They left at dawn.
Four wolves, traveling light — Damien, Cord, Rena, Mira. The forest north of Silverfang was old and dense and Mira moved through it differently than she had on the first morning she'd walked through the southern territory. Three weeks ago she had been a girl reading the forest for threats. Now she was reading it for approach routes and cover positions and the specific quality of sight lines at dawn versus full light.
She had become someone else without noticing the precise moment it happened.
The first day was quiet.
Mira spent it in the particular productive silence of someone working through a complex problem — the Council hearing, Greer's testimony, the two Elder families aligned with Valdris, the argument that would need to be made not just legally but persuasive
