~RYLAND'S POV~
We felt it before we saw anything.
There's a particular atmosphere a packhouse carries when something has gone wrong inside it, not panic, not chaos, just a tightening. The way people move changes. The conversations that should be audible from twenty feet away aren't. Guards who are usually spread out have pulled in.
I noticed it the moment we came through the outer gate. Lyra noticed it about half a second after me, I saw it in the way she straightened, the ease of the afternoon leaving her face.
Cade was inside the main entrance. He was waiting, which meant he'd been watching for us.
"What's going on?" I said.
He didn't answer in the corridor. He gestured toward my study and we followed him. He closed the door behind us and turned.
"We just received word," he said. "Shadowfang was attacked."
I looked at him. "Attacked by who?"
