The eastern corridor was quiet in the specific way that quiet became loud once you knew what was coming.
Damon stood at the mouth of it, the low ridge curving away to his left and the open field stretching out ahead, and felt the particular stillness that preceded an engagement settle over the position.
Behind him, the main formation was a wall of organized motion and noise. Year Fives were finishing trap placements, Year Fours adjusting positions, the senior command structure making final corrections to a plan that had been built in under fifteen minutes and would need to survive contact with whatever was actually coming.
In front of him, nothing yet.
Just the field, and the dark line of forest beyond it where the horde's main body was reportedly still some distance off, and the narrower stretch of terrain to the east where his group's assignment waited.
