Chapter 203: What the Walls Held
Govan Raiders' Village, The Gate
Torrelsav's POV
I'd already had the packs loaded before Haji's wolf even cleared the tree line.
The wrongness had been building for the better part of an hour. Across enough winters and enough battles I no longer bothered counting, I'd learned one thing: never wait for confirmation once your instincts have already made up their mind.
The forest's usual night-sounds had gone quiet. It was a heavy, waiting stillness that meant something considerably worse than silence was coming. No insects. No distant birdcall. Just a pressure against the skin like weather about to break. The mana in the air carried a taste like old ash—faint but unmistakable, and entirely new since dusk.
I'd stood at the village gate a long while, testing that taste against everything I knew, and finally called for the packs before a single alarm sounded.
