A figure moved quietly through the dark and kicked one leg of Kurt Bauer's bunk. The farmer, however, was already awake.

  “It’s time,” murmured Sydera.

  Kurt rose and dressed. Martin and Janus were up already, having not needed any such motivation. Kurt wondered then if any of them had gotten any real sleep last night. As far from Eichen as they'd gone, and as remote as Drachenzahn was, it seemed highly unlikely that the hunters or Volkard could find them so quickly. All the same, the pessimist in him struggled to believe escape would be so easy.

  “Before we go outside,” the kind, frightening dragon man began, drawing Kurt out of his sluggish thoughts. “Let’s get your pay out of the way.”

  He handed them each a small pouch of coins. Kurt was too polite to check, but it definitely felt far heavier than it should have for the meagre two days of work he had done. He wanted to feel something. More, he wanted to say something. Sydera was kind and generous, and yet this money meant more running, more fear. Would he and Martin ever find peace?

  Janus gave out a whoop and a laugh, and it snapped Kurt back out of his maudlin demeanour. The runner was not only being presented with his pay, but an old longbow and a quiver of thirty arrows for it. Beyond where he and the Director stood, Kurt could see and hear some males stirring in their bunks, groaning as they tried to return to sleep. What time was it anyway?

  “Are you all right, papa?”

  Kurt looked down to the smaller, better part of him and gave Martin a weary smile. “I’ll be fine, son.”

  “We’re getting there, papa,” Martin said, taking his hand and squeezing it. His smile was so like Sabine’s that it was haunting. “Sydera says the coast is just a day away. Then we’ll be in a port, and we can go wherever we like.”

  “I hope so,” his father said. He looked towards the door and saw nothing but darkness and shadow. Somehow, he still could not fully believe they were nearly in the clear.

  *

  Clouds of faded grey filled the early morning sky. There were hints of dew on the ground and the leaves of the trees they passed with Sydera in the lead. They had an escort of six males from the hunting party with them, bows in hand. They seemed nervous, constantly looking over their shoulders, scanning anywhere that might hide someone on the trail down to the river and the waiting barge. Did they know something he didn’t? Janus seemed to pick up on their odd behaviour, too, and unslung the new bow he had as his ears perked up. The runner could pick up basic emotions from peoples’ scents, Kurt remembered. Was his friend picking up hints of fear?

  If there was any to be had, it did not seem to be coming from Sydera. The dragon man moved with perfect indifference, a heavy looking rucksack slung over one big, powerful shoulder. He led the motley assortment, speaking quietly with Martin who walked beside him. The boy had rushed up to join him, much to Kurt’s surprised annoyance. He appreciated everything the dragon had done for them, but he was wary of Martin becoming too interested in the odd creature. Sydera was kind, but that did not necessarily make him trustworthy. Kurt had trusted the hunters to find his boy after coming home to a home full of butchered people. It had been a mistake he was determined not to repeat.

  The scaled were no elves when it came to road construction, but the importance of this track from their settlement to the river was such that their crude sloping path was better maintained than the King's Road from Eichen to Schweigen. The road flattened as it reached the river and the lumber yard. The yard itself, and the harbour beyond was accessible by a heavy, sturdy bridge that seemed to be built from some of the largest trees Kurt had ever seen. Having had to fell, clean and then drag trees once more, the feat of engineering represented in this bridge had only become more impressive to him. The level of industry and stubborn determination displayed by a relatively small group of people stirred something inside of him that had been dormant for so long. He had been like these people once. He had built something with his own hands that he had been proud of. No, he was still proud of what they'd accomplished, even if it was naught but ash now. It was all lost, but did that mean it was too late to try again?

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  They crossed over the bridge and found a quartet more scaled hunters waiting at the other side. The lumber yard had workers at it already, a score of dedicated males who slept there to look after the precious equipment needed to keep this whole town alive. Some were sharpening the main saw they used, while the remainder were locking in the spare they kept oiled and ready for when it was needed. As they passed through the yard towards the harbour, Kurt realized the hushed conversation between Sydera and his son had become something else entirely. The dragon had taken full control of the conversation, now, and was delivering a very animated explanation of his ambitions to the far younger human.

  “Eventually, the hill we’re clearing will form the main hub of the town I mean for us to build. The walled camp you spent the past few days in will become our fortress, watching the road," he began, jerking his free thumb vaguely behind them for emphasis. "Both it and the town proper will be on the tallest hills for a dozen miles. I mean for us to put up three bridges across the river, and they'll be built like Elf bridges, with immense cranes and winches to raise the centre spans high enough to allow large ships like our barge to pass beneath them." The Dragon paused and shrugged. "Perhaps we'll build more than three, if Drachenzahn grows large enough, but for now, I think three will be more than enough. At any rate, I’ll need to find more engineers and architects. Besides the bridges, we’ll need sewer systems dug, like the ones we have in the mountain, and then of course to design and build the houses. There is so much to do, Martin. This will take years, but every week, something grows just a little…”

  They boarded the vessel, stepping up the steep gangplank one at a time. The forest and hills rose sharply above them on either side of the river and seemed to press down on them. Janus immediately ran up to the prow of the ship, where he leant heavily down on the railings to watch the water froth. Kurt followed after Sydera and Martin, while a number of the dragon's guard deposited their gear below deck before returning, still armed, to stand watch along the flanks of the vessel.

  Sydera took his place at the cockpit, standing beside a pair of scaled who smiled uncomfortably at the two humans who joined them. Martin was looking about him with real wonder on his face, and it struck Kurt that this was his boy’s first ever time on a ship. Kurt could barely have been much older than his son the last time he had been on one. It had been a row-boat his father had rented to try and make a living off of fishing from the river that flowed through Gozer. It had not lasted long, and had ended badly. Kurt was not so worried about being on this larger, much stronger vessel though. It was what was out there among the trees that worried him. There was so much out there that was beyond the control or understanding of a man like him, and it seemed like all of it was after his son because of what he was, or what they thought he was.

  Watching the boy as he asked endless questions about how they controlled the vessel, and whether or not he might be allowed to climb the rigging later and see the river and the land around it from the top mast, it was so hard for Kurt to see the monster that Eisengrim and the other hunters feared, or whatever it was that the hellish fiend that had destroyed their quiet lives was after. Had there been signs he had been blind to? Was there something obvious to others that he was just too close to see? It was impossible for Kurt to think of any. He had seen what magic had done first hand. No one could hide that kind of destruction, not even his precious, precocious son.

  Kurt's thoughts were interrupted by a cry of, "HEAVE!" from the deck below them, and he glanced down in time to see a handful of scaled haul the gangplank aboard the barge. That task accomplished, they rejoined the rest of the crew as they bustled to their stations on deck. Kurt watched them, and Martin, and the shore.

  “Cast off!” cried Sydera.

  The crew scuttled about the deck below them like multi-coloured ants, aided by teams ashore with ponderous ropes the diameter of young trees in hand. Between the crewmen on the poles and the shore teams hauling with all their might, the barge slowly worked its way into the river's main channel. A breeze Kurt hadn't noticed before started playing with his clothes as other crewmen began unfurling the sails. Finally, to the obvious relief of the pole-wielding crewmen, they'd entered the river properly. Between the current and the breeze, the barge was gliding smoothly as it carried them to the sea.

  “Well done!” said the dragon with a smile and a pat on the shoulder of their helmsman. A tenseness Kurt had only been vaguely aware of seemed to slip from the great shoulder of the purple and gold man as they began their journey.

  “Time for breakfast, wouldn’t you say?”

  *

  The large vessel glided down the river at a good, constant pace, a strangely shaped log covered in busy insects. The river was wide, and could have easily swallowed another by its side.

  Rahm watched it from the shore, hidden among the trees, astride a mighty shire horse. His right eye burned, as the beast under him fretted and whinnied, spooked by something it could sense but not quite understand.

  The archer yawned, and closed his eyes. When he opened them again the burning had stopped, and he did not feel quite so tired. He was learning something of the gift that Volkard had given him back at Eichen. The horse beneath him calmed, in time.

  The archer watched the barge depart, before looking back at the lumber yard and the town with its many people. They would be destroyed by the Master, one day. Until then, he would carry out his duty and follow after Martin. He was on that vessel, along with his father, and the runner scum who had ruined his eye. Rahm knew his name was Janus, now, and that he was a former hunter. The archer followed after the ship on his horse. He understood the nature of his mission, and the price that failure would bring.