Page 262 of Salt Between the Wolves

His answer came too easily.

She glanced at him, and Leander's mouth curved faintly, though there was no amusement in it.

"If you did, I suspect you would already be gone."

The room went still, and neither of them moved as the unspoken thing stood between them with almost physical weight: a horse, a road, the mountain passes, Ironfang, Soren.

Then Leander inclined his head, stepping back before the silence could become a question he had no right to ask.

"I'll leave you to your letter."

He walked to the door, and before opening it, he paused.

"The tide turns before dawn."

Eira looked at him, but Leander did not turn around.

"Ships leave more easily with it."

Then he opened the door and was gone.

Eira stood alone in the quiet room, listening to his footsteps fade down the corridor, and only when they disappeared completely did she return to the desk.

The parchment still waited, and the ink beside Soren's name had dried.

She picked up the pen again, but for a long time she did not write, and then, very slowly, she folded the blank page around the single name and sealed it without adding another word.

Chapter 31: White Pass

Soren

The council chamber felt smaller than usual, not because more people occupied it, but because everyone already knew what the reports would say before the scouts opened their mouths.

The first messenger arrived before sunrise, the second before midday, and the third near dusk, and none contradicted the others.

Frostvein was moving, not with raiding parties or border patrols, but with deliberate, organized forces heading south.

Soren listened without interruption while markers accumulated across the map spread over the stone table, marking routes, supply trains, temporary camps, and scouting positions.

The information changed details, but it changed nothing important.

Vargan was coming.

Garrek studied the map. "If he continues west, we'll lose three settlements before we can stop him. "

"We won't."

Several heads turned toward Soren, and one of the elders frowned. "You sound certain."

"I am."

Silence followed as Kael leaned back against the wall. "Why?"

Soren's gaze remained on the map, because something about the reports had bothered him since morning—not what was present, but what was absent.

There were no burned farms, no seized roads, no attempts to disrupt trade, and no effort to weaken Ironfang's position before advancing.

Vargan was moving too quickly and too directly, like a hunter ignoring everything except the trail.