See for Yourself

After the elves arrived along with the humans who had stayed behind at the palace, clean up moved along much more quickly. The few salvageable things among the devastation were packed up and added to the group's resources.

The rest they decided to burn, and the ash was given to the forest as a small apology for the wrong which had been inflicted on it. "May you grow in peace and never have us use you with such disregard again," Aurora had said, touching one of the damaged oaks.

After days of planning and organizing, a large column of humanity left the elves, fairies and Great Lake behind and began its slow movement southward.

Two days of slogging caused the group to make almost no progress. There were just too many people and nearly half of them were entirely unmotivated to move.

There was another problem.

Food.

The provisions in the abominations camp were entirely ruined by water and that placed an extra strain on the rations which the soldiers had in their camp. Even with a giant influx of provisions from the elves, there was not enough food to go around.

"Go to half rations," Aurora announced after the second day. But even that was not enough. Another day passed and the food dwindled even more. There was no game in the woods. Thanks to the abominations, it had all fled to safer parts of the forest.

And even without the threat of the monsters, so many people traipsing through the trees was bound to scare away anything with ears. The humans were in dire straits.

Sitting on the driver's bench of a salvaged wagon, Junayd waved over the Empress when he could catch her eye. She was currently on horseback, having ridden ahead to scout the terrain. Her face was grim.

"Before you ask, Advisor Junayd, we were not successful in finding food." She sighed and dismounted, handing off her horse to a soldier in the slow moving mass of people.

Other than when she was going on ahead, the Empress had not taken the liberty of riding the few horses which had been recaptured after the flood.

If most of her people had to walk, so would she, even if that meant traipsing through the cold, new-fallen snow. Two more of the horses were pulling the cart of wounded people. Junayd was one of the occupants.

While he still could not walk, the advisor was capable of sitting, and did not like the idea of being idle. He had taken it upon himself to guide the other wounded back home. He took the Empress's words about the lack of food in stride.

"I wish I could say I was surprised, but that is the luck we have been having thus far. Not even the streams seem willing to give us fish." Junayd looked toward the Emperor, who was in front of the slowly moving caravan.

Devrim was speaking with Nurlan and Zan quietly, obviously making some sort of plan for the evening. Return to his present company, the advisor held out his hand, inviting the Empress to come sit beside him.

"If it pleases Your Majesty, I cannot come down and walk beside you, so I would be most honored if you came up beside me."

Nodding, Aurora waited for the wheels to stop for a moment before ascending. She glanced into the back of the covered wagon. A half dozen people in various states of health were laying on the wooden floor boards, asleep.

"They are tired and hungry. It is easier for them to sleep than feel the pain. I think the Guardian gave them something to help them rest more comfortably."

Aurora was going to ask which Guardian, but realized that Junayd would have called Zan a Councilman instead.

Continuing his thought, Junayd nodded toward the sun. "It will be dark soon. I have gotten word that there won't even be enough food for half rations today. That puts us in quite a bind."

"I know." The problem was at the forefront of Aurora's mind.

"The sick are having trouble healing as it is. Even less food might kill them." Junayd could hear the moans of hunger from behind him when his passengers were awake. It hurt him deeply not to be able to help them with their needs.

"I would rather go without food than let the injured starve," Aurora said firmly.

"I admit I think someone is going to have to starve, but I don't think it should be you." Junayd answered seriously.

A cloaked figure appeared beside the wagon. "Have you told her?" Alaron's eyes flashed beneath his hood.

"I was working on it," Junayd tried not to snip at the fallen prince. He knew the young Guardian was just anxious.

Aurora looked between the two men. "I have a feeling I am not going to like what you have to say."

"We would have less of a food problem with less prisoners…" Alaron said carefully.

"I agree but I don't see how that is possible." The Empress shook her head. "All of them must be taken to Valiant for trial."

She looked at Junayd who pressed his lips together. He knew that was likely to be her response.

"Must we? We know how the trial will end…" Alaron hated that he had to say those words, but it seemed obvious.

"You cannot know that for sure. I will not deprive them of the due process of law." The Empress gritted her teeth. "It is that process that saved the prince's life when he might have been killed for treason."

Aurora had used the courts to slow down Alaron's sentencing while she sorted out what was really going on with Cafer. Did she really need to remind him of that?

Alaron gave a short nod. "You are correct. But the prince was guilty of treason, and had he been convicted and sentenced more swiftly, then the things that transpired would not have been able to occur, and we would not have had Cafer's war at all. By extension, this war would not have occurred either."

This was something that Alaron had spent a lot of time contemplating. Had he received a royal execution for his initial betrayal, then Cafer would have had no one to crown.

"I cannot align with your reasoning." Aurora pressed her lips together. "For Cafer was determined enough to dethrone me that not even the death of the prince would have thwarted his plans. If anything, it would have motivated him further with revenge.

"And if you recall the prince is the one who came up with the plan to stop the gnomes in the end. Without him, we might be slaves to the magical creatures right now and this war right here might have actually been the one to end humanity entirely.

"So while I can see your point, Guardian, I will not sentence anyone here without them receiving their due process. Or I will be guilty of some of the things which caused them to rebel in the first place."

The Empress sighed. She had refuted his suggestion but had not solved the problem.

"As for the food. We will have to come up with another solution. Gather Renat, and the sibling trio and see if they can find a way to help stretch our supply. And we should ask any of those from this far north which tree bark is edible. While we shouldn't completely ravage the foliage, taking judiciously should help our situation. We can also dig in the snow. Some of the underbrush might still be green. One way or another, will find a way to get everyone fed. If we can make it a few days longer, we can send scouts ahead on horseback to get supplies from the first towns and farms. In fact..."

Aurora stopped as she could sense a shift in the crowd. Murmurs were spreading about a strange occurrence on the edge of the caravan. It must not have been a threat to the group for it sounded more like gossip than panic.

Soon enough, a flag from one of the other wagons started waving one of the scarves from the battle on a long stick.

"That is Mairwen's wagon. You do not suppose something is wrong with Colvyr, do you?" Alaron chewed his lip.

Aurora had thought to spare the young prince the long journey and take him back through the Storehouse, but as the chain bearer of the elves had decided to join them on their journey home, that was not a workable idea.

Just now that fellow chain bearer was pushing through the crowd. Her golden skin stood in contrast to the rest of those around her. "Rory! There has been a development."

Aurora called back. "I can see that. Is everything alright?"

Brinn looked around at the prisoners chained together in groups. She thought the better of announcing what was happening. "You should probably come and see for yourself. Bring the Guardian."