Pursuit of the Sun 1.2

Voldemar's dozen marches through the slums – there's so much noise that dogs huddle in their homes, and rats hide in their burrows. The two-legged rats don't show any signs of life at all – not a word is heard, not a glimmer of light is seen in the midnight gloom – it's a frosty and clear night, and the moon points the way for them.
The witch's hut turns out to be just three hundred steps from the site of the evening clash, and it's not really a hut, if you compare it to the surrounding shacks – it's a fairly sturdy stone building, built centuries ago – but not so large that it could hold more than a dozen, at most two dozen people, if they were packed in there like sardines in a barrel. The house is as dark and silent as all the others.