The ride back from Stonebrook should have been a triumph.
The Second Trial was progressing well.
The frontier villages had been secured.
The smuggling network had been uncovered.
The people had welcomed both princes with growing admiration.
Yet no one celebrated.
Because one question refused to disappear.
Who had supplied the smugglers?
No army gathered weapons without help.
No fire spread so perfectly without planning.
Someone…
Somewhere…
Had opened the gates from within.
⸻
Three days after leaving Stonebrook, the royal expedition reached Greywatch Keep, a heavily fortified outpost overlooking Mournvale’s eastern trade roads.
Unlike Ironwatch, Greywatch was less a military fortress and more a center of communication.
Every caravan entering or leaving the eastern frontier p
