“And didn’t he just visit his family recently?” Elowen pressed.
Lady Sophia cleared her throat, once again glancing at Theo before she spoke.
“Yes, I think so. That sounds right.”
Elowen’s brow crinkled as she studied her friend, but she didn’t push further.
They rode for less than an hour through the trees before emerging into a large, cleared area. They were met by a collection of scattered stone cottages nestled below a wooded slope of surprising height. It would have been a picturesque scene if not for the enormous section of slope that had fallensharply away and the signs of several ruined houses under the debris at the base. There was rubble and dirt everywhere, and branches stuck out of the mud at strange angles, bearing testament to the trees that had been ripped out by the motion of the landslide.
Everyone had fallen silent at the confronting sight, dismounting in silence as the village head approached. The duke took the opportunity to address his daughter, his voice stern.
“Sophia, you and the princess are to keep well back. Stay with the guards, all right?”
“Yes, Father, we will,” Lady Sophia said earnestly.
Theo handed his horse over to Paulson, following the duke with only a swift glance back at the women. Elowen looked disappointed but resigned. Given the events of the dam rupture, not to mention the tower collapse right before he arrived in Toledda, Theo was relieved she was being cautious.
He, on the other hand, intended to be right among the action. He shadowed the duke closely as he spoke to the village head, and heard several similar accounts of what had occurred. The incident was bizarre, given the mild weather they’d been having and the absence of any known cause of the landslide, but there wasn’t anything beyond that to support the view that the event was suspicious.
Until the village head took them around the far side of the destroyed area, and introduced them to one of the men working to clear it.
“You’ve heard the basics of what happened,” the village head said. “But Ralph is the one who was closest, and he reckons he saw something none of the rest of us did.”
His interest caught, Theo strode alongside the duke to meet this Ralph. He was a muscled man in middle age, with graying hair and work-roughened hands.
“Yer Grace, Yer Highness,” Ralph said, bowing briefly to them both after the village head had explained the purpose of their visit. “I doubt I can help much, but I’m happy to answer any questions. Only I’d prefer not to leave the fellers to continue without me too long, since I’m directing operations.”
“We won’t keep you long,” the duke said. “Apparently you were close at hand when the landslide occurred?”
“Aye, that’s right,” Ralph said. “Not a blessed thing I could do to stop it, though.”
“Of course not,” the duke said reassuringly. “Are you familiar with Dust? Magic, I mean?”
Ralph looked bemused. “I know what it is, if that’s what yer asking. But I don’t know how to manipulate it. Never learned. Never learned much beyond my father’s trade, actually. My family’ve been woodcutters long as anyone can remember.”
“So there’s no one in this village proficient enough in magic to tell if anything was different at the time of the landslide?” Theo pressed.
The man shrugged. “Don’t reckon so, Yer Highness.”
“And what time did it happen?” Theo asked.
Ralph scratched his chin, considering. “I’d had cause to stop home at lunchtime that day, and was just leaving the village again. I reckon about half past one.”
Theo said nothing, but he was silently calculating. It was a similar time to when he’d felt something strange in the maze run. A chill went over him. There wasn’t enough evidence to draw a clear connection between the two events, and he found himself hoping it was only his imagination bringing them together. He didn’t like to think how significant a magical event would be required for something happening out here to affect the movement of Dust in the capital.
“We were told you saw something no one else did,” the duke prompted Ralph.
“Aye, Yer Grace.” He nodded. “I saw a young feller running away just after the landslide.”
“Someone you recognized?” the duke asked.
Ralph shook his head. “His face was covered with a scarf, so I can’t be sure. But I know all the lads in the village, and I don’t reckon he was one of ours. Mebbe that’s why, but it seemed odd to me, the way he was running away.”
“Wasn’t everyone running away?” the duke asked.
“Yes, but from the base of the hill,” Ralph clarified. “This feller was at the top. Mebbe he was just scared of sliding down the hill along with all the mud and rock and trees, or mebbe he had something to do with it. Who knows?”
“What else can you tell us about him?” the duke asked, his eyes sharp with interest. “His clothes, any details you can remember.”
