But the ground vibration didn’t fade. It deepened.
It moved through the soles of my boots and up my legs. Frost clung to the edges of grass, and the light overhead had turned strange, too bright and too dull at once, as if the sky couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be day.
Keegan’s gaze sharpened. “That’s not thunder.”
“And it’s not the Luminary,” my dad seconded.
Caleb slowed, then lifted his hand in a quiet signal. The shifters along the perimeter eased into a tighter formation, shoulders squaring, eyes scanning the horizon.
“That’s marching,” he said, voice low. “Thousands of feet.”
My stomach flipped.
Nova moved closer, her staff angled slightly forward, the crystal at its top catching the thin, shimmering light.
“We’re close,” she murmured. “Closer than I expected.”
“Because the long path wasn’t as long as she wanted it to be,” Stella muttered. “That’s the first good news we’ve had since breakfast.”
Twobble made a pleased sound from atop the bramblemule.
“You’re welcome. My morale leadership is working. The silver lining way of looking at things is always better.”
Skonk didn’t even bother answering.
The rumble grew louder as we climbed the final rise, the path narrowing into a ridge of pale stone that opened to a view beyond. The air tasted different here, metallic and sharp.
And then I saw them.
They weren’t a group or cluster.
They were a moving mass.
Thousands of orcs stretched across the valley below like a slow, relentless tide, their broad shoulders and heavy strides making the earth tremble beneath them.
Their skin ranged from deep mossy greens to weathered gray, and their armor, if you could call it that, was patched together from leather, bone, scavenged metal, and pieces of things I couldn’t identify.
Some carried massive axes slung over their backs. Others held clubs that looked like uprooted trees. Many wore braided cords and talismans, crude but purposeful, and their eyes glinted like stones in riverbeds.
Mondo boar moved among them. Their bodies were enormous and stubborn, carrying crates and bundles lashed to their sides, their tusks curved and gleaming. The boars snorted clouds of white breath into the cold air, and the orcs patted their flanks as if these hulking beasts were as normal as horses.
I hadn’t imaginedthis.
I knew the map showed thousands. I’d repeated the word in my head like a mantra, trying to make it less intimidating.
But standing here, looking down at them, feeling the ground shake with every step they took, I realized numbers on a glowing map didn’t carry the same weight as living bodies moving with purpose.
The warmth on my hip flared.
My birthmark burned, sharper now. It wasn’t a warning of danger from ahead but a signal that I was being watched again, as if the Priestess had leaned in closer to savor this moment.
I pressed my hand to my side, forcing my breath to stay steady. Panic wanted to rise, to flood my throat and make me freeze, but I couldn’t afford that, not now.
And certainly not with the orcs so close and with everyone watching me for what we did next.
So, I turned the panic into motion.
“Slow,” I said quietly, my voice carrying just enough. “We don’t rush. We don’t charge. We don’t look like we’re closing in.”
