Soon the light that filtered through the forest canopy became less powerful, and we found ourselves travelling primarily by torchlight.

'Use only dead wood for the torches,' I warned my travelling companions, lest we attract the wrath of the faeries. Then I saw the fence: the ruined wooden picket line that had marked what Urzo believed to be the boundary of the Dreadwood Forest. I realised where we were. 'Come on, we're nearly at Trackford,' I urged them.

I refused to stop for stragglers after that for I was impatient to know what had befallen the economic capital of Ebonreach. As the trees began to thin I noticed fire in the distance, and my heart sunk. I could sense Alum looking at me but I refused to meet his gaze. Without even noticing it, I pushed Lilac ahead of the pack until only Alum and a handful of our housecarls accompanied us. My poor steed was panting in exhaustion but I knew that she would have plenty of time to recover once we reached Trackford. Unless it was held by Tokuans.

I refused to consider the possibility. We pressed on until we crested the final obfuscating hill, revealing much of eastern Trackford before us. To my eyes, the city appeared to be intact. I turned to Alum, and he was half-smiling. He pointed back towards the city, at the harbour, and I turned my eyes in that direction.

There I sighted the source of the fire, and much more than that. There were five Tokuan longboats anchored off of Trackford's beach, their masts lowered. A fireship lay between them and the city harbour, and they waited for it to extinguish or sink to begin their invasion. The burned wreckage of several other small vessels told me that this delaying tactic was what had kept the Tokuans at bay since their first arrival, but I could see that Trackford was running out of ships to fire.

'What do we do?' I asked Alum.

'We join the defence of the city,' he replied, and I looked at him with wide eyes full of fear. He noticed, and assuaged me. 'There are but five longboats. Each can carry no more than 100 men.'

'Haelling Cove had more than that,' I objected.

'Your Father's housecarls did not leave the castle. And no peasant militia is the equal of housecarls. The Tokuan's weakness is that they cannot expect to be reinforced, so the life of each man is precious to them. We must attempt to deter the attack with our numbers.'

I nodded in recollection of Timoth implementing the same strategy. Alum and I turned back to our housecarls and commanded them to assemble. Those who had been lingering near the back found new speed with our encouragement, and some of them began to rummage through saddlebags to find their weapons and armour. They were preparing to fight.

'Men of the Prince's Guard, assemble!' Alum bellowed, and I arranged my four bodyguards around me. A handful of the commoners and deckhands had separated from the rest of the civilians bearing daggers and pitchforks, but I did not expect them to be useful. They did not wear uniforms so they would not deter the Tokuans, and they were on foot so they would not arrive with us. Nevertheless, I appreciated their sentiment and made sure to nod at them approvingly. Regeda remained among the unarmed civilians with my approval.

Soon our cavalry unit was assembled on the hill, and Alum and I led the way into Trackford. It would have been exciting to charge, but Alum did not want to risk the horses on the downward slope or the cobblestone roads, and besides there was nothing to charge at yet: the Tokuans were still aboard their ships.

We trotted through the city and many of the townsfolk cheered us on. They had probably been besieged all day and thought that I had returned to Ebonreach to relieve them. Obviously the logistics of my departure from Hollowhold were such that I could not have travelled so reactively, but it seemed to make me popular.

We soon neared the docks, where I saw a familiar face.

'Baron Urzo!' I shouted with glee. He was positioned a few metres from the lakeside and, prior to my interruption, had been conferring with several bureaucrats and merchants. He turned to me with a smile.

'Countess! How timely of you to visit us. And I see that you bring with you soldiers,' he replied, nodding at my entourage.

'Baron Urzo, this is Prince Alum. The men you see are the Prince's Guard,' I explained, and he bowed his head in thought.

'Perhaps now we will survive their attack,' Urzo mused, though he did not sound confident. The bags below his eyes and the paleness of his complexion bespoke weariness, and I acquired the distinct impression that he had personally been the sole impetus behind the organisation of the city's defence since he had awoken. It would have been no small task for, unlike Haelling Cove, Trackford had little in the way of natural defences or fortifications, and its people were not used to conflict. During the previous Tokuan incursion, Timoth had ordered the construction of some coastal barriers of sand and stone on either side of the city dockyards, but the militia would still be unwieldy and the housecarls inexperienced.

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Even though I had my reservations about Urzo - not least of all my suspicions of faerie blood - I had to admit that firing the fishing boats was a bold decision. It would have been unpopular among the vessels' owners, but that Urzo had managed to reconcile their displeasure with the very real need of the city stood as testament to my own decision to give him power over the city.

'Perhaps there will not be an attack,' Alum interjected, taking control. We were in his area of expertise now. 'Assemble all of your men, including the militia. Stand them here, on the riverside, with the more heavily armed at the front. Show the Tokuans our strength. Make them reconsider.'

Urzo furrowed his brow and stroked his chin. 'That was how Timoth did it,' he mused quietly, seemingly to himself.

Abruptly, he turned to his advisors and began issuing hasty orders. They turned and disappeared into the city proper. Alum took the opportunity to arrange his own men, still on horseback, in a line on the river bank. My bodyguards were joined by other men of the Reach, and as more filtered in from the depths of the city we soon had a sizable army of hundreds standing in defence of Trackford. We mounted as many as possible, even some on mere geldings, for we knew that the Tokuans did not use spears or cavalry of their own, and therefore horsemen would present a serious threat. I only hoped that the distance and the smoke would prevent them from seeing how these ‘cavalrymen’ swayed nervously in their saddles.

Under Alum's guidance, we held ranks until the fireship sank to the bottom of the Haelling. The fire sizzled out in a dramatic burst of thick black smog. Our gaze shifted to Tokuan longboats as we waited to see what they would do. Would they fight us, outnumbered but confident in their own abilities as warriors? Or would they flee, perhaps intending to return with greater numbers?

It took longer than I expected for them to make the decision, but Alum was right: the Tokuans had no stomach for heavy losses. They retracted their anchors and continued upstream in pursuit of their comrades, who were probably ravaging Trent by now.

The soldiers all around me cheered deafeningly, and though I did not approve of their volume I found myself smiling with them. Alum and I kissed publicly for the first time and the men responded with a renewal of their celebrations.

The revelry carried on well into the night. I made an appearance at the Flea Monkey tavern. I did not take Prince Alum with me as we had been allocated separate rooms under the assumption that I would wish to remain virginous until the wedding. Yet I was happy to share the jovial mood – and a few glasses of bloodberry wine – with Regeda and the rest of the common folk there for a short time. Their tongues, while impolite, were not disrespectful, and any distaste I had for their behaviour I was happy to ignore in light of the celebratory atmosphere. Well, that and the wine.

After a few hours, however, I felt weary from the day's events, and I trod upstairs to my usual room. Exhaustion befell me and I lapsed into a peaceable sleep.

Late into the night, Alum woke me by slinking into the bed, but I was only too happy to be stirred for it signalled the commencement of another round of lovemaking. His body was warm, and I was glad to snuggle against it during the cold spring morning.

Sadly, my nocturnal activities left me in poor spiritswhen I reluctantly awoke at dawn. My journey was not yet complete, nor were my fears assuaged. I had to get to Haelling Cove, and to that end I bade Alum assemble his housecarls so that we set out. I found myself some new bodyguards and summoned Regeda.

We set out soon after dawn. I would have liked to have spoken with Urzo but there simply wasn't time. I hoped he was enjoying a well-earned rest, having proven that my faith in him was not misplaced. If we made good time we’d arrive in Haelling Cove before dusk the following day. I was fearful that we might pass commoners fleeing the destruction of the county capital but there were none. Towards the end of the day we finally encountered people who carried word of the second Tokuan fleet, but according to them the fleet had shown little interest in the city, completely bypassing Haelling Cove.

'It makes sense,' Alum said. 'There's not much to gain from the city. It's already been razed, and the risk is high as it's still defended by the castle. The Tokuans have little stomach for a siege. They know that if they attack a fortified city, overwhelming reinforcements will relieve the garrison before they succumb to hunger or before siege weapons can be built.'

I nodded in agreement and understanding, though it seemed too good to be true. Would Ebonreach truly be so lucky as to come through the second invasion unscathed? Certainly, there were few other towns in the Reach large or wealthy enough to warrant a visit from the raiders. I could only imagine what that would mean for the much more densely populated Trent, especially now that they had a new, inexperienced Duke. Would Wilbern be unable to raise the tithe he was due, much as Timoth had felt that our tax revenue would be worsened by Father's death? Or worse, would Wiseria's bastards take advantage of Wilbern's plight to rise in open rebellion?

Though a monastery lay not a mile distant, we slept on the side of the road as we were too many to be housed by a single building. I longed to bask in the warmth of my portal, but I knew that it would not be proper to take Alum with me while Regeda and the men roughed it so I forced myself to refrain.

Dew coated the grass that night and it was hard to sleep. My mind was still racing to catch up with the events of the past few months, and to predict those of tomorrow. Even if Haelling Cove had not been attacked, my arrival at Haelling Cove would signal the beginning of a new era for me, and for Ebonreach. I would wed Prince Alum, and we could help Timoth in whatever way he required. I was concerned that my brother might be upset at me for choosing Alum when Duke Wilbern had offered more soldiers, but his previous words to me indicated otherwise. Additionally, I had not stayed overlong in the capital, and my previous mission – to arrest Baron Steib – had gone perfectly, even resulting in the confiscation of much of his merchandise by the Crown, and his replacement by a more efficient administration. I knew I could defend my actions; I simply hoped that I wouldn't have to.

The next day, we set out bright and early, for what was hopefully the last time that we would have to do so. Conversation between Alum and I dropped to a comfortable minimum as my back began to ache from the saddle. Lilac pressed steadily on despite my own weariness, and at the end of the day Haelling Cove was in sight.