RIDING WITH THE BEAST
CHAPTER 65: THE QUIET BETWEEN STORMS
The days that followed were not filled with trumpets or great gatherings or speeches that echoed across the hills. They were filled with small, steady work — mending fishing nets frayed by winter gales, marking safe trails through the high passes, copying the charter onto strips of cured bark and soft cloth so it could travel light and far to places no heavy scroll would ever reach, teaching children to trace the marks that stood for fair share and safe passage and equal voice. We set watches along the ridges and the shore, but we did not arm only for war. We armed for care — packing bandages, extra grain, healing herbs, and spare horses alongside our blades, so we carried help as readily as we carried defence.
One afternoon, a
