Lady Lethren broke the spell by walking straight through the choke point, chin up, cloak trailing behind like a dare. The squad adjusted, fanned, flowed after her with a discipline he didn't know they possessed.
Soren felt the tension sublimate, but not dissipate, evaporated from the air and condensed directly into the team's muscles, ready to flash-freeze at the next problem.
The corridor pinched, then spilled out into a shallow basin. Soren saw, from the tracks in the mud and the snapped brush, that they were not the only ones using this route, but whoever else had traveled here did so with more care, or more fear.
He counted four sets of bootprints, two light, two heavy, and all veering off the trail before the clearing. He let it register, then passed the nonverbal to the twins, who each peeled off in turn to check the perimeter.
Kale whispered, "Remind me whose bright idea it was to guard the only person less popular than the swordmaster?"
