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Dawn came thin and bright, a pale gold band over the dune sea. Kai already knew about the incoming attack. A team of scouts had seen them and informed him. Kai was already prepared for the attack. He didn't know the time. But now he knew they were coming. The mountain took the light the way a shield takes a blow — steady, without a sound.
A drone scout reached the upper ledge at a dead run, fell to one knee, and tapped the pattern Skyweaver had taught them: two quick, one slow, two quick. Column in the sands. One body. Heavy.
Kai already stood at the outer lip with his hands folded behind him. He did not need the pattern to know. He had slept with a map behind his eyes and woke with the same lines burning like wire.
"Good," he said to the scout. "Drink, then to Shadeclaw. Tell him: shift the first scrapes one span deeper. We will take their first line, not their second line, yet."
