Chapter Ten
“The errant empress finally arrived back in Màrrach today. Empress Shankee has been low and angry since she discovered her cousin had slipped away from Ventra. We have been forced to endure her foul mood and wrath from too much drink. We hope that her loathsome temperament will now improve, back to her usual haughty aloofness.”
—Unpublished diary of servants; Lama Mann; personal servant of Shankee Kossi
The weary trading party road into Màrrach on a warm, early June morning, the sky was bright and clear, the Oread working hard in the fields all around them. Rhiannon had an overwhelming feeling of being home. A home that she had grown to love despite all that she feared. She sighed and looked over at the sparring areas and then out over the horse training fields and pastures.
