The caravan traveled south from Khanbaliq for several weeks without major incident. Everyone had reasons to welcome the city’s disappearance behind them. Some hoped for imperial commissions or titles. Others dreamed simply of cleaner air, better grazing lands, distance from court intrigue, or the chance to live beyond the reach of the Emperor’s politics. Golfo and Phi Phong were newlyweds.
Yet as they entered Chu Yuan Province, the journey became steadily more difficult. Years of neglect and misrule had hollowed out both the countryside and the spirit of its people. Villages stood half-abandoned. Irrigation ditches had collapsed into mud. Farmers watched the passing herds with resentment, and townspeople greeted travelers associated with the distant Emperor with suspicion or outright hostility.
The farther south they traveled, the sharper the tensions became. Though Anca Sansar’s warriors were strong enough to defend the caravan, the khan preferred not to spill blood merely to protect grazing animals from starving peasants. He therefore divided the company.
The larger body of the caravan—most of the civilians, the bulk of the herds, many of the warriors, and families including Beatriss’s children and servants as well as Tetsukichi’s wife and infant daughter—would turn northwest and take the longer route around the Lincang Mountains toward the grazing lands that were their ultimate destination.
Sansar himself retained only twenty or thirty riders and herders, and a small goat herd. With this reduced but still formidable company, he would escort Beatriss and Tetsukichi toward the southwestern frontier by a more dangerous but less populated mountain route.
The crossing proved arduous. Snow still lingered in the high passes, and several storms forced the travelers to shelter among bare stone ridges where the wind cut through wool and leather alike. On the second morning, herders discovered unfamiliar footprints crossing a nearby snowfield—too large for wolves, too deliberate for ordinary animals.
During the worst of the storms, the caravan found refuge in a ruined stone outpost left behind by some earlier empire. They remained there for several days while supplies dwindled and the passes cleared. A few goats were slaughtered for meat. No one complained, though the silence around the fires grew heavier with each day.
After nearly ten days in the mountains, the travelers descended at last into the southern valleys and reached Menkan, the final imperial town of Chu Yuan.
Sansar Anca parted from them there. He intended to rejoin his herds farther west, while Beatriss and Tetsukichi would continue toward the frontier settlements where rumors placed Gwinch. Their farewell was brief and practical; everyone understood that the roads ahead would likely separate them for a long time.
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