Theo still felt angry as they passed through the city gate. Barely four weeks at home and we’re leaving again, he thought. Leaving before my apprenticeship got on track, not even staying till Harold’s Day. The chill in the air only deepened his frustration. He let the tips of his feet drag a monotonous line in the snowy road, watching as the fresh snow blurred the line almost immediately.

Thom the dragging sound his sulking son made. If only Theo could see the opportunities this journey provided, Thom thought, glancing back at his son. But Theo’s apprenticeship with the cribs was going nowhere. His handlers said the youth was too distant, too uninterested. This journey would put him back on track. Thom had already arranged for a new apprenticeship with the master bookbinders of Bluecliffs. Louise, Thom’s wife, pointed at a waysign which was half covered in snow, and Thom nudged the cart’s donkey in the right direction.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

As they left the junction, Theo’s eyes lingered on the ornate arrow that said ‘New Azrtown’, pointing home. Only 3 kilometers in half an hour, he thought bitterly. Father hadn’t even managed to get a new donkey as he had promised. This journey would be excruciatingly slow. Again.

Thom also felt frustrated with the slow pace, but he was fixed on the opportunities ahead. He had heard through contacts from Waterside about a rare chance, so he couldn’t wait until he found someone ‘willing to sell their steeds in winter’, as the saying went. Bluecliffs’s only smithy had burned down, and with Harrold’s Day looming, the town would be in desperate need of all sorts of equipment. This would be well worth pushing through the last days of winter.