Meret's hand shot up, silencing them all as hoofbeats thundered somewhere behind them on the road.
"Off the path," she hissed. "Now."
They scrambled into the treeline, Brennan gasping with the effort, and pressed low against the underbrush as a mounted patrol thundered past, torches blazing, clearly searching in the wrong direction for now.
"They'll widen the search fast," Meret whispered once the hoofbeats faded. "We don't have long."
"Then talk fast," Talyn said. "You said other guardianships. What do you actually know."
Meret glanced around once more before continuing, voice low and urgent. "The Concord's been documenting ancient guardianship bloodlines for years, cataloging them the way a merchant catalogs inventory. I've seen fragments of their research through compromised counci
