Tents won’t stand against hail, depending on how bad it is, how big the chunks are.
And I’m guessing, by the severe set of Arwyn’s face, and the brisk strides that Samick takes back to the campfire, that this isn’t some light hail headed our way.
TWO
The general’s deputy is fast to move. He lunges for the black wooden table lined with whips and weapons.
The weapons rattle as he snatches up something that looks too much like a bone.
I frown through the mist.
With the drizzle hanging in the air, it’s hard to see clearly through the distance, so I can’t quite tell what it is.
But then the deputy turns to face the unit of mostly sleeping warriors—
And he lifts the whitish thing to his mouth.
Not a bone.
It’s a horn.
The deputy throws his head back and billows a deep, stomach-reaching breath through it.
A yowl erupts through the camp.
I smack my hands to my ears and cringe.
Whatever that sound is, it’s fucking eerie. The crispy, whispering sound tickles my ears, claws through me, and makes my spine rattle.
I double over.
But the eerie whispering keeps crackling all around me—until it doesn’t, and the sound of rustling lures my clenched eyes open.
Every warrior is awake now.
Not only awake but moving, acting fast. Bags are being packed, dirt kicked onto fires, boots tugged on, weapons sheathed.
Even the kuris have emerged with their puffy bloodshot eyes and stifled yawns.
I expect the guards to push them, to shove them into action and get them started on packing up the camp.
But they don’t.
The guards are herding the captives.
They close in on them and, with steps advancing on the rest of the unit, drive them forward in a huddle.
That cold fear is shifting into something heavy, like a rhino sitting on my chest, and no matter how many times I rub my breastbone, it doesn’t ease.
Samick turns for us—and his face is chiselled ice, his eyes are flaring with lashings of frost.
His advance on me is unfaltering.
I shift onto my feet.
My new boots sink into the soil as I grab my backpack, then sling the straps over my shoulders, all without tearing my gaze from his.
Without hesitation, the second he’s reached me, his hand shoots through the air like a blur of ice, and I’m hauled to his side.
