"You look like you rode without stopping." She replied.
"That's because I did." He smirked.
They walked the inner yard while Tuva took the scout and the horses. Elara listened without interruption while Thorne laid out the Blackridge marks, the dead ewe, the choice to hold the line without striking, and the Silverpine terms Lila had already sent south by fast rider.
When he finished, Elara was quiet for a long stretch of path.
"Eirik is trying to make my work a branch of Lila's power and your territory a problem Lila has to solve," she said finally.
"If I let the Moot count the healing network as Frostfang authority, Liv Andersen will be proven right in every southern den that already doubts me. If Lila accepts the compact to protect Frostfang, you lose formal recognition before you ever stand up to speak." She added.
Thorne stopped walking. "And if none of us yield?"
