The first thing through the western breach was a hand.
It came through alone, four-fingered and grey and easily the size of a cart, and it planted itself flat against the broken ground as though testing whether the world on this side would hold its weight.
"That's a scout," Lily said quietly, watching it from the ridge above. "Something's checking the ground before it commits."
"Then let's make sure it reports back badly," Almond said.
The hand found its footing and pulled, and the rest of it came through in one long dragging motion, a hunched grey thing with no visible head and shoulders wider than the breach it had just squeezed out of. It straightened to its full height, taller than any building the kingdom had ever built, and turned slowly in place as though listening for something.
