The third day began under a sky the color of old iron.
They moved before the light fully cleared the hills. Atlas rode in the center of the small group. The soldier stayed a half-length behind, silent as he had been the day before. Clara marked the miles in the small book she kept inside her coat.
Eli walked the left flank, eyes on the trees and the ditches. Lara stayed close enough that her shoulder brushed Atlas's whenever the road narrowed between rock and tree.
The attacks did not stop.
A pair of cutters tried the slope just after midday. Two men with short blades and the same worn crests the others had carried. They came fast, low to the ground, hoping speed would close the distance before anyone could react. Atlas breathed once.
The air thickened and snapped. Both men dropped where they stood. No sound beyond the soft impact of bodies on dirt. Eli moved in, checked for marks, turned the nearest one over with her boot.
