1.

 

From the roof of The Pale House, Heast’s view of Mireea was of that of a misshapen scar connected to the stone line of Ger’s Spine. Throughout it, the streets, houses and markets were divided by the tissue of heavy wooden gates. After months of work, the gates rose across the skyline in blocks of shadow, complete with a busy network of builders and soldiers. Secured into place, they tightened, checked and rechecked, before reporting to him.

And it was in one of those reports, closest to the Spine itself, that he learned that the Leeran Army had begun to make its way up the mountain.