She saw them before anyone else did.
Three days of watching the horizon had made her good at it — stepping away from whatever she was doing every hour or so, climbing to the high terrace above the city gates, scanning the mountain passes for movement. The healers had stopped commenting on it. Mira just came with her without being asked.
It was late afternoon when the dark line finally appeared.
Emery stood very still for a moment, just looking. The column wound through the pass slowly, the way exhausted things move — deliberate, careful, carrying weight. Even from this distance she could see the wagons. The covered ones, draped in dark cloth, moving with particular steadiness.
The dead.
She looked away from them and looked for the head of the column instead.
"Lady Emery." Thea appeared at her shoulder, quiet and composed as always. "Let them process in through the gate. There's a procedure for returning armies. The healers need to—"
