The air was heavy, dry with frost, and all sound seemed to sound abnormally over the vacant extent of snow.
"Hey! Heeey!"
"Yaaaaaaaah!"
"Whoooooo!"
The shouts sounded through the stillness, wild screams bursting in a scream of frenzy. There were no men's screams but the yips of beasts, coarse and animal, matured by fear of brutes.
Kael's muscles drew taut against Valkar's chest. The scream crept down his spine like icy claws, with every wail echoing the promise of agony. Men screamed in the distance, and unnatural, inhuman growls—feral cries echoing with hunger and hunger.
And they were closing in.
The ground thundered dully under, tremoring waves surging with the rhythm of rumbling hoofs and creaking timbers. An instant later, the broken line of wagons came in view, tobogganing over the iced terrain. They didn't slow down till they nearly came crashing on top of them, and with a harsh bite of brakes, the caravan stopped.
