---
Silvershadow's first cut-line slid from nothingness to ankle height — the thin cord you only feel when you fall. The forward six on that flank went to one knee in a pretty little bow and didn't rise fast enough. Shale's heavies stepped into them, hammers down, not glorious, very effective.
"Roof," Yavri snapped, and her second rank dropped their shields like a lid. The line curled again, the sort of motion that makes a commander proud even when it costs. Oru's veil spilled forward to cover the stumble with a murk that would have made lesser eyes blink and miss.
Skyweaver dropped to knife-height along the outer edge of the veil and pushed with a gust that was more suggestible than wind. The veil moved with her like a curtain somebody opened the wrong way. For a heartbeat, the wedge lay naked from knee to chin.
"Now," Kai said.
