she reports and seen the maps, yet nothing could have prepared her for the reality of standing before an army so vast that it seemed to swallow the horizon itself.
“They’re… endless,” she whispered.
Kael stepped beside her, his bandaged shoulder hidden beneath a dark cloak. The wound from the assassin’s arrow had not diminished his commanding presence. His golden eyes swept calmly across the battlefield, studying the enemy’s formations with the focus of a king who had spent his life preparing for moments like this.
“They’re afraid,” he said quietly.
Nyra turned to him in confusion.
“They outnumber us twenty to one.”
“They do.”
“Then why would they be afraid?”
Kael’s gaze never left the enemy.
“Because no kingdom gathers this many soldiers unless they believe a single person is pow
