The fifth day of their journey began beneath a grey sky.
The road ahead was uneven, with patches of mud left behind by the previous night's rain. The travellers had barely finished their morning meal when another commotion erupted near the carts.
Someone had discovered that two sacks of grain were missing.
Someone else was complaining about a broken wheel.
And a little farther away, a woman was crying because her son had developed a fever.
It was hardly a peaceful morning.
Lian An sat on a flat stone near their belongings, helping an elderly woman wrap a cloth around her injured ankle. Her own clothes were dusty, her sleeves were plain, and her hair was tied with an ordinary wooden pin. Nothing about her appearance suggested that she had once lived surrounded by the finest silks and jewels.
Beside her, the Emperor crouched to repair a strap on one of their worn bags.
He had learned rather quickly that travelling as an ordinary man meant doing ordinary work.
