The evacuation lane filled with families carrying blankets, account boxes, and whatever medicine they could reach. Mara’s wardens kept the groups small so a rush would not crush anyone at the gate.
Yan stayed beside the opening. Wei’s soldiers held the blue markers, while the wardens counted each group and pointed them toward the river shelf. Ning’s message arrived by runner. Her depot could receive two hundred people that night, but only if the carts left in separate intervals.
Mara read the message. “We can send two groups to Ning’s storehouse. Others have relatives across the river.”
“Let each family choose,” Qinghe said. She came from the clinic carrying a list of people who could not walk without help. “The wardens know their neighbors better than my staff. Mark the patients who need a cart or a stretcher.”
The wardens went through the line. An elderly dyer could walk but needed someone at each elbow. A child had a broken wrist held against her chest. Two men were coughing from smoke and could not carry their own bundles.
One of the coughing men stopped at the gate and tried to wave his wife ahead without him. She refused to leave the basket of medicines in his arms.
