<>
“Hold up,” Rich said, a puzzled note in his voice calling Brandon and Lena up short. “Something’s wrong with this trail.”
That was nothing new to Brandon, but he inspected the area anyway. There were tracks all over the place this close to the city.
“What’s the problem?”
The other man stared at the ground with a faint frown creasing his features. “He’s hiding his trail. I can’t tell which way he’s gone anymore.”
“This is a city, it was bound to get harder with the population this place has,” Lena said.
“I expected that, yes.”
They were just inside the city proper. There was no wall to mark the boundary of “city” versus “non-city,” but the road improved from barely more than hard-packed dirt to cobblestone that looked like it actually saw some cleaning now and then. The number of buildings was fast increasing, too. They stood at a crossroads with three directions to choose from before them.