The night was thick with unease. Smoke from the burned-out siege engines curled across the camp, veiling the banners in shifting shadows. Soldiers huddled in uneasy silence, sharpening blades they no longer trusted, casting wary glances at one another as though every comrade might already be a traitor.Eldrin sat apart from them, hands clasped over his knees, the firelight painting his scarred face in hard relief. The whispers gnawed at him. Betrayal among their own ranks. Shade’s escape had not been a miracle of chance it had been orchestrated. Someone within had opened the way.Isolde stood at his side, arms folded tightly across her chest, her gaze fixed on the trembling light of the nearest torch. She looked as though carved from ice, but her eyes betrayed her: they burned with a storm of rage and grief barely contained.General Kael strode into the circle of firelight, his cloak torn, jaw set. He looked at the two of them Eldrin and Isolde before letting his voice carry across th

The war camp had once been a place of uneasy unity, a thin thread of shared purpose binding men who otherwise would have drawn steel against each other. Tonight, that thread frayed. The firelight cast long shadows across the circle of tents, painting faces with suspicion and unspoken rage.Dre stood at the center, his cloak stirring in the night wind, eyes burning as if he already knew the storm that was about to break. Around him, soldiers whispered, commanders glared, and allies turned enemies in their minds.“Speak then,” Kael demanded, voice hard as a blade being drawn. “We’ve buried too many secrets already. If betrayal festers in our ranks, it needs to be cut out now before it poisons everything.”His words cut through the murmurs.Silence followed until Shade stepped forward. His presence was like ice sliding across the skin, his hood casting most of his face in shadow, only his mouth visible. That cruel, half-smiling mouth.“You want truth?” Shade said softly. The softness mad

The horns cut off suddenly, leaving only the clash of steel and the screams of dying men. For a moment, Dre thought silence would bring relief. Instead, it brought terror.A shadow rolled across the battlefield. Not the kind cast by moonlight, but a living darkness that swallowed torches and firelight alike. Men tilted their heads skyward, weapons forgotten in trembling hands.Then came the shriek.It was not human, nor beast—it was something in between, sharp enough to split bone marrow, deep enough to make the earth itself shiver. Soldiers dropped their blades to cover their ears, blood dripping from torn eardrums. Horses reared, throwing their riders into the mud.Eldrin’s eyes widened in horror. “No… not them. Not here.”Kael grabbed his arm. “What in the hells are they?”Eldrin’s voice cracked as he forced the words out. “The Dravorn. Warlord’s winged hounds. They were sealed centuries ago—bound to the Shadow Realm. If he’s loosed them…” His face drained of color. “…then we are a

The night was too quiet. Too heavy.The campfires burned low, their smoke curling like fragile threads into the windless dark. Soldiers muttered in uneasy voices, sharpening swords that had already tasted too much blood, while others lay restless on the ground, their dreams broken by whispers of shadow.General Kael stood on the outer ridge, his eyes fixed on the horizon. The scar across his cheek seemed sharper in the moonlight, his jaw locked tight. He had been through wars before, yet this silence unnerved even him.Then he heard it.Not at first as sound, but as vibration — the ground quivering beneath his boots. A steady pulse, like a thousand hooves pounding in rhythm with a heartbeat.Kael’s eyes narrowed. “No…” he muttered.A young soldier beside him looked up, startled. “Sir?”Kael’s hand went to the hilt of his sword. “They’re here.”The words spread faster than fire. In moments, the entire camp stirred awake. Men leapt to their feet, helmets half-fastened, weapons snatched

The night did not fall gently.It shattered.The first horn blast tore through the camp like a blade, a raw and unrelenting sound that made even the bravest men flinch. Fires snapped to life along the ridge, torches carried by riders cloaked in darkness. The Warlord’s host descended not like an army, but like a storm breaking loose from the mountains, their war cries rolling across the plain with a force that made the ground tremble.General Kael was the first to recover his voice.“To arms! Shields to the line! Form ranks before they scatter us!”His bellow snapped soldiers from their panic. Men scrambled for spears, women fetched arrows from the supply carts, and the clatter of steel against steel rose like desperate thunder. Still, too many hesitated, eyes wide at the sight of the Riders cresting the hill, shadows swirling at their hooves as if the night itself obeyed them.Isolde pushed through the confusion, cloak whipping behind her. She seized a trembling boy no older than fift