They had been moving for three days when the reinforcements finally appeared on the road ahead.
It was not the army Brina had quietly hoped for. Helwind could not be emptied of its forces and she understood that, but seeing the column size still settled something uncomfortable in her stomach. She pushed it aside and rode forward to meet them.
Master Deen was at the front, which was either reassuring or a sign that command considered this serious enough to send him personally. Probably both.
"Commander. Good to see you." She fell into step beside him. "I will fill you in on everything."
She did. All of it, the multiple Bearowls, the attack on the village, the emergency powers, the evacuation, the ones who stayed behind. Deen listened without interrupting, which was one of the things about him that made him a good commander. He let information finish arriving before he responded to it.
When she was done he was quiet for a moment, then turned to the other commanders. "This is more complicated than the initial report suggested. We need someone riding back to Helwind today with a full account of everything Sir Feldwyn has just told us. Inform the lord that we may lose Bareborough Peaks entirely. The beast count and their behavior, solitary creatures moving in a coordinated pack, that is not natural and it tells us something is wrong deeper inside the forest of Loark. Beasts change their behavior when their environment changes. Something has shifted in there and pushed them out." He paused. "And ask Sir Robert to weigh in. He will know more about this than any of us."
Commander Evereth nodded and moved off to begin organizing the scouts and the temporary camp. The column behind them was already spreading out, people finding ground, fires being started.
Deen looked at Brina. "You did well out here, Feldwyn. I will make sure the captain hears it."
"Master." She hesitated. "I am worried about the people we left in the village."
"I know you are." His tone was not unkind but it did not leave room for negotiation either. "What you are thinking right now is going to get you or your squad killed. They chose to stay. That choice belonged to them and not to you. You gave them every opportunity and they refused it." He held her gaze. "Get back to your team. Rest, train, keep your body ready for whatever orders come down. You are dismissed."
She saluted and walked back to where her squad had set up.
It helped her internally, with what he said. Not entirely, not in the way that made the weight disappear, but enough that she could set it aside and function. Deen was right. Going back now without knowing what was waiting inside those walls was not bravery, it was just a different way of failing the people who had followed her out.
She sat with her team and ate and let the exhaustion of the last several days catch up with her properly for the first time.
Back at Bareborough Peaks the village was dark and reeked of blood. Those who had survived the first night had done so by finding the lowest, most hidden corners of their homes and staying there regardless of whatever sounds came from outside. Some of them were still there, not moving, not making a sound, waiting for a silence that felt different from the one that had preceded the screaming.