The road we took out of Tolkirch soon turned to run parallel to the river, and as the slope steepened and the path began to wind back and forth I was forced to rein Munter back in to a trot, though I was still fuming. It felt as though the gently drifting rain ought to be driven from my skin as steam. The road was in poor shape, littered with loose rocks and taking strange veers and twists to avoid boulders the builders had deemed to inconvenient to move, but guiding the horse around them only occupied half my mind. The other was left to stew on my frustration. Had I not been mounted, I might have kicked at some of the loose stones.

I stayed lost in thought as we descended the spit and rocky scrub gave way to scrawny bushes and then slender saplings and finally the forest proper again. The trees here were not so thick as further to the west where we had come from, but the shape of the valley meant that the undergrowth was abundantly nourished by water running down to the Weitwasser; it was thick and lush, ferns and brambles springing up high enough to brush Kaczmarek’s boots where she rode at the edge of the road. Her face was also writ with thunder, but it was easing as we moved into the forest. I envied her ability to be soothed by something so simple.

“Gefreiter,” His Highness’s voice broke into my thoughts.

“Hmm?” I blinked. “Ah, sorry, your Highness, sir. Yes, sir?” I mentally crammed down my worries like I was ramming an arquebus that hadn’t been cleaned in days. Slam, slam, slam, and pray the rammer doesn’t bend.

“Is this the right way?” His tone was apologetic, the voice one used when one suspected someone was mistaken but did not wish to bring it up harshly. “It looked shorter on the map.”

I glanced around – As though I have any chance of telling! – and then at Kaczmarek. The jäger looked unconcerned, so I nodded. “I believe so, your Highness. Maps are odd things, sir, never quite seem to line up with the land itself. We are following the river, just about, and there should be a turn to our left for the bridge, sir. Hard to miss I believe, your Highness, and even if it’s not I’d wager the jäger would make it look like it is.”

The prince nodded thoughtfully. “Why not build the bridge closer to the city, though?” He asked.

Why in the Heavens should I know? I thought. I learned to manage a supply train and to order men to their deaths or walk to my own, not urban planning! But I poured that into the same mental arquebus. Tamp, tamp.

“I haven’t a clue, your Highness,” I admitted. “The whole city is a mystery to me, sir. Perhaps because of the barges?” It stood to reason that you couldn’t put a bridge over the river if they were going to haul barges along it, surely. Although I knew less about barges than I did about city planning.

Curiosity unsatisfied but options exhausted, His Highness nodded with a furrowed brow. “Perhaps it is. I should ask my tutors when we return.”

I bit my lip. If we return, I thought, but all I said was a bland “Yes, sir.”

We rode a while longer like that, but when it became clear I wasn’t much in the mood for conversation the prince reined in his horse slightly and dropped back to ride next to Magus Alemayehu, turning his incessant inquiries on him. I continued to stew.

The drunkard’s antics were infuriating, but that wasn’t truly what occupied my mind. I was worried about what it meant that it had happened at all. Was the state of the Empire so bad that merchants were falling into despair more broadly, or was it just the isolated incident? And if it was a general trouble, then was it still the aftermath of the war or was it brought on by the Torrean offensive? If it was the latter it should pass if—when we drove them out, but if it was the former it spoke to a grimmer future.

My own state worried at me as much. No matter how much a stinging nettle the man was, to have struck him so suddenly… It wasn’t proper, nor was it like me. I should be glad to be done with this trip.

Ahead, the forest abruptly thinned out again. The noise of the Weitwasser had been steadily increasing as more rocks erupted from the underbrush, and here the reason for that grew clear. The river, wide though it was downstream, now rushed and tumbled through a narrow ravine lined with boulders and cut clear down to the bedrock at the middle. At the narrowest point – that we could see, at least – the rapids foamed and roiled beneath an arched stone bridge spanning the width of the ravine. It was wide enough to take a wagon, I supposed, given it wasn’t too large a wagon and the driver was confident. Large parts were furred with moss and the whole showed heavy weathering, but it seemed in good enough condition to my eye.

Kaczmarek was not so confident. “Is this thing safe, do you think?” She asked dubiously, swinging out of her mare’s saddle to stare at it more closely. “The map didn’t say anything about it being this old.” She shoved one of the cornerposts as though expecting the whole structure to shake, stone or no.

“You want to swim?” I asked, nudging Munter ahead onto the bridge. His shoes rang loud against the stone after the dirt of the road so far.

“Immer, it’s got no bleeding supports!” She complained. “Bleeding thing looks like it’ll fall any second. Look, Schnellchen wants nothing to do with it.” She gestured to the mare, who was balking at the sudden change and rise.

“Heavens, jäger, it’s stood since the Satern Empire,” I snapped. “It’s not going to fall now, unless you knock it down with your shaking. Just lead the horse across.” She groaned and continued griping, but started coaxing the grey up the bridge. I glanced behind her; both the Magus and His Highness had dismounted, leading their own horses on foot as well. It seemed Munter was the only one who shared my opinion of the bridge.

The Afamacian offered me a smile. “My mount dislikes narrow places,” he explained. “From a bridge built today also he would shy away.” I nodded, and turned back. Kaczmarek seemed to have got stuck halfway across the bridge, gazing into the distance.

“Something the matter, jäger?” I asked.

“Huh? Oh, no.” She shook her head. “The view is just great.” She gestured out over the water.

As the river widened, its precipitous banks widened out to give way to the forests we’d ridden through on the way here, towering trees lining the water in a long avenue. Further downstream the river turned to meander around the Tolkirch spit, the fortified town rising from its peak and cascading down the side to the banks in terraces of houses and warehouses. Mist curled up from the river to meet the light drizzle, softening the edges of the city where cranes and mineworks stabbed into the sky like jagged fingers. Beyond the city the river continued to widen, banks falling away into grey obscurity in the fog, leaving Tolkirch as a lonely sentinel over what seemed like the edge of the world.

“It’s nice enough, I suppose,” I conceded without any real feeling.

“Last sight of civilisation you’ll have for ages,” Kaczmarek said. “Seems pretty fitting, right?”

“Wait,” the prince cut in, taken aback. “I thought we would be stopping before crossing the Talbens?”

“Well, yes, sir, but this far east those places are practically Szekeryan,” she said, waving a hand dismissively. I eyed her sidelong.

“Aren’t you Szekeryan, jäger?” I asked.

“Only on my pa’s side, and he was born in Immerland anyway. I’m a proper citizen of the Holy Empire!” She tugged on her horse’s reins accidentally as she gesticulated. The mare’s great nose gently butted the jäger’s head, yielding a yelp as she grabbed at her hat to keep it on. I stared blankly for a long second.

“I’m not getting into that,” I said, shaking my head and spurring Munter back into a walk down the bridge. I left Kaczmarek struggling to remount, cursing her saddle sores and the rain slicking her saddle and stirrups, while His Highness and the magus caught up.

“Though she says that, the towns are not bad, no?” Alemayehu asked, nervous.

“No, sir, no more than usual,” I answered, racking my brain for what I knew about this part of the world. “But the forest gives way to grassland up north – we’ll have to ride along the foothills for a ways before trying the crossing, sir, the odds are better – and the towns become… well, more of villages, sir. Some grow enough grain to cart it elsewhere, but many eat what they grow and may not have even paid a tax since before the war.”

“And the part about Szekeryans?” His Highness asked, listening in.

I shrugged. “Ah, well, you know what they say, your Highness. Ride before they walk, duel to the death over every insult, too far from the Mountain and basically heathens, that sort of speak, sir.” I hesitated. “Some of it’s not far wrong, in truth, but it’s not so bad as people make it out to be, sir. Finest light cavalry in the Empire, before the secession,” I added with a mix of bitterness and admiration. Heavier on the bitterness than it would be on a better day.

Mercifully, both nobles let that last slide without comment. The magus hesitated, clearly wanting to ask something but not willing to interrupt after the prince had asked a question, but His Highness waved him on. “Please, magus, there’s no need to stand on ceremony out here.”

Alemayehu bowed his head briefly. “As you say, your Highness. Gefreiter, should we have concern for anything here?”

I tilted my head to the side, spilling water from the brim of my hat. “Could you elaborate, sir? I don’t quite see, I’m afraid.”

“About honour, and duels,” he clarified. “Eh, customs we don’t know.”

“Oh, no, no sir.” I frowned. “No more than anywhere else, at least, sir. We shouldn’t have trouble.”

A gust of wind blew a sheet of rain below my hat and into my face and my frown deepened. “If you would excuse me, your Highness, magus,” I apologised, “The rain seems to be heightening and I had better speak with Kaczmarek about whether we should take shelter.”

“Of course, Schreiner, go,” the prince said, gesturing. I bowed my head—letting a trickle of water spill down my collar, making me shiver—and saluted, reining Munter in to let Kaczmarek catch up to me. His Highness watched me with pursed lips and a worried look for a moment, but then turned forward again. I briefly wondered why, but dismissed the thought as the jäger came up alongside me.