The trackers arrived as the tables were being cleared, three men in heavy leathers and wool cloaks darkened with rain, moving through the lodge's great room with the confidence of masters who knew that, for this one hour, even lords would defer to their expertise.
Huntsman Fabel was the eldest of the three, a lean man with a face like weathered cedar bark and hands that had worked with hounds and horses for longer than most of the men in the room had been alive. He served the Lothian household as the Master of the Hounds, keeper of the hunting preserve's kennels, and he was the man responsible for knowing every ridge, creek drainage, and game trail within the preserve's boundaries.
