Chapter 187: The Stronghold and the Hearth
The Stronghold, Former Greyeye Fortress
Urim's POV
The last time my boots had trodden this earth, the air had been thick with the stench of burning flesh and ash.
We had put half this fortress to the torch.
The change hit my senses before I even saw the gates. The boundary of the clan's territory had pushed outward, swallowing the treeline.
Heavy Ikos, or as my brother would call them, watchtowers broke the horizon at strict, calculated intervals.
Thick-necked, circular bastions of rough-hewn stone reinforced by ironwood timbers. It was an old, brutal style of masonry, built to withstand a siege of beasts or iron.
Hogg met me at the reinforced iron-gated palisade himself. He hadn't sent some young blood to fetch me. He was wiping gray mortar dust from hands as wide as spade-blades before he offered his forearm.
I took it, our gauntlets clashing together. It was the grip of two warriors who knew that words were often just air.
