Jon sighed in sympathy at the words, but he had to harden his heart and said, "It's not that I don't want to help you, but after last year's taxation, Longka has scarcely any stores left, and it's still early for the harvest. You know as well as I do that all the food in the warehouse now belongs to the Lord.
"There's really no way around it, can you wait? Releasing the stored grain for relief on such a large scale can only be decided once the Lord himself arrives."
"The Lord? You mean the old master from the Farolis family? How long will that take? Some people have already started to faint from hunger," Boli, a grown man, nearly cried out in desperation.
"Don't panic, there's no need to wait too long. Now Longka has a new Lord, Lokhak lives not far from here, and if we're fast, he could arrive by nightfall."