It was only just beginning. 25 riders came to a stop at the edge of the firelight. Close enough now that Wade could see the shape of the man leading them. Tall gray at the temples in a way that didn't match the ease. He still sat his horse with a ring on his left hand, catching the last orange light silver.
Some crest worked into it that Wade didn't need Dobs to describe anymore because he already knew that ring. Had saluted it once a lifetime ago, back before Sarah, back before any of this, had stood at attention while it wrapped against a table, issuing orders Wade had followed without question. The way young soldiers follow anything wearing enough authority to make questioning feel like treason. Colonel Wade said just that. The word coming out of him rusty, five years unused, like a door hinge nobody had bothered to oil.
The man's eyes found him across the firelight and something flickered their surprise quickly buried the way a professional buries most things. Callaway, he said. I'll be damned. Heard you'd gone soft out here somewhere. Didn't expect soft to clude this particular company.
Didn't expect to see you again at all. Reed figured a man like you'd have gotten himself shot by now. By his own men, if nobody else got around to it first, a few of the riders shifted at that. Reed didn't. Reed just smiled slow, unbothered.
The smile of a man who'd never once in his life doubted he'd come out ahead. still got that mouth on you. He said, "Sarah, tolerate that mouth as well as you seem to think it deserves." Wade's whole body went still because that was the first time in five years anybody outside his own head had said her name out loud in his presence. And hearing it fall out of this particular man's mouth, casual, careless, like a card played just to see the reaction it bought that told Wade everything he needed to know and none of what he wanted to. You knew her, Wade said, voice low, dangerous in a way it hadn't been since the night he'd walked out of his own cabin unarmed to face 200 warriors.
This felt different. This felt like standing at the edge of something he'd spent five years telling himself didn't exist. Knew of her, Reed said, easy as anything. Like they were discussing weather instead of a grave. Man in my position learns a great deal about the men serving under him, where they live, who they love, what might convince them to stay quiet about certain requisitions that didn't quite balance the way the paperwork quirk claimed they should.