The second day of the retreat broke the pattern.
Khao'khen had been patient. For thirty-six hours, he had followed the Threian column through the mountain passes, maintaining contact through his rotating vanguard warbands while the Warg Cavalry ranged wide on the flanks, mapping alternative routes and probing for weaknesses in the enemy's formation. He had watched the rear guard ...the 7th Circle woman in her frost-forged armor ...hold chokepoint after chokepoint with diminishing magical reserves, her frost barriers growing thinner, her response times slower, the killing cold that she radiated losing its intensity by perceptible degrees.
She was weakening. Not fast enough to collapse on her own, but fast enough that the careful calculus of pursuit was beginning to favor decisive action.
The terrain provided the opportunity.
