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He looked over Thea's shoulder at the ragged dozen who had started the day as fifty and the ragged ten who had started as twenty. He looked past them to Yavri's wedge, where discipline sat with its hands folded because it is polite until called up to the table. He looked beyond that to the edge of the forest, where shadows had decided that tonight they would be honest and not hide anything useful.
"Silvershadow, Shadeclaw — clean the field. Take the tracking stones if you find them. They'll tell us who paid for this. No trophies. No joy. Work."
"Yes," they said together, which is how you know you are standing in the right place when the world is trying to push you.
Yavri raised a gauntlet just enough to make courtesy without kneeling to anyone's crown.
"Permission to resume prisoner status after the line is reset," she said, scrupulous as a ledger that refuses to lie even when lying would make your dinner hot.
