tension between them all. The goal was to get as far south as possible before stopping for the night, but now that darkness was falling, Garan and William were again at odds.

“I don’t see why we should stop,” Garan insisted. “I say we push as hard as we can for as long as we can.”

“The forest isn’t safe at night,” William ...