“You see what needs doing, and ya do it. Everything else follows: the throne, the taxes, the title. I’ve watched a lot of folk try ta rule a lot of land. I’ve watched men cling ta their fancy titles while their people and their realms just . . . slipped away, and I’ve watched men who couldn’t give a watery shit for the names and the titles rule half a continent. Ya just do what needs doing, and the people will figure out all on their own that you’re the ’Kent-kissing Emperor.”

Before Adare could respond, Fulton kicked his horse forward, forcing his way between her and a small group of men and women rounding a bend in the road, emerging from the trees a hundred paces or so ahead of them. Two other Aedolians, part of the full guard Fulton had recruited back in Annur, nudged their horses forward until they were flanking her.

“Keep well back, my lady,” Fulton said grimly, limbering his sword in its sheath.

Adare hesitated a moment, then shook her head.

“It’s a family,” she said.

There were two men, one old, one young, both bearded, both carrying axes in their hands. Behind them, a group of barefoot children slogged doggedly ahead, chivvied along by three women dressed all in leather and fur. The children, obviously weary and bedraggled, perked up at the sight of the approaching army, shouting and pointing. The oldest, a girl of ten or so, attempted to dart forward, but her father caught her by the elbow, dragging her off the road along with the rest of the family.

When Adare reined in alongside them, she realized that the younger of the two men was wounded, his arm slashed viciously from the elbow to the wrist. Someone had made a feeble attempt to bind the cut, but the dirty cloth had soaked through with blood and pus.

“Best hurry,” he said, jerking his head to the north.

“Why?” Lehav demanded, pulling in his horse beside Adare.

The soldier had initially been reluctant to march north, pointing out that while il Tornja was gone, they could occupy Annur itself, install Adare on the Unhewn Throne, rehabilitate Intarra’s Church, and spread word of the kenarang’s treachery, word that would make it all but impossible for him to return. It was a tempting vision, but a false one. As Nira pointed out, “Ya ain’t gonna last long running an empire if the first thing ya do is ta sit still while the Urghul take a shit all over it.”

The words rankled, but the woman was right. If the Urghul posed a legitimate threat, Adare needed to be a part of the solution, regardless of the kenarang’s treachery. More, as she pointed out to Lehav, if the Sons of Flame were to win the trust of the empire’s population, they, too, would need to march north.