Chapter 68: Try Me

Leah looked up and spotted a lone rider silhouetted against the horizon. The steed's hooves clopped loudly against the basalt. The front line of soldiers parted to make way. The strip of cloth tied over the rider's forehead held back his long, dark hair, even longer than Leah's now, and covered the scarred brand of his past life. His calculating eyes darted furtively around the crowd-alliance or not, Sergeant Hook Bard was still uncomfortable around so many people.

Leah demanded no report. She waited until the silent soldier was ready. He let go of the reins and raised his hands.

"There are more of them than we thought," he signed.

Leah scanned the soldiers around her. None in this group, to her knowledge, could read Hook's signs except for Olorus and herself. She tried to keep a blank expression as she raised her hands and signed back, "An enemy army?" She felt clumsy doing it. She understood the signs well enough but was not very good at making them.