“Get those doors barred before they think to test them.”
The village had woken halfway through a scream and never found the end of it. Sienna rode in at the front of her guard and saw a place built for quiet, little houses painted with ash-lime, door frames rubbed with oil, pale curtains hung to dry in open windows, and understood how easily quiet could be torn. Wolves had already tested the first thresholds; you could see it in the claw marks along lintels, in the way the grain ran raw where teeth had tried the corners. Smoke climbed from two roofs. Not fire yet. Threat.
“Children to the church,” Eamon called, voice deep enough to be heard, not sharp enough to break. “No one alone. Eyes up.”
People obeyed because they wanted to believe in someone. They let the queen look like a queen a
