Challenge of Steel

Sabine — POV.....

It was evening already.

The sky bled gray instead of gold, clouds hanging low like a warning no one wanted to voice. The eastern ridge should have reported in an hour ago. They didn't.

I stood in the yard, my daughter tucked safely with a healer inside the hall, my hands folded behind my back so no one would see how tightly they trembled.

Failure had a smell.

And it w