The outer screen flagged him before the morning raiding party had formed.
Penk's relay rider came in from the outer post at the standard interval, but the message he carried was outside the cycle. A rider on the upper road, moving with purpose. He had covered the distance in the dark.
Batu was at the horse line when they brought him through.
The rider was lean and road-dry, his animal spent at the outer post behind him. He had come from the third corridor clan, the one whose headman had accepted the wolf's track terms with the flattest face and the least visible resistance of the three.
"Two of the clans are moving," the rider said. "Their riders are working with a body that's coming up from Berke's territory. They're on the eastern road. Your supply line went north on that route."
"When did you leave."
"Before first light. The body was assembling when I departed. I rode straight through."
"How far assembled."
