Finally, the four of them found themselves at the edge of the marsh. With Ket following beside them, everything else avoided them like the plague. Nelson couldn’t say he minded as it made the rest of the journey a breeze. What he feared wasn’t from the dangers now, but the attention such a large warrior woman would bring to him and his group.

The first thing they had to do, however, was cross the Vast Grasslands, which as the same suggests, was grasslands so vast that they seemed almost as endless as the marsh itself had been. On the plus side, they didn’t have to worry about getting stuck in thick soupy water or ambushed by serpentines.

Herds of horses galloped in the distance. Nelson marvelled at them and wondered if this was where most of the noble horses had come from. Or if these were wild and would remain such. As far as he knew, Sethis didn’t make their fortune from selling horses.

By the time they reached the first signs of Ameath