The Horde learned of the barbarian invasion from the Verakh network's long-range surveillance, the intelligence arriving at the camp outside the capital on the same day that the council received the Fort Harken dispatches through the formal military communication channels.
Sakh'arran brought the report to Khao'khen at the command position in the town of Ashwell, the small settlement half a march from the capital where the Horde had established its fortified camp. The camp's earthworks were the earthworks that four months of campaign experience had refined, the berms and trenches and Roarer positions and fire sphere caches that transformed a farming village into a defensive position whose engineering the capital's garrison could not assault without paying the cost that every assault against the Horde's prepared positions had extracted throughout the campaign.
