People collected behind them as they made their way to the western gate. Hungry people. Big women and thin old men, and the orphans, some of them almost adults, but most of them young and small and scared.

Lilia waited until the dusk came and she was certain no one else was coming.

And as Taigan approached the gate to open it, Lilia saw Tulana stepping from the crowd of houses. Amelia, Voralyn, and Laralyn walked behind her. Sokai took up the rear of their procession.

Lilia glanced over at Taigan. Taigan popped the lock with a simple burst of air.

Lilia and Gian went through. The others followed.

The western gate was unguarded. Most of the legionnaires had withdrawn.

They walked all night, hungry and cold, stopping to collect hasaen tubers as they went. Lilia had not eaten a full meal in some time, and she was light-headed. The stronghold was a two-day walk. She was glad then of the small group. They would have moved more slowly with the others.

Taigan trotted back up behind Lilia and Gian. They led the column of ragged Dhais and dajians and Seekers.

“There are more following,” he said.

“Who?” Lilia asked.

“There’s smoke to the east,” he said. “They’ve burned the camps. There are surviving Dhais following.”

“And legionnaires?” Lilia asked.

“Not yet,” he said, “but they will come.”

They pushed on.

Night found them inside the mouth of the pass. At its widest point, the pass was nearly a mile across. Lilia knew it tapered to its narrowest point at Liona, two hundred yards across.

The trees became shorter, the path steeper. Finding a comfortable place to sleep that night was impossible. Lilia slept from sheer exhaustion and woke cramped and aching, her body pressed to Gian’s. She was so cold, she didn’t think her body could move, let alone stand, but she got up. Her body sometimes amazed her. She could keep going long after she couldn’t.

At midmorning, the first of the later refugees caught up with them. Lilia recognized Pherl, the man with yaws whose nose was still a gaping hole, though some of the flesh had grown back over his missing upper jaw. His sisters were with him, Sazhina and Tal, Tal trailing behind, carrying her child. Someone else’s child clung to her apron strings. Their faces were smeared with soot.

“What happened?” Lilia asked Sazhina.

“The legionnaires came,” Sazhina said. “Sent fire first. They came in under the smoke.”

Lilia saw the lights of Liona long after dark. She didn’t know what time it was. The night was clear and cold. The moons were brilliant. They lit the rugged pass in a garish light. The lights of the stronghold glinted from behind the massive wall, a crown of square turrets topped in toothy parapets. The wall itself, even from so far away, was imposing.