Ash sensed something was wrong before the last of the trees fell behind him.
No children's voices. No sound of hammers or saws that should still have been audible from that distance. Pinedale in the middle of the day should have been loud, but what reached his ears was only silence, broken by sounds he did not recognize coming from the direction of the village hall.
He raised one hand and stopped. Wren, Dano, Raldo and the rest stopped behind him.
"What is it?" Wren whispered.
***