When Sybyll reached the stretch of woods where Lady Nyrielle had told her Ashlynn would be waiting, she was momentarily shocked by the scene of devastation that greeted her.
Great gouges had been torn in the earth, leaving trenches deeper than she was tall and more than three paces long in the sodden earth. From the way many of them had filled with water, it was clear that they had been made the night before, or perhaps a few nights ago during the intense storm.
Whole trees had been torn in two from their trunks to their tips and several trees bore circular impressions as if they'd been hit with a boulder thrown by a Tuscan or some other giant. What little underbrush remained looked like it had been trampled beneath the hooves of dozens of horses, crushed into the soft earth or torn from its roots and hurled across the clearing.
