Natalie POV
The dawn that broke over the southern basin was not golden; it was a bruised, heavy shade of iron-gray, choked by massive banks of mountain fog that rolled down the slate cliffs like cold smoke. The air was thick with the scent of wet stone, rotted pine, and the sharp, metallic tang of localized frost that coated every blade of wild grass in a delicate layer of ice.
Our column moved in absolute, ghostly silence down the steep, winding switchbacks of the second ridge.
The heavy warhorses of the Blackwood vanguard had their iron hooves wrapped in thick layers of coarse burlap to muffle the sound of their descent against the loose shale. Two hundred elite heavy warriors rode in a single, flawless line, their polished black breastplates and dark helmets completely obscured by th
