So far we had not been attacked, but I did not put it beyond the realm of possibilities. In the morning we would be leaving. I'd said three days, but the response had been such that I had stayed two extra days on the promontory point that I had indicated to Falarin.
People began to make their way into the firelight to be greeted by those already gathered there. The strangers in the night were Cronians!
I ran out into the darkness calling, "Susori!"
I heard a baby crying and somehow I knew. Susori came out of the darkness then with tears streaming down her beautiful face.
I rushed to her even as she held our child out to me, "Your son, my love!"
I hugged them close with one arm as my other hand pressed against my daughter's back where she stood encircling my one leg tightly with both of her arms.
I was crying. I was happy. I was overwhelmed. I never wanted to be without them again!
Pulling my face from Susori's neck, I looked down into the face of a boy regarding me studiously, "A son."
"Yes!" she said, pressing my son into my arms. The world was falling apart all around me and yet my world had never been more complete than it was now.
Susori leaned against me tiredly and slowly, as not to dislodge my still attached daughter, I moved back towards the fire. Tomorrow we would leave for Thyana, but that was far away right now.
I laid down by the fire with Susori beside me, our son between us and my daughter on top of me. We were together again. I whispered praises to El Elyon for much of the night as I held my family close, not caring for a moment about all the other things that had been put under my care.
*****
The caravan of people I led numbered about five thousand. They represented a smattering of individuals from all walks and positions of society, but that said, the majority of them were of the poorer classes. It would seem that they had an easier time giving up their meager riches than those long attached to greater wealth.
We had entered Thyana a day ago. Four days before, I had sent riders to alert the people of this kingdom of the need to flee. By afternoon we would be at the border of the Nicationer Nation of Faquanna.
I expected there would be no trouble from them, but the Kingdom of Poretani on its eastern border was likely to be a different matter as they had been in outright war with the Kingdom of Ephanum for over a year. Our choice of such a dangerous of route couldn't be helped. There was no other way to reach Ephanum and Smirnaz.