Garren ca down several minutes later, moving carefully on the stairs in the dark, one hand on the wall.
He had clearly been asleep, his eyes had the weighted look of soone pulled out of deep sleep before they were ready, and he was still pulling his outer garnt straight as he crossed the hall to the door.
He unbolted it and pulled it open.
Darion ca in.
Garren closed the door behind him and bolted it again, then turned and looked at Darion properly. Whatever he saw in Darion’s face or posture made him ask nothing imdiately. He just watched as Darion walked to the great hall and dropped into a chair.
"Unlike you to co back this early," Garren said.
Darion didn’t answer right away. He was looking at the cold fireplace.
Garren looked at him for a mont. "You aren’t going to sleep, are you."
Darion ran a hand through his hair. "We need to talk."
Garren crossed to the fireplace without being asked, crouched, and began setting the fire. He worked at it efficiently.
The fire caught after a minute, small at first and then growing, the warmth beginning to push into the room.
He pulled the chair opposite Darion and sat.
Darion leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.
"They were awake," he said. "All of them. The barracks was lit up, n moving around inside. Up and awake playing card gas and engaging in conversations. The full night watch but inside the building too, not just the exterior guards. I didn’t know what I was looking at when I first got into the tree. I thought maybe it was a temporary thing, maybe if was a special event happening. I waited to see if they would settle."
"They didn’t settle," Garren said.
"No. As soon I looked with the perceptive glass, they imdiately saw ."
Garren’s expression shifted slightly. Not alarm, just attention sharpening.
Darion continued. "Sa tree, sa position I’ve used every ti. Six or seven of them started pointing at the treeline and shouting before I understood what was happening. Then they were moving, not toward the gate, over the fence, straight at the treeline. I was stunned by that sight of aggressiveness and determination. They were fast. Like n who had been waiting for exactly this and the waiting was over."
"How many ca at you?"
"Thirty, forty initially. More coming out of the barracks behind them. It would have been hundreds within minutes."
Garren was quiet for a mont. "And they’d been staying awake all night waiting for you."
"Yes."
"Had any of them caught you before? Any previous night, any sign that soone had spotted sothing and you’d missed it?"
Darion thought about it. "Nothing I noticed. The nights before tonight felt clean. Guards talking, guards sleeping, no one watching the treeline specifically." He paused. "I didn’t know the full wakefulness was because of . When I climbed the tree and saw them active, I assud it was a general response to the deaths. I didn’t see it as them actively hunting for the source."
"That was the mistake," Garren said, without judgnt. "But could it be called a mistake if you didn’t know what was happening and was trying to find out?"
Darion remained silent.
"What did you lose?" Garren asked.
"Everything except my original wild wolf. All thirty-five undead knights. The five pack wolves I recently created. The bats I left behind when I rode out, they would have dissolved when the fighting ended and they were killed." He paused. "The bats got a lot of bites in during the chaos, for what that’s worth. But I lost the whole undeads."
Garren scratched his chin. "Did they see your face?"
"No. Since I was wearing a dark clothing with the hood up, and I was in the tree for most of it. When I ca down, I ca down on the wolf and was gone before anyone got close."
"So they don’t know who you are."
"They know I’m a Necromancer. They saw the skeleton knights materialize and they saw the wolves. They couldn’t miss what that was." Darion leaned back. "They don’t know where I’m from."
Garren was quiet, working through it. "They’ll investigate which neighboring territories have a Necromancer."
"That’s what I’ve been thinking."
"Which ans they’ll eventually hear about Percvale. How much has gone out about your class?"
"The citizens here know. Sa with theknights." Darion thought about Gonnb. The survivors who had fled into the dark before the end. "The Gonnb survivors saw sothing. Skeleton knights fighting and the wolf. They might not have put the word Necromancer to it specifically, but they saw enough."
"And Gonnb survivors talking to Valdenmoor survivors—"
"Is not impossible," Darion finished.
He looked at the fire for a mont.
"So what now," Garren said. "Another infiltration is off the table. They’ll have n in those trees every night from this point. They’ll be watching everything."
Darion said nothing.
"The deadline is still coming," Garren said. "And you’ve lost your entire undeads. You’d need days just to rebuild what you had."
"I know."
"Do you give up the farmland?"
The word no ford in Darion’s chest before it reached his mouth. He couldn’t give up the farmland.
The farmland was everything. The livestock needed it, Seren’s work was on it, the seeds he had planted were already showing in the soil, the whole forward direction of Percvale ran through that ground. Handing it to Valdenmoor wasn’t losing a debt. It was losing the future.
He looked at Garren for a long ti. Garren waited.
"They’ve left with no choice," Darion said. "What if the next infiltration doesn’t target the knights barracks. What if it targets Aldric directly. Him and whoever sits closest to him."
Garren went still.
"That’s a significant leap, m’lord."
"It is."
"The king will be protected in ways the barracks wasn’t. Different building, different security, different—"
"Different," Darion agreed. "But not the sa problem I just walked into. The barracks had hundreds of n who had been told to stay awake and watch for sothing. Aldric’s chambers will have guards who are guarding against a conventional threat. A person breaking in. Soone with a weapon." He paused. "Not bats."
Garren was silent.
"I should have started there," Darion said. "I feel like I should have started with sothing like this."
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