The camp outside Greywatch felt very large after the ten had gone north.
Lily walked it every morning. She went from the cook fires on the west side to the sentry line on the east, and she spoke to whoever was awake. She did not do it because anyone told her to. She did it because Almond always had, and somebody needed to.
The Empress walked with her.
She was good at it. She knew how to stand at a fire for exactly one minute, ask exactly one question, and leave people feeling that they had been heard. She had done it for an empire for longer than Lily had been alive.
"You're watching how I do it," the Empress said on the second morning.
"I'm learning," Lily said.
"You don't need to. They don't want me." The Empress nodded at a group of Asuras who had stood up the moment Lily walked past. "They want to see you. They want to know that someone from that family is still here."
The hunting went on.
