Even the unflappable Caspian Rhodes was stunned silent by Arabella Donovan's completely unconventional words.
It took him a long moment to find his voice. "You mean... all the graves on this mountain are emitting green smoke?"
"No."
Caspian Rhodes let out a sigh of relief. But just as he was about to speak, Arabella Donovan added, "To be precise, the one in front of you is emitting green smoke. The rest are emitting black smoke."
"That..." Caspian Rhodes nearly choked.
While he could, at a stretch, console himself that an ancestral grave emitting green smoke was a good thing, black smoke could only be a terrible omen.
"So, can you tell what's going on with this smoke?"
"It seems to be... the resentment of your family's ancestors."
"Resentment?"
"It's the kind of resentment born from ancestors who, knowing from the great beyond that their descendants have disgraced them, are so furious they want to claw their way out of their coffins to beat them up, but can't."
