Khao'khen felt the impact of the northern force before the reports reached him.
The ground transmitted the vibration of three thousand boots hitting the earth in a coordinated charge. The air carried the sound of a Threian military horn that should not have existed in this region ...a second army, arriving from a direction his scouts had not monitored because he had not known there was anything in that direction to monitor.
A second army.
The realization struck him with the force of a physical blow. Not to his body ...his 6th Realm constitution could absorb most physical impacts ...but to his mind, to the strategic framework that had guided every decision in this campaign.
There was a second pinkskin army.
And it had just hit his rear.
"Report!" he snapped, and the urgency in his voice ...unusual for a chieftain who cultivated an aura of unshakeable calm ...sent every nearby warrior into heightened alertness.
