As she was passing by her, Gisela worriedly called to Hilde, "Why aren't you coming in?" Her mother tugged at her arm, urging her to walk on, while Hilde smiled tightly, hoping to convey reassurance.
Though she'd have wanted to wait there until all who were seeking their way back had also passed through, she knew she couldn't. Those others wouldn't be coming from such an obvious direction, in any case.
As she was thinking this, resigned to following in after the very last of the soldiers who served as escorts had also entered the gate, a nearby torch happened to shine fully on a pair of eyes, but Hilde would not have noticed this at all had those eyes not been trained straight at her.
She blinked. Straining past the shadows and at the thick, dark curtain of hair that framed a suspicious
