I made a brief head count of the people that had managed to escape the gate with me. There was Cressida, there was Odelia and Ophelia, all three slumped on the horse, completely unconscious.
Then with Maggie there was Nisha and Milo, those two also out cold. They looked worse than the others, like they needed urgent medical attention.
Actually, all of them needed medical attention!
I belatedly slipped off the horse, and when I lay on the ground I glanced around to take in my surroundings.
I was in the woods, but it was clearly different from the woods that had led us into the Spirit Gate in the first place.
This forest was twisted. There were a lot of leaves on the ground, leaves that had gone a sickly yellowish color. The trees that stretched across the expanse had charred black bark and their branches were stripped bare, as if they had all just withstood some tormenting storm that had sucked the life out of everything in its path.
