She got her answer when scores of merychs, each bearing a bearded, bedraggled Vandan, rode into town at a slow gait. To a man, they looked defeated, resigned to their fate. Many wore bandages, and it looked like none of them had bathed in weeks.
Hardly a sound was uttered as the grim procession made their way through Thage. Word of Vanda's plight and the treaty Maeve helped engineer had spread to every corner of Darad; she wasn't sure how the citizens would feel about the uneasy peace that now existed between their countries, after centuries of enmity.
She watched the Thagians' faces as the cortege of Vandans rode through. She saw no pity, no sympathy, only fury. Despite their leaders' best intentions, it would take many years for old prejudices to be forgotten. She prayed the armistice
