The Unbound Empire by Melissa Caruso

Author:Melissa Caruso
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2019-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

A heavy complement of soldiers manned Ardence’s gates, and cannons lined the walls. Its suddenly militant appearance made the familiar city strange to my eyes, but it was all the people leaving through the gates that tore at my heart. Families on foot carried belongings and children. Wagons overflowed with too many people trying to bring too much of their lives with them; a little boy perched on a pile of trunks dropped his doll in the gate and wailed anxiously until a guard ran after his wagon to hand it up to him. The sun would be setting soon, and it was too late to be only starting out; these people likely had nowhere to go. The soldiers asked everyone leaving if they had food and water, and gave them a loaf of bread or filled their flask for them if they didn’t; I suspected that was Domenic’s order.

“Not enough people are leaving,” I murmured to Zaira as the soldiers cleared the departing crowd to the side so our carriage could pass through.

She stared at me. “What are you talking about? Hundreds of people are leaving.”

“Ardence has a population of about sixty thousand,” I said. “Hundreds are leaving, yes. But more are staying.”

Zaira’s chin jutted out. “We’ll just have to make sure they’re safe, then.”

I’d known the people of Ardence were bold and resilient, but I was still shocked as our carriage rolled through the city to see people strolling the streets as if it were a normal day, to hear music and laughter coming out of taverns, and to see lights coming on one after another in window after window as dusk began to fall over the city.

“Do they even know there’s an army coming for them?” I wondered, staring at a pair of children playing beneath the statue of the Grace of Victory fighting the gorgon.

“They’re too used to being safe.” Zaira shook her head. “People like that never believe they’re in danger until it’s too late. They’re trusting the Empire to take care of them, like brats waiting for mamma to wipe their noses.”

Right now, Zaira was all the Empire had to give them. I didn’t say it aloud, but I could tell by the frown furrowing her brow that she was well aware of that.

“I wish they’d at least gotten all the brats out of the city,” she muttered. And a minute later, when a dog trotted by, its nose down and tail up, on some serious canine business, Zaira groaned. “Not the dogs, too. Hells. I can’t let Ruven get the dogs.”

I refrained from any commentary on her priorities. If knowing there were innocent dogs in the city made it easier for her to do what she needed to do to protect Ardence, I wasn’t about to argue.

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