The Last Heiress
But it couldn't last, because in mid-December, Vex returned from one of her scouting expeditions with news that changed everything.
She looked worse than I'd ever seen her—her face was gaunt, her left arm was bandaged heavily, and there was a kind of desperate urgency in her eyes. Corvin hustled her inside immediately, and the rest of us were kept away from the initial conversation.
But rumors spread quickly in the keep. Someone had overheard. Someone had seen something. By evening, everyone knew.
"The creatures," one of the younger refugees said, his voice shaking. "The Scourge. They're moving again. Vex saw them. A whole group of them, heading southeast, toward Karenthel."