The Tangle Where we drift and call it dreaming

Now that Blixen mentioned it, he supposed it made sense. Terrain that was dangerous for its denizens was even moreso for its enemies; invaders would be hard-pressed to make it far in the Tangle without being detected, and they would find their path blocked in half a dozen ways if they tried. Maybe being more familiar with the place would make it easier to traverse, although he kept his doubts. At almost the same instant Blixen tripped, Ephraim slammed his side unwittingly into a branch that arced into their pack and winced.

He blinked politely but without much comprehension when Blixen mentioned Mallaidh, then nodded his understanding at her own reasons. He didn't know what the black-hooded woman had to do with it, but he also favoured the idea of a new branch being close by. Ankyra Sound would have been perfect but this was a close second. He kept to himself the quiet design that one day Heda might allow him to take the Sound for Drageda—somehow it felt presumptuous to even think such a thing.

Her grin wasn't convincing enough to fool Ephraim, who was growing ever more clever by the day, but he shot back one of his own that he hoped was warm enough to mask his uncertainty. It's a good place, he said quietly. We'll figure out the easiest way around it soon enough. If nothing else, it would allow them to rally with scarcely a moment's notice to Dragoncrest if ever they needed to... provided they could find their way through the thick tangle of trees.