RIDING WITH THE BEAST
We reached the ford at mid‑morning, the river running wide and brown between its banks, the air thick with the smell of damp earth and nervous sweat. The settlement stood clustered on the far side — low cottages, a rough wooden palisade only half‑finished, fields newly planted but untended. When we rode into view, the people came out to meet us carrying spears and staves, their faces tight with suspicion, their eyes darting between us and the dark line of trees behind them where Corvus’s men might be watching at any moment. They had not come to fight us — but they had come to be ready, and that was the saddest thing of all.
Kael raised his hand to halt our party, and we dismounted well out of bow range, leaving our swords sheathed at our sides. He walked forward alo
