The fire beyond the ridge was still there at dawn.
Scarlett saw it from the north fence while the sky was only half awake, gray-blue and thin as old cloth. It burned low and steady, too controlled to be an accident, too far east to belong to anyone from the settlement. Mist sat in the valley like breath held too long. Somewhere below, the river moved with its new-old current, not loud, just certain.
Luna came up beside her without a sound.
"You didn't sleep," she said.
Scarlett pulled Alexander's coat tighter around herself. "Neither did you."
Luna looked toward the ridge. "It's not an attack fire."
"No."
"It wants to be seen."
Scarlett nodded once. That was what bothered her most. An enemy hid. A warning announced itself.
