For a time, everything was quiet a little too quiet.
After we brought Orin back, the team went through the motions, but it wasn't the same. Everyone was pretending to act normal, but I could feel the current under the surface, sharp and heavy like a coiled spring.
Even Rikan, who usually joked his way through drills, barely spoke.
The only sound in the training yard that morning was the steady rhythm of our weapons cutting air.
"Again," I said.
Linou twirled his bow at an angle and shot at the target at a distance, landing the shot, before he gritted out, "We're not getting anywhere like this."
"You're right," Rikan muttered, swinging his blade in a wide arc that cracked the training dummy's neck joint. "Because we're not fighting the real enemy."
I turned to him. "And who would that be, exactly? Elder Jorah? The enforcers? The elders who hide behind closed doors?"
He met my gaze and said what we were all thinking. "All of them."
