It was Zarsha, who saw the horse first. I followed her out stretched finger and then I saw it for myself. It was John's horse. We were in an area of the forest where two rivers converged, which had caused a swampy clearing of sorts.
Dismounting I left Zarsha on Flin's back, as I pulled my long sword from its saddle sheath out. I approached the horse we had seen on foot using the tall swamp grasses in the clearing for cover. The horse was tied to an old log beside the river and from the looks of it the horse had been tied up for some time there.
The horse had eaten all of the vegetation it could reach and it looked hungry for more. Further down the stream bank I saw a leg protruding out from behind a clump of swamp grass. I approached with my sword in hand ready to strike.
Rounding the grass clump I saw that it was John. He was dead, his eyes cold and lifelessly open as he lay on the sand. It appeared he had been reaching out for something with his right hand.
There was a message scrawled out in the wet sand. It was hard to read. "They took it. You were right. God forgive me."
He'd arrived at the answer to late I thought to myself in private sorrow as I imagined his last bitter moments of regret. Getting back up from my knees I followed the jumble of tracks leading to the shore. The roughed up area on a small tree and the tracks trailing into the water told me one thing, there had been a boat moored here.
I looked bitterly down the small river. They could move faster with a boat than I ever could on horseback through the dense forest and on top of that there was no way I could track them. They could have taken any one of a dozen tributaries that fed into larger rivers. They had at least a day and a half journeys start on me too. Pursuit was pointless.
I turned from the river's edge with a sick spirit of failure weighing heavily upon me. What now? There was only one thing left to do. Press on, and do the best I could at holding whatever darks revelations that the book may contain at bay, until it could be found and destroyed at a later date. With a heavy heart I headed back to Flin and Zarsha, after I released the priest's horse.
We were careful to avoid the large Attorgron towns. Once we had broken through the densest parts of the forest and into the more civilized tracks of habitation travel went much faster.