“I thank you, Sveel of the Snake River tribe and Zeeriz of the Fork River tribe, for undertaking this dangerous journey. Without your help we would know much less about our enemy. It grieves me, however, that this information cost us the life of one of the Siyee.”

The two Siyee warriors nodded. They looked exhausted, Danjin noted.

“Auraya has told me you hastened to return in order to report something you suspect may be of importance. What is that?”

The Siyee named Zeeriz straightened. “After Tireel was captured we tried to stay close enough to see what happened, but the birds came for us and we had to fly farther away to avoid them. They kept us away from the army until night, when they finally left and we were able to search for Tireel. We found him beside the road. Dead.”

He paused and swallowed audibly. Danjin noted that Sirri’s head was bowed and her eyes closed. He could not help feeling admiration for her. I can’t imagine the Toren king shedding a tear for a lost scout.

“I was chosen to lead in his place,” Zeeriz continued. “I left four behind to bury Tireel, and took the rest with me to pursue the army. We could not find them. They were no longer following the road and we could not locate them in the surrounding land.”

Juran frowned. “No tracks?”

“None that we could find, but we are people of the air and have little skill at tracking. The land there is stony and hard and feet do not leave much imprint.”

“Perhaps they travelled faster than you expected,” Dyara suggested.

Zeeriz shook his head. “We circled a large area. Farther than they could have travelled in a day. When we could not find them I decided we should return here at first light.”

King Berro leaned forward. “It was night when you were searching, wasn’t it?”

When this was translated, the Siyee scout looked at the monarch and nodded.

“Then it’s obvious what happened. They knew there’d be more of you watching, so they travelled without torches. Most likely they were right under your noses, but you didn’t see them.”

“Large groups of landwalkers make a lot of noise,” Speaker Sirri pointed out. “Even if my scouts did not see them, they would have heard them.”

“Unless the troops were ordered to keep quiet,” Berro countered.

Zeeriz straightened his back. “I am confident that I would have heard them if they had been there. An army of that size cannot travel silently.”

“Oh?” Berro’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “How would you know? How many armies of that size have you encountered before?”

“We heard yours coming half a day before it arrived,” Sirri answered tartly. “Even if your men had kept their mouths shut, we’d still have heard them.”

King Berro opened his mouth to speak, but another voice cut in.