Nobody moved for a long moment.
The fire crackled between us like it had not just heard what Dane said.
---
"How long has the scout been there?" Riven asked. His voice was the same as always. Calm. But there was something underneath it now.
"Since before she woke up," Dane said. He did not look at me when he said it.
He did not need to. We were all thinking the same thing.
The scout showed up the same morning I did.
---
"That is not a coincidence," I said.
"No," Soren said. "It is not."
I looked at Riven.
"Someone followed me," I said. "Even after I crossed the river."
"Not followed," Riven said. "Tracked."
---
There is a difference between the two and we both knew it.
Following meant someone was behind me. Tracking meant someone already knew where I was going before I got there.
That was worse.
---
"Who knows about the pendant?" Riven asked me directly.
"The healer," I said. "And now the four of us."
"The healer told no one else?" he asked.
"She did not have time," I said. "The soldiers were at her door when I left."
---
I stopped.
The soldiers.
"The soldiers who came to Ashveil," I said slowly. "They were not just there for the conscription order were they."
"Probably not," Soren said.
"They were looking for me specifically," I said.
"Or looking for the pendant," Riven said. "Which amounts to the same thing."
---
Dane stood up.
He was the kind of man who thought better on his feet. I had known him for less than an hour and I could already see that.
"The scout is alone from what I can tell," he said. "But alone scouts do not stay alone for long."
"How much time do we have?" Riven asked.
"If they sent a runner when they spotted her?" Dane said. "Half a day. Maybe less."
---
Half a day.
I looked around the camp. Thirty people. Shelters they had clearly built over time. Supplies. A life they had made in unclaimed territory away from everyone who wanted to control them.
And I had brought trouble straight to their door on my first night here.
"I should leave," I said.
---
All three of them looked at me.
"If I go they follow me and your camp stays safe," I said. "It is simple."
"It is not simple," Riven said.
"You have thirty people here," I said. "I am not going to bring a fight to them because of something I did not even know I was carrying yesterday."
---
"Where would you go?" Soren asked.
I opened my mouth.
Closed it again.
He had a point and he knew it.
"I would figure it out," I said.
"Alone," he said. "In unclaimed territory. With people tracking you who already knew where you were going before you did."
He said it very calmly. Just laying out facts.
I hated that he was right.
---
"She stays," Dane said.
I looked at him. That surprised me.
He caught my expression.
"Not because I have gone soft," he said flatly. "Because running is exactly what they want her to do. A moving target is easier to catch than a defended one."
He looked at Riven.
"We deal with the scout now. Before they send word back."
---
Riven nodded once.
"Soren," he said.
"Already thinking about it," Soren said. He was turning his blade over in his fingers again. That seemed to be what he did when his mind was working fast.
"Can you get to the south ridge without being seen?" Riven asked.
"Can I—" Soren stopped. Looked at Riven like the question had mildly offended him.
"Right," Riven said. "Stupid question."
---
Soren stood and disappeared between the shelters without another word.
I watched the space where he had been.
"He is very quiet when he moves," I said.
"Part elf," Riven said. "They are all like that."
"Is he going to hurt the scout?" I asked.
"He is going to find out who sent them," Riven said. "What happens after that depends on the answer."
---
Dane was already moving through the camp. Quiet words to certain people. A hand signal here and there.
The camp did not panic. Nobody ran. But things shifted. People moved differently. Items got tucked away. Children were guided toward the inner shelters.
They had done this before.
---
"How often do you have to do this?" I asked Riven quietly.
"Often enough that everyone knows their part," he said.
"That is a sad answer," I said.
"It is an honest one," he said.
---
He looked at me.
"Stay close to the fire and do not move toward the tree line for any reason," he said. "Can you fight?"
"Badly," I said.
"Badly is better than not at all," he said. "There is a blade under the bedroll in your shelter. Get it."
---
I went and got it.
It was a short blade. Simple handle. The kind of thing that was useful at close range and not much else.
I turned it over in my hand.
I had used a blade exactly twice in my life. Both times on accident involving kitchen work.
This was fine. Everything was fine.
---
I came back to the fire and stood where Riven told me to stand.
The camp had gone quiet in a way that felt deliberate. People in place. Eyes out.
The forest around us looked exactly the same as it had ten minutes ago.
That did not mean it was.
---
We waited.
Waiting is its own kind of hard. Your mind fills up the silence with everything that could go wrong.
I made myself focus on the sounds. Wind. Birds. The fire.
The pendant was warm against my leg.
---
Twenty minutes passed.
Then Soren came back through the trees.
He was not alone.
---
The person with him was young. Younger than I expected. Maybe sixteen. Small frame. Dark eyes that were taking everything in with a kind of desperate calculation.
Not a soldier. Not a pure blood wolf either from what I could see.
A hybrid. Like me.
---
Soren brought them to the fire.
Dane appeared from somewhere and looked the newcomer over with his arms crossed.
"Scout?" he said to Soren.
"Watcher," Soren said. "There is a difference."
"Explain," Dane said.
---
Soren looked at the young person beside him.
"Tell them what you told me," he said.
The young hybrid looked around at all of us. Their eyes landed on me and stayed there.
"You are the one with the pendant," they said.
It was not a question.
"Yes," I said. "Who are you?"
---
"My name is Pip," they said. "I was sent to find you."
"By who?" Riven asked.
Pip hesitated. Just for a second.
"By the others," they said. "The ones who got out of the villages before the soldiers came."
---
I went still.
"How many others?" I asked.
"Forty three," Pip said. "So far. More coming in every day as the soldiers push further into the inner lands."
Forty three people. Pushed out of their homes. Hiding somewhere in unclaimed territory.
---
"Where are they?" I asked.
"Two hours east," Pip said. "We found an old structure. Big enough to shelter everyone for now."
They looked at me steadily.
"We heard about the pendant," they said. "Word travels fast when people are scared and looking for something to hope for."
---
I looked at Riven.
He was watching me with that steady expression.
I looked at Soren. He had put his blade away.
I looked at Dane. He was still unreadable but he had uncrossed his arms.
Then I looked back at Pip.
---
"They are hoping for me," I said. It came out quieter than I meant it to.
"Yes," Pip said simply.
How did I tell this kid that yesterday I was collecting herbs for an old healer and trying not to get mud on my boots?
How did I tell forty three displaced people hiding in an old building that the person they were hoping in had never even successfully shifted?
---
I did not tell them that.
"Take me to them," I said.
---
Pip blinked. Like they had expected more resistance.
"Now?" they asked.
"Is there a better time?" I said.
Pip almost smiled. Just a little.
"No," they said. "Now is good."
---
I looked at Riven.
"I thought I was supposed to stay close to the fire," I said.
"Plans change," he said. And he was already reaching for his coat.
---
Dane made a sound that might have been a sigh.
"I will get the others," he said. And walked off through the camp.
Soren looked at me across the fire.
"Forty three today," he said quietly. "How many tomorrow?"
---
I did not have an answer for that.
But the pendant pressed against my leg like it did.