It seems opportune, at this point, to speak of the return journey to Crisremon made by the Princess Romou and Mistress Rubuya. I was, of course, not a direct witness to these events, nor was I, afterward, able to review them with either of the principles, but the apothecary, Amanili, made this journey from beginning to end and kept an informal journal throughout. I later spoke with her at great length regarding these subjects. It was also possible, later, to receive word of the passage of this company from certain individuals in Shdustu who witnessed the slow progression back toward imperial lands. These events may therefore be taken as written with considerable accuracy, and of course the conclusion of the tale is exceedingly well known.
After mine and Lady Indili's departure north, Rubuya led the expedition out of the village of the Gray Birch tribe following the noon meal. Several trusted warriors, including the chief's own eldest son, escorted them to the edge of Gray Birch territory, a section of the mountains outwardly little different from any other. This was a journey of some three days, after which passed an additional four days in the high valleys that encompassed the territory of the Yellow Larch Bahab. That territory was notable for the presence of larch trees on the upper slopes, as such conifers are normally only found far to the north. Slow growing and with a very fine grain, they make for superior poles, making them important in trade and used in the construction of the great yurts of the khagans. There were also eagles nesting on the peaks there, and the local hunters are wont to capture their chicks for sale to the Kharal, as they are much prized in falconry. The chieftain of these Bahab was cordial but not welcoming and sent men to follow the expedition and insure it hurried along. A small group of these men forced their way into camp during the final evening in their territory. Rubuya believed they intended to take the women as captives, or perhaps simply rape them in the night, for they had not been extended proper hospitality and were therefore without the chieftain's guardianship. These men, drinking and carousing before the campfire, were each poisoned by Amanili, for they had no training in the detection of Sairn compounds as opposed to those of the Nikkad, and then slain. The bodies were left out where they would be swiftly consumed by wolves, obscuring any culpability on the part of the expedition. Such are the harsh measures enforced by the sharp-edged environment of the mountains. No pursuit followed, though it seems unlikely that the chieftain believed skilled Bahab hunters were killed by wolves alone, especially considering how unlikely any pack is to attack uninjured humans. However, the mountains hold many dangers, and without evidence it would be foolish to determine responsibility.
East of this territory the slopes grew somewhat gentler and after nine days further journey the expedition emerged onto the grass-covered hills of the steppe at last. This territory was part of the Mumsassim Khanate, which controls the northern and eastern steppe including the entire basin of the mighty Mumum River. Kharal herders encountered the expedition almost at once, for the grass in those hills grows thick in the summer and is much used for seasonal pasturage. By the time the expedition encountered them, their sheep had begun to grow out their winter coats, a sure sign that the turn to autumn had begun, an event that occurs very early in the year on these northern grasslands, though in this year winter came early all across Shdustu.
The Kharal living in this region abutting the mountains were poor, being isolated from trade, and had comparatively few animals. Doubtless they were tempted to prey upon the expedition, given the wealth recovered from the Obsidian Order and those high-quality camels and horses remaining to the survivors. The herders gathered in force and brought Rubuya and Princess Romou before the chief of their clan, who might well have seized everything and slain them all save that the elderly shaman forbade all violence of any kind after the Princess related the story of the battle with the wizards and the death of the dominator. The elder proclaimed that the expedition had given all the people of Shdustu a great gift, and that they were obligated to repay such kindness. She ordered thereafter that her apprentice must travel with the company as far as the river, that they might travel unmolested. The chief, respecting his shaman as all wise Kharal do, responded to this newly revealed status by gifting considerable supplies and dispatching a fast messenger to the Khagan at once.
It was roughly one month's travel further, Amanili did not keep a precise accounting of the days as I had been wont to do, before the expedition reached the town of Dasunuyud, which lies at the uppermost barge navigable point upon the Mumum River. Numerous streams converge to form a proper river at this point, bringing water and fertility to this portion of the steppe that is carefully channeled for irrigation of numerous fields of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Such liquid abundance allows for the presence of a significant habitation in an otherwise very hostile region. This town had high walls of mortared brick, much scarred by battle, for the nut trees, especially the many oaks of a form found no further west in Shdustu than this point, were highly valued for their timber in addition to their acorns, and the Kharal sought to acquire them often. Dasunuyud has a prince of its own and claims nominal independence, but in truth bows to the influence of the prince of Summugigus far to the east in return for increased protection. Tribute is paid primarily in linen, as flax grows surprisingly well on the floodplains of the many feeder streams coming down from the mountains that form the river's origin. This is also traded independently by merchants who contract with the city. There is much duplicity involved in this trade, as both cities and the merchants manipulate numbers to conceal the size of the total crop each year in the hopes of securing more for themselves. An additional layer of intrigue is added by the Kharal, who take tribute from this source as well.
As it happened by the grace of the Divines, the Prince of Dasunuyud at this time was the younger cousin of the distant ruler of Summugigus and, more importantly, a woman of an age with Princess Romou. As such, she was most well-disposed to treat with a group commanded by one of the Nikkad warrior-women. This was extremely beneficial, for autumn came on hard indeed and it snowed, though lightly and briefly, on the day following the expedition's arrival in the town. Had they been forced out onto the steppe to seek shelter elsewhere I despair at the prospects of their survival.
The expedition overwintered in the town as the prince's guests, during which time the Princess was welcomed into the temple hierarchy there and even conducted services during the spring. Mistress Rubuya worked throughout the cold season to secure alliances with the local merchant groups in the hope of traveling south with a caravan in the early spring. The winter of that year, which carried into the Twelfth Year of Enduring Peace, was a difficult one, very cold and with heavy snows. At the same time the conflict between the Mumsassim and Sunshtasgus khanates expanded into full-on warfare, with huge armies comprised of tens of thousands of Kharal riders clashing across the frozen steppe. Susum Khagan, whose forces I had watched go down in defeat at Horncurl Hill the previous winter, concluded a peace with the khagan of Kudustushgu and rode west in strength to face the warriors of Tugun Khagan. Three times they met in pitched battle and, as is befitting that simplest of sacred numbers, the third clash was the most significant. During that battle an arrow struck Tugun Khagan through the eye, beneath the lip of his helmet, and blood flowed from the wound into his brain. He did not initially recognize the truth of the wound and continued to command his warriors in battle for nearly an hour before withdrawing in good order from an engagement that observers, who named it the Battle of Two Bend Streams, initially declared a stalemate. It was only then, and too late, that he was seen by a healer and the mortal nature of the affliction became apparent. Four master healers exhausted themselves attempting to save the khagan after he collapsed off his horse, but they did not succeed. He passed in the night on the twenty-eighth day of the second month. His second son, Urganum, claimed the banner of khagan as he had marched with the war host and held the highest position of those present. His elder brother was in the south among the warband of General Kutumush, the same soldier who had ordered our assault on Sun-Scourged Fortress, and might have challenged for leadership save that the general decided to support the second son and quietly sent the elder off into exile with orders to take ship across the salt sea.
These events did not conclude peacefully. The newly elevated khagan was forced to fight two more battles against Susum Khagan before the shamans arranged a peace in principle, and raiding remained constant along the border as a consequence of this disruption. Bandits multiplied as criminals, defectors, and destitute Nikkad were created by the engines of war. As a result of this, the border region became unreasonably volatile, and Rubuya abandoned all effort at attempting to pass south bordering the Great Gorge and instead joined the expedition to a mission of the esteemed caravaneer Obron Higrush, a singular man of mixed heritage who had escaped from the Sunfire Cult as a youth. He, and the Highlance mercenaries he'd hired for protection, took them on a southeasterly course toward the source of the Tusis River, which joined the Mumum in the far eastern edge of Shdustu. From there they proceeded south into the Kudustushgu khanate and south to rejoin the Shdulus River well below the Great Gorge prior to considering the path west.
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This considerable distance was crossed safely and without incident, for Master Higrush knew his craft well and evaded bandits, cultists, and monsters alike with practiced ease. Shortly after leaving his company, deep within the boundaries of the khanate, the expedition was confronted by Kharal outriders and brought a considerable distance further south, detouring by several weeks, to meet the khagan in person. However, this was in some sense beneficial, for Dukamun Khagan was a deeply pious man who wished to speak with Princess Romou in her capacity as a priestess and theologian of the Enlightened Revelation. They spent nearly a month at the khagan's summer encampment as a result and were thereafter given an armed Kharal escort all the way to the southeastern city of Snushgud, of which more will be spoken later. The Prince of that city, though generous, for only a fool would treat esteemed guests of the Khagan poorly, anticipated considerable fighting among the Kharal still to come and forbade the expedition from turning westward. This belief was not in error, for the borders of all the khanates erupted in violence throughout late autumn and the winter. As such, the Princess was unable to depart from Snushgud until the spring of the Thirteenth Year of Enduring Peace.
In that year they were able to leave quite early in spring and traveled with an official caravan sponsored by the prince and commanded by a relative with an ironclad mercantile reputation. This caravan reached the Fortress of Gudishgul early in the sixth month. They switched caravans here, joining with a merchant from the empire for the first time, and successfully crossed the Shdus Desert without significant incident. They arrived somewhat late to attempt crossing the passes of the Shdrast Range and initially planned to wait out the winter. However, it was in the city of Duvust, in the Foothills Kingdom, that the Princess first received word that his imperial majesty Husun the Fifth was seriously ill and that despite the ministrations of the empire's best healers, he was unlikely to live more than months. Upon learning of this, Princess Romou decided that despite the risks of a late in the year crossing of the mountains, the effort must be made to return to the Empire as soon as possible. Spending all remaining coin and trading in all of the rich gifts provided by khagans and princes along the way, and many had been quite generous, Rubuya hired fifty men of the Iron Stones, well-known mercenaries of the region with a good reputation and a history of fighting the Alpine Bandits. Racing against the autumn snows, they forced the passes in strength. They were not opposed in doing so, for the Alpine Bandits, doubtless informed somehow by those who trade with them in secret, knew this convoy had many arms and no goods, and avoided them.
It was therefore that in the tenth month of the Thirteenth Year of Enduring Peace, having been abroad for nearly four years in total, that Princess Romou and the Dragon Expedition returned to the Sanid Empire. The land was then in turmoil, for it was widely understood that the emperor would be unlikely to survive much past the new year, and claimants were already gathering to contest the throne in his absence. The emperor's eldest son held the best claim to inherit and rise to the mantle of Husun the Sixth, but his cousin the emperor's favored nephew, had much favor at court and the support of numerous members of the army following his successful campaigns against the desert dwellers of the distant west. With such a chaotic backdrop, the governor of Nla-Shdrast, who was still Yalum Nevastalm, the man who had seen the expedition off three years earlier, held the Dragon Expedition in the city of Nlamadt for some time, claiming that the roads were not safe and that he needed time to organize an escort. This was not wrong, winter travel is dangerous even in the comparatively mild lands of the Sanid Empire, and given the turmoil at court, it is likely that the expedition would have been seized and held hostage by any number of provincial governors along the way.
As it happened, the expedition remained in the city until after the new year, and word arrived there within days of the passing of Emperor Husun the Fifth, the Stalwart, on the Fifteenth Day of the First Month of the Fourteenth Year of Enduring Peace. At the same time, the messengers reported that the former emperor's nephew had gathered up certain generals and their forces and laid siege to the capital, seeking to take the throne by force. It was this rebellion that claimed the life of Hu Nassah, the Dragon Expedition's backer and organizer. He fell holding the palace gates, heroically preventing them from being overrun and saving the life of the future emperor and many members of the court.
At this time, as all citizens of the Sanid Empire are surely aware, the various regional governors, powerful clans, and provincial landowners took to rallying their forces with the intent of either joining the rebellion and taking the capital or of relieving the siege as soon as spring came. In this context Yalum Nevastalm summoned Princess Romou before him, doubtless believing she could be used as a bargaining chip to serve his personal ambitions. However, like so many others, he underestimated the priestess. Though at the outset of the journey the Princess was a child of palace and temple life notable only for her piety, the woman who returned from Shdustu, having lived among heretics, treated with mighty rulers, witnessed the devastation of the Sunfire Cult and Obsidian Order, and walked across the frozen surface of the Cracking Void, had passed through the crucible of the steppe to emerge as a true champion of the Divines. When the governor asked her advice as to which side he ought to support she gave a reply that, though it is well known, it is appropriate to reproduce in full here.
“Neither,” the Princess told the incredulous official. “For neither is your emperor, not yet. You were given into your charge by your Emperor Husun the Fifth, the Stalwart, to administer, protect, and support this province, and so you swore to do in the name of the Revelation before the Divines. That duty remains. What right have you to forsake it? To abandon the people of this land to depend upon you to stand and bear the banner of the empire? Ride forth, and you may claim favor with the eventual victory, or you may be destroyed, only the Divines know the wages of war. But if you remain and hold to the duty given unto you, working for the empire above all, you will surely be rewarded.”
The governor, hearing this, changed his stance entirely. He marshaled out his guards to clear the imperial highway of bandits and obstacles and sent his administrators across the province to buy up every measure of grain and every sheep that could be spared that they might be conserved for the coming year. This was done, and when spring came and the siege of the capital was broken and Husun the Sixth took up the imperial mantle, Princess Romou led a great relief drive to Crisremon ahead of countless sheep, grain wagons, and other goods that served to relieve much of the hardship afflicting the war-torn capital in a move that secured unimpeachable popular support behind the new Emperor. Governor Yalum Nevastalm, for his service, was appointed Governor of Crisremon, perhaps the most important post in the empire, and his daughter was married into the imperial house.
Mistress Rubuya presented the notes and artifacts that the expedition had gathered, and I had trusted to her to the Emperor and was rewarded with a small estate in the Core Provinces, making her the first Nikkad ennobled by any Husun Emperor. She married a scion of minor nobility and lived there for two years before she chose to follow the Princess once again on the journey west. Her son holds the estate still. The apothecary Amanili was given a place in the imperial college by the Emperor and in time rose to the rank of master. She formulated many new concoctions using plants found in the Shdus Desert, taught numerous apprentices, and in time opened formal exchange with the alchemists of Shnudidishgu. She is a well-known figure in the capital and a fine representative of the spirit of the Dragon Expedition among the empire's mystic community.
As for the Princess Romou, well, it becomes at last necessary to use the name that his Imperial Majesty Husun the Sixth granted her, one I have forborne revealing until this point: Esmounasha, She Who is Dutiful. This name will not, I believe, require any introduction among the faithful throughout the empire and beyond. Few need an explanation as to the deeds of the Saintess of the Western Deserts who brought the Enlightened Revelation across the Broken Sands and saw it translated into a dozen new languages, thereby sparing millions from heresy and an unnecessarily prolonged sojourn below. Few now recall the journey of this great personage of the faith to Shdustu in her youth, under a name that has been all but removed from official histories, but I swear before all three Divines that Esmounasha was born of the imperial house and served in the Dragon Expedition. Any who can find her in the faraway lands of the distant west where her mission continues as she carries the Enlightened Revelation as far as her feet may tread, can ask this of her and receive the truth in answer.
I have been questioned, by many, as to what it was to know such a person, but I can truthfully say that I only knew a princess and a priestess. The saintess was someone who she found in her heart beneath the inspiration of the Divines long after our paths had diverged. I recall a beautiful young woman who used to share her tent with the Lady Indili, who complained about the cold, and whose soft feet were forever being treated for blisters. Esmounasha was someone I never met, nor do I expect such a meeting will ever take place. The world is vast. Paths, once separated, rarely find their way to connect once more unless the Divines will it. Someday, another will chronicle the tale of the Saintess of the Western Deserts. Perhaps this chronicle will serve to guide them regarding some early background, but that is all.
As to the other members of the expedition, a mere handful returned to Crisremon. Many of the caravaneers chose to follow the path laid down by Slinanai and found lives in the cities of Shdustu instead of making the long journey across desert and mountains. Those who did return received rewards from the emperor and, having grown happy with service to Rubuya, joined her on her new estate. Most live there still.