"You have a strange way of finding trouble, blacksmith," Kira muttered softly, though her voice carried unshakable loyalty. "But you are right about one thing; predictability is the quickest way to end up with an arrow in your throat."While Kael and Kira spoke inside the warmth of the medical cave, three leagues to the south, the cold night told a far more dangerous story. Deep within the pine forests that choked the lower mountain ravines, dark shadows moved through the snow without a sound.Queen Eleanor had not sent her armored soldiers with roaring war horns or heavy iron battering rams to storm the high cliffs. She knew the mountain fighters held the narrow passes, and she knew a direct assault would only feed the rocks with royal blood.Instead, forty elite scouts dressed in white wolf skins crawled through the snowdrifts along the outer perimeter of the sanctuary. Their orders were stamped with the queen's private seal of black wax: observe every trail, record every footprint,

"No," Eleanor commanded, stepping close until her steel breastplate was inches from his face. "Send two companies of infantry north to maintain the illusion, but keep our best shadow scouts watching the old mountain roads.""You believe they are still hiding in the southern valley?" the lieutenant asked in confusion."I know they are," Eleanor answered, a cruel smirk touching her lips. "Whoever set this trail was clever, but he made one fatal mistake: he made it far too easy to find."Back in the hidden mountain sanctuary, the afternoon sun cast long shadows across the muddy courtyard. Kael sat on an empty wooden crate beside the well, sharpening his hunting knife with a wet whetstone.Kira jogged across the snow, her wool cloak covered in white frost as she returned from the lower scout post. Her face was grim, her eyes dark with frustrating news as she stopped beside his bench."Our outrider just returned from the valley crossroads, Kael," Kira said, leaning down to speak in a quiet

"The food wagon," Brand said, his voice dropping into a terrifying growl. "The salt story was clean, and the horse story was clean; the leak came from the external trade route!""It means our fighters inside this camp are innocent," Kael said, feeling a heavy weight lift from his chest. "Daren is clean, Ren is clean, and the scouts never touched the gold.""Then who received the third message about the food wagon?" Brand demanded, turning his fierce eyes on Kael. "Who did we send that dispatch to this morning?""Master Corin," Kira answered softly, her face pale with shock. "The goods merchant who delivers iron nails and wool blankets to our lower gate.""Corin has been trading with our people for four years!" Brand yelled. "His brother died fighting the palace watch in the lower city! Why would he sell us out to the Grand Regent?""We do not know what happened until we look him in the eye," Kael replied firmly, checking the hunting blade at his belt. "Take four men, Brand; we ride to

High up on the dark ridge above the bridge, Kael and Kira watched the royal soldiers celebrate their easy capture. The soldiers cheered loudly, raising their torches high as they turned the captured wagons toward the palace road."They took the bait," Kira whispered, letting out a long breath of white mist into the freezing night air. "They truly believe they broke our winter supply line.""They captured three cartloads of mountain dirt covered in salt dust," Kael answered quietly, watching the torches fade into the trees. "And Corin's daughter stays alive in her cell for another week.""You saved the sanctuary from being starved out, Kael," Kira said, looking at him with deep emotion in her eyes. "If we had stayed behind our stockade like Brand wanted, we would have lost everything tonight.""We bought time, Kira, nothing more," Kael replied, turning his back on the empty road. "The palace will realize the truth soon enough, and when they do, the game will turn bloody."By the followi

"Jared told me she was not the one Seraphina took," Kael replied, his mind spinning with questions. "If Lily escaped the city on her own feet, she is running for the sanctuary of her order.""Then she is walking straight into a trap," Ren grunted, struggling through the waist-deep drifts behind them. "If a woodcutter's wife knows she is at the shrine, Eleanor's shadow hounds will find her by nightfall."After two hours of hard climbing, the narrow trail opened onto a circular clearing carved out of the mountain rock. At the center of the clearing stood an ancient stone shrine, its slate roof collapsed under decades of winter ice.The stone pillars were covered in thick white frost, and the central basin was frozen solid with gray river mud. The place was dead and silent, with only the lonely cry of a mountain hawk echoing off the cliffs above."There is no one here," Ren muttered, leaning his heavy hands on his knees as he caught his breath in the freezing air. "The shrine is empty, bo