✠             The troupe left the city just as dawn broke, the soft orange glow burnishing their plate and dazzling the peasants labouring in the fields opposite Helena. They were few in number, sat on pack horses that rallied about a small, lumbering wagon. Barely visible behind the blinds was the stooped figure of the Princess, head buried in a cache of documents spread about her lap. The wagon trundled over rutted roads, bouncing about, while the sold