The air in the secondary tower corridor didn't flow; it stagnated, trapped by the massive, iron-reinforced oak doors that separated the war room from the living tiers.
Jaxon stood in the deep indentation of an archway, his massive frame blending into the gray basalt stone. The tallow torches were burning low, throwing long, erratic shadows across the floorboards that looked like skeletal hands reaching for the stairs.
From the courtyard below, the faint, rhythmic *clink-clink* of the vanguard sharpening their silver-tipped spears drifted up through the arrow-slits, a dull, militaristic pulse that timed the countdown to the winter solstice.
The latch of the war room door clicked.
Selene stepped into the corridor, her dark gray wool tunic swinging around her ankles with that clean, meas
