While Ashlynn made preparations to welcome Ollie and Virve into her coven, a very different welcome was taking place outside the Vale of Mists.
At Young Lord Owain's insistence, Masters Isabell and Tiernan had accompanied the young lord and Lady Jocelynn all the way to the Town of Hanrahan, the seat of Baron Hanrahan's power and the center of Hanrahan Barony.
The journey took three days by carriage and they'd spent the previous evening in a tiny village at the eastern edge of the barony where the sheep outnumbered people by at least five to one. To hear Owain tell it, the lands they'd passed on their way to the very edge of the frontier were filled with untapped potential, but all the Masters saw when they gazed at the rolling hills studded by ancient rock formations was an endless array of challenges that would make taming the land difficult even for the most ambitious frontiersman.
