"No," Wang said, his voice flat, absolute, and unyielding. "If we do not understand the nature of the force, we do not blindly approach it. If Cassian's grand formation hasn't attacked it, then it is not an ordinary military threat."
"Yes, Patriarch."
"Keep our men in full defense formation," Wang added, his eyes never leaving the distant fortress. "Double the watches around our camp perimeter, but make sure no soldier steps foot past the agreed boundary line."
Orion bowed deeply.
"At once, Patriarch."
As the general hurried off to execute the orders, Wang remained completely alone in the freezing night air.
Slowly, he raised his right hand and clenched his fingers into a tight, white-knuckled fist. Deep within his soul, an intense, suffocating sense of dread was taking root.
His instincts—the very instincts that had kept him alive through countless blood-soaked battlefields—were screaming a frantic, desperate warning.
Something was terribly wrong.
