Even the day after the triumphant return of the army, the capital of Yarzat still throbbed with the exuberance of victory.
The city itself seemed to be in a festival, though most certainly an unofficial one.
What need was there for official decrees when the arrival of more than two thousand men, pockets heavy with coin and thirsting for revelry, had turned the taverns, inns, and brothels of the capital into their theaters of celebration?
Truth be told, the banners of return were fewer than those that had once marched out. Of the 3,500 men who had set foot on the road to war, four hundred now lay buried beneath foreign soil, cut down in the clash at Freusen or claimed in the final, merciless storms of steel and fire during the siege of Turogontoli. Nearly twice that number had been carried back maimed.
