Ravencrest did not greet Albert as its conqueror. The first citizens knelt when Greyhaven’s banners entered the capital road, but too many remained standing. They watched the column in silence.
Some looked toward Lucian. Most looked for Evelyn. Her title moved through the crowd before she reached the first gate.
“Vesper.”
The whisper passed from one side of the street to the other.
“General Vesper.”
Evelyn kept one hand near her reins and the other free. Her shoulder had stiffened during the final hours of travel, but the pain mattered less than the windows above them and the narrow alleys between black stone buildings. A conquered city offered too many places for grief to become a weapon.
Garrick rode half a length ahead.
“Crowd thickening near the market.”
“I see it.”
The locked
