"Exactly the same?"
Lynn sprang to his feet, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.
"Let's go."
Without a moment's hesitation, Lynn gave the order.
Fifty men were left behind to guard the camp and supplies.
Lynn personally took the remaining hundred elite warriors and followed Jason through the night toward the mysterious river valley.
That way, if he failed to return, the men left behind could head back to Castle Black in time to fetch reinforcements.
At night, the Haunted Forest was even more sinister and terrifying than by day.
Twisted shadows of trees swayed in the wind and snow like monsters baring their fangs and claws.
The cold wind swept through the woods with a mournful howl.
Yet not a single man in the party was afraid.
They followed behind Lynn, the weapons and torches in their hands giving them boundless courage.
They passed through a dense grove of black pines and skirted several treacherous cliffs.
A long, narrow river valley appeared before them, hemmed in by two towering mountain ranges.
Within the valley, a frozen river wound onward, vanishing into endless darkness.
Thick snow covered the ground along both banks.
Black objects lay scattered across the snow.
Lynn drew closer to look, and his pupils contracted.
They were bones.
Human bones.
Heaps upon heaps of human remains had been carelessly discarded along both banks.
Some of the bones still bore marks where beasts had gnawed on them.
"This is..."
Torrhen sucked in a sharp breath.
"Is this a slaughterhouse?"
"No." Lynn shook his head, his expression grave.
"This is a warning."
He pointed to the arrangement of the remains.
They were not scattered at random, but deliberately arranged into strange spiral patterns.
Lynn had seen those patterns described in the original story.
They were the mark of