The alliance force reached the valley at dawn. Luna, positioned on a ridge overlooking the fortified headquarters, immediately sensed something wrong.
"There are too many bridges here," she whispered to Selene. "I count at least eight distinct presences. That's more than Thaddeus's group. Way more."
"Could you be sensing them incorrectly?" Selene asked.
Luna extended her bridge perception further, analyzing the patterns carefully. "No. There are definitely eight bridges down there. Maybe more that I can't sense clearly. This isn't just Thaddeus's group. This is a gathering."
"A bridge gathering," Dante said grimly, overhearing through his enhanced Alpha hearing. "That changes everything. We're not facing a coalition headquarters. We're facing a bridge council meeting."
Maya's telepath
