Dhug'mhar's patrol left Yohan's northern gate two days after the arc's completion notice, one day ahead of his own interval.
He had moved the schedule up without explanation, and Sakh'arran, who had read both the completion notice and the boundary conclusion within the same week, had not asked.
The Rhakaddon rode at cavalry pace, Denn ahead as always, and reached the previous survey's easternmost stakes by midmorning.
The stakes were gone.
Not knocked over, not absorbed into darkened stone the way a single stake had been before. Gone, the ground around them showing the full darkening, extending in the directions the stakes had marked the edge of eleven days ago.
The boundary had reached the wall-mount arc's outermost section.
Denn dismounted at the edge of the darkening and looked along the wall, at the line of completed installations running toward the gate towers, and then up, at the slope above the wall.
"It is here," he said. "Now, not in seven days. Now."
