The sky is red and orange in the east and purple in the west when you leave the inn, colouring the scattered clouds in pastels. The ground still squelches under your damp boots, but the sky has cleared up in the night. The air is brisk and the wind is fresh, and farmers already work their fields.<br/><br/>A short way out of town at the crossroads of the Vleris High Road and a simple track there is a spectacle, just as Hoost said. Five young trees, each looking to be eight or ten feet in height, form a grim copse. Impaled by the trees, with trunk and branches emerging in most gruesome patterns from heads and torsos. The trees have a strange red-streaked black bark. The limbs carry small black thorns, and at the end of each limb and branch are tiny golden yellow flowers.<br/><br/>The bandits all seem to be wearing all of their gear. Swords, a bow, a crossbow, and a spear can be seen laying on the ground. They and their gear are all scratched and lacerated, as if they pushed through dense thickets of thorn trees.<br/><br/>By her red hair Red Alys is easily recognized, and Kalben Eight-finger is marked by an old battle wound to his right hand. Big Horse and Little Horse, and the witch Mabd are easy to determine by simple elimination, at that point.