Arturo counted maybe 20-25 Gold-rank signatures underground. Possibly more, sensing through earth and stone was imprecise.
It could mean that Orion anticipated the Silver army was expendable while he maintained a core of true power in reserve.
Either possibility was unsettling for different reasons.
If Orion considered the surface army expendable... What did that say about his strategic calculations? About how much power he actually had access to? About what he was planning next?
Questions without immediate answers. But questions that would need answering soon.
For now, Arturo needed to concentrate on neutralizing the immediate threat of hundreds of tamers in the immediate range and the thousands still organizing for more coordinated responses.
The enemy army, despite having lost some hundreds in Selphira's first attack, was still very large in absolute numbers.
