"Hunting," I answered briefly.
"Hunting," the girl emphasized the word, and then bent like her cat to pass under a large branch, "and what do you hunt?
"Anything larger and more dangerous than a perootle," I grinned. "Count Feanor wants to take the boundary road to Kostegrad, and he doesn't want dangerous neighbors on the road."
"And how much did he pay for it?"
"Nothing. I have one contract with the Order, and I'm serving it," I answered, and the girl stopped.
"An Order hunter, then? Why did you come to the villagers and not to us?" She met my gaze.
"I don't know how to find you," I fought the urge to throw up my hands.
"It's good that you don't know," the girl smiled again and turned away, "and, yes, we need help."
"What kind of help?"
"Later. Let's go to our village first," the girl answered mysteriously and once again pushed the branches apart and walked through the shrubbery. As we moved through the forest, the memories and knowledge of the guardian of the fortress came over me.
The sisters of the forest have long supported the humans in their battle against the creatures of Polog. When the ship Dawn reached the island, supporters of the Cult of the whisperers-in-the-night were found aboard. Due to strange circumstances, the Senior Inquisitor of Sonma ignored their presence. And what's more, the Grave Mohawk Dynasty openly recognized their rights and granted them the Cape of Ghosts on the island of Amberlight for eternal use. It was an impregnable arm, framed on all sides by rocks. Here the sectarians of the whisperers-in-the-night had made their home. To keep the peace, they supplied the palace with a mute-born girl, who was in the king's retinue along with the bishop, counselor, and inquisitor.
I distinctly recalled the feelings of the guardian who ruled the fortress. Perhaps he had been there. I thought I could feel the waves crashing against the rock, and the wind howling as it carried me away with the memory.
Later, at the very end of the First Age, at the behest of the mute-birth, after the first ships had landed from Amber Isle and the founding of Fortress Ruch, Kostegrad, and Innesent, she ordered the establishment of a settlement in the Dark Forest. Thus came the "laughing sisters" – the witches of this already inhospitable forest. And there's one of them up ahead, leading me through the forest.