The ridge stayed quiet long after the captain left. Not the comfortable quiet of routine. The other kind. The kind where every small sound feels misplaced. Boots scraping stone below, canvas snapping, metal adjusting, normal camp noises.Yet each one seemed louder than it should have been.
Roah rested his hands behind his back again, posture straight, gaze forward.
Linh remained beside him, but for once he wasn't talking. That was enough to cause a different type of unsettling.
When Linh stopped making noise, it meant his instincts were working. And Linh's instincts were hardly what he'd want to see in action anytime soon.
"You're thinking too hard," Roah muttered after a while.
"I always think."
"Yeah, sure."
Far out, the distant structures shimmered. Smoke drifted from a few points. Cooking fires maybe or forges. Either option was unpleasant.
"Do you ever wonder," Linh said, voice low, "what they look like up close?"
Roah glanced sideways.
"We've seen them."
