“They always see us before we see them.” He started walking. “Try not to find that unsettling.”
I found it extremely unsettling, but I followed him anyway.
The settlement was nothing like Vorn's.
Where Vorn's people had built low and dark and into the ground, these people had built differently. Not up exactly, not in any way that defied the landscape, but alongside it, the structures shaped to follow the contours of the valley floor so precisely that from a distance they looked like features of the terrain rather than things anyone had made. Only close-up did the deliberateness become apparent, the way the stone had been placed, not stacked. The way the steam holes had been incorporated rather than avoided.
There were perhaps forty people. Maybe more, it was hard to tell because I knew they weren’t all there. There would be more in their homes, watching, possibly hiding.
The ones who showed themselves were watching us.
All of them. Without appearing to, without grouping or posturing or any of the threat displays I'd learned to read from years on the road. They were just… present. Fully, completely present in a way that made the hair on my arms stand up beneath my layers.
One of them stepped forward.
A woman. Older than anyone else visible, her face showed signs of someone who had spent their entire life in wind and cold and found it agreeable. Her eyes were a color I couldn't name in the light we had, but they were pale, almost colorless, like ice under a bright sun.
She looked at Vorn. Nodded once.
Then she looked at me.
And she didn't look away.
She didn’t look at me the way Vorn looked at me, assessing and strategic. Or the way Nicco looked at me, watchful and cataloging. This was different. This was the look of someone who was seeing something specific, something they recognized, and deciding what to do about it.
My magic, which had been quiet since we crossed the pass, stirred.
Just slightly. Just enough.
I pressed it down.
The woman's eyes flicked to my hand, resting against my sternum.
She said something. Not to me but to Vorn, in a language I didn't know, short and musical, nothing like anything I'd heard before.
Vorn answered in the same language, and whatever he said made her look at me again with that certain pale gaze. Then she said something else.
“What did she say?” I murmured to Vorn.
He was quiet for a moment. “She said she's been expecting someone like you.”
I looked at the woman. She was still watching me with that steady, recognizing expression.
“Like me,” I said carefully. “What does that mean?”
Vorn didn't answer immediately.
“Vorn.”
“She said she’s been waiting for one of the Verei Kahn to come.” He glanced at me sideways. “What haven’t you told me, Trailfinder?”
I knew I looked panicked because his hand grabbed me and pulled me into his side.
“I’m not Verei Kahn,” I whispered, my voice so low only he heard.
He watched me for a moment longer, then licked his bottom lip as his gaze darted to the woman.
“Vorn? Should I be afraid of them?” I asked him. My gaze had returned to the woman.
