Four weeks after the dwarven mountain fell, winter still owned the old Vraven-Elvardia border, and the fortress Quinlan Elysiar had pulled out of the frozen plain in a single day had stopped being a wonder and become a schedule.
Today's entry on that schedule was an escort.
A dwarven marshal read the rules out at dawn in a voice like a rockslide. The armies would move one person from the east gate to the western ridge by dusk, against the hunters already waiting on the field: the retired king, Morgana Ravenshade, and the Scarlet Lilies, hired for the afternoon.
If any hunter touched the person being escorted, every general on the escort had to analyze and submit a report on what went wrong and how they proposed to improve the current setup.
The person being escorted was Rosie Elysiar, sole living Princess of the budding empire, who was having the best day of her winter.
