Menkan itself was orderly to the point of oppression. Soldiers patrolled constantly, curfews were strictly enforced, and the governor’s authority reached into every corner of the town. Yet beyond its walls, travelers spoke of near-lawless conditions—banditry, abandoned villages, and isolated settlements surviving through uneasy alliances with whoever could protect them.
The party remained in Menkan for several weeks gathering information. Rumors concerning Gwinch were plentiful but contradictory. Some described him as a defender of frontier villages; others hinted that he had become entangled in darker affairs. Everyone agreed on only two points: he now lived in a jungle settlement called Quitokai, and reaching it would not be easy.
By the time they departed Menkan, Sansar’s escort had fallen away entirely, leaving a much smaller expedition. The company now consisted of Beatriss, Tetsukichi, Afu and his assistant Ju-Mei, Naron of the Steppes, Al-Fitar, the increasingly insufferable newlyweds Golfo and Phi Phong, and Tsao Ho of the Shining Mountain Path Monastery together with ten disciple monks.
They followed a broad dirt road that traced the course of the Lam River through largely empty country. Signs of former cultivation appeared everywhere—collapsed terraces, burned farmhouses, irrigation works overtaken by weeds. They also found evidence of why so much land had been abandoned. One morning they passed the body of a dead man lying beside the road, pierced with arrows and already half-picked apart by carrion birds.
Near midday the same day, they were ambushed.
Arrows erupted from the brush along the roadside, cutting down several of Tsao Ho’s monks in the opening volley. Rather than retreat, the party spurred their horses directly into the attack. The brigands broke quickly once engaged at close quarters. Most were killed; several fled into the trees. One prisoner was taken alive.
The captive proudly proclaimed himself a member of the Black Flowers, boasting that his brothers would avenge him. The party questioned him only briefly. When he later escaped into the undergrowth during the march, no one bothered to pursue him.
By evening they reached Bùqiāng bīng, a small riverside settlement dominated by an impressive stone temple. The inhabitants were polite but unmistakably wary of outsiders. At the inn, however, the travelers met several merchants who claimed familiarity with Quitokai and with Gwinch himself. They offered to guide the party there, but Beatriss declined. The men shrugged.
“Then simply follow the river,” they said. “You will arrive soon enough.”
The advice proved questionable.
For the next five days the party traveled downstream along the Lam, heading south and west through increasingly isolated country. Along the way they encountered first a lone wanderer who shared their fire for a night, then a group of weather-beaten soldiers who demanded five taels apiece for “travel papers.” Both insisted the party was moving in the wrong direction.
Eventually Beatriss and Tetsukichi concluded that either they had misunderstood the merchants at Bùqiāng bīng or that the directions had been intentionally vague. They turned back upstream toward the great fork where two tributaries joined the Lam from the north and east.
There they discovered the substantial settlement of Kāi'ěrwén, which they had previously bypassed.
In Kāi'ěrwén, the road to Quitokai was widely known, though difficult to describe to outsiders. A merchant preparing to travel there offered to guide the party in exchange for protection against bandits. Conditions around the jungle settlements, he explained, had deteriorated badly. Hunter tribes from the deep forests had begun raiding agricultural villages along the frontier.
When Beatriss mentioned that she knew Gwinch, the merchant reacted with visible relief. He spoke of the foreigner with admiration touched by uncertainty, praising him for helping organize Quitokai’s defenses against the raids. Yet even in praise there lingered hesitation, as though no one was entirely certain what Gwinch had become.
Before departure, the merchant suggested they visit a local temple and receive traveling blessings. Beatriss agreed, though she remained faintly suspicious of the proposal. The ritual itself proved entirely ordinary: a modest ceremony at a small temple devoted to the Path. Nothing seemed amiss.
Afterward, however, the merchant abruptly changed his mind. He apologized and announced that the omens were unfavorable for travel. He would remain behind after all.
Instead, he provided careful directions, explained the advantages and dangers of several possible routes, and ended with a final warning:
“The people of Quitokai do not trust strangers. And they are very good at protecting themselves.”
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