Two days from Roadbreak Arthur came to understand the peculiar name of the town. They were on the highway running west to east, from Keen to Erkateren, and only splotches of gravel told him someone did care for the road at all. There was dust everywhere, and he began longing for rain even if Harbend had warned him that rain was what would turn the road into a muddy quagmire. At the moment Arthur didn't care. The dust crawled into his eyes, ears, nose and mouth, and every time he took off his jacket a cloud of the ever present dirt enveloped him in an instant.

They'd bought the beasts of burden they needed at farms the girl led Harbend to, even though most of them turned out to be oxen. It mattered little. As draft animals they were stronger than horses, and with a wagon train speed wasn't important. Especially on a road like this where they only managed to cover half the distance each day compared to back in Keen.

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A caravan, and by now it looked like one. Almost forty wagons in total and over a hundred horses, mules and oxen unaccounted for. Two grooms and two cooks hired in Roadbreak as well as a carpenter. With drivers and escort they were well over a hundred men and women traveling on the road. All the animals and humans in one place, always moving, made a noise Arthur wouldn't have believed possible outside of a city.

He wasn't surprised when people came out from their farmhouses to watch the strange train passing by. Some even approached them asking for news from Keen and that usually resulted in a little bit of trade and the caravan swelled with livestock in exchange for cider and clothes made in Verd.