Valdenmarch appeared on the fourth day's horizon with the silhouette that the fortress's position on the frontier's elevation produced against the southern sky.
The fortress was the fortress that Colonel Gresham had transformed from a neglected outpost into an operational headquarters during the months that had preceded the Horde's northward campaign. The fortress was the fortress whose walls the Horde had bypassed without a casualty during the northward march, the bypass that had demonstrated the Horde's operational sophistication to the colonel whose professional assessment of the bypass had earned the Horde's professional respect.
