They knew through the pack-sense from Viradechtis that the Northern army was still gathering. They suspected from experience—and had discussed through many long nights of strategizing over the past years—that the Rheans would not follow them into the wolf-haunted woods. Skjaldwulf Marsbrother had learned all too vividly of the superstitious dread with which the Rheans regarded their own ancestral wolf-goddess. That, and their belief that men who kept company with wolves were witches, would have sufficed even if no other reasons presented themselves. And there were, as Otter had been at pains to point out from the wisdom of her cruel experience, so many other reasons. The trees broke up the Rheans’ nigh-impenetrable shield-wall turtles. Forests rendered their close-marching tactics untenable. And the taiga gave the Northmen every advantage of ground. Regrettably, Otter had also been at pains to point out—also from her own experience—that the depths of the taiga would not protect the Northmen forever.
