Meanwhile, Percvale had no rest.
It started with a low thudding that people felt in their feet before they heard it properly.
Then a mass rushing. Horses… many horses actually, moving together, the ground carrying the vibration ahead of the sight and the sound both.
The man standing at the market stall felt it first and looked up from what he was doing, frowning at the road. Then the woman beside him felt it. Then the children playing in the dirt nearby stopped and looked at each other.
Then the dust appeared on the horizon. A long brown cloud rising above the road, the kind that two hundred horses on dry ground produced when they were moving at speed and not trying to be subtle about it.
Someone shouted from farther down the road.
"Riders! Many riders from the east!"
The market emptied fast, very fast.
The stall keeper grabbed his box of coins and left the rest. The woman beside him took her child by the hand and moved toward the castle's direction.
