The route to Briary was straight down the valley for half the day and the landmarks were clear and easy to identify.

The sea came ever more visible at the top of each successively lower hill. Despite the threatening clouds the large settlement of Rakir was visible against the sweeping bay, where a long jutting peninsula stretched out to the north to mark the eastern end of the land of Kipro. The uncultivated land of an apo sat to the south. Around all sides of the broad plain a ring of hills and mountains enclosed the settled land making up the most populated part of Elenea. As the pair approached a river cliff with twin trees on top which signalled the approach to Briary Luke knew the journey was almost done. Dogs barked at their approach and a woman came out to meet them on the final part of the path, close to some outbuildings and about half a mile from the farmhouse.

"Hello Luke? Sarah? I'm Rosa. The men are in various places around the farm. Maria's just in the guest house getting the room ready for you. Here, let me take some of these bags from you. So how was your journey? You must be exhausted after all that travelling."

Sarah described some of the better points of the trip, omitting the things that had happened before reaching the border, as they walked the final stretch to the house. A man came out but Luke took a little time to recognise him.

"Luke?" he said diffidently. "It's Huw. By the Fates, how are you? You've changed almost beyond recognition."

"A little tired, I'm afraid. I'll be all right after some sleep. Preferably about four days continuous. We've had a difficult journey. I'll tell you about it. Where's Carlos?"

"I'm here," said a voice from behind. Luke immediately recognised the accent but had a shock as he turned to see a figure with a trim beard starting to thin out on top. He wondered if he had changed that much in the same couple of years and realised yes, he must.

"Don't worry, you're not the first to be surprised," he said with a grin revealing a couple of missing teeth. "And it's Carl now, have to be more Elenean. There've been some things in the last two years. Come inside, we've prepared something for you to drink. I made it myself, its pretty potent. Let's take your stuff and dump it in your hut first. You sit down here."

Carl took hold of the bags, and as he did so one of the arrows given to Luke by Hartor slipped out on to the floor. Rosa gave a gasp and held her hand to her mouth. Luke looked at the others. They were all staring at the brownish arrowhead. Huw looked at Luke, then looked back at the metal object on the floor.

"No, it can't be. Did someone give it to you? Why? They must have known, we'll all be under suspicion now. Where did you get it from? Tell me." He grabbed Luke, demanding an urgent explanation.

Luke sighed, not for the first time wondering why he had ever bothered. "I got it in the hill forest, beyond the border. It was given to me. But what's all the fuss? I haven't stolen them, if that's what you mean."

"Leave him, Carl" said Huw, "he wouldn't have known. "The law only applies down here, not in the borders or the westerland. Sorry, Luke, but we're all very sensitive at the moment. You don't know the way things are going down here. What you've got is extremely dangerous to us. You'd better explain how you came about it."

Luke wearily poured out his story, telling how their animals had been rustled from the farm and they had decided to leave, then been attacked by Hartor's men. He omitted the fact that Hartor had known him, saying only that the bandits had thought to save themselves from the death penalty by giving something in return. He made up a story about the bandits being afraid when he revealed the insignia of the Lodge.

"Some bandits they must be," said Carl. "Still, we'd better get rid of these before anyone happens to visit. Is that all of them? Six. It doesn't seem much for your only livestock."

"We didn't have much say in the matter," muttered Luke. "You can search my bags if you like, there's no more."

"No, don't get annoyed now, we'll get rid of these and it'll be okay."

"What's so bad about them anyway?" asked Luke. Rosa sat on the chair beside him, her voice low and urgent.

"These arrowheads, have you ever seen anything like them before?"

"No, they're quite strange. When I shot the arrow at a tree it didn't snap or break, it went in easily and came out intact but slightly less sharp. It's most peculiar for a stone."

"It's not really a stone, any more than the useless walo which Eleneans call bardak. But it's much more important. Weapons made with this can kill warriors, it is very valuable. Until recently we started to use to use it as a form of goods. In place of obligations. If you gave someone food or did work for them they could give you a disc made of metal instead of remembering what they owed you. Then you could give the metal to someone else in exchange for something you wanted. But then the bandits found out about it. They didn't want to exchange it for anything, they wanted to use it for weapons. They were so successful with the new arrows and spears they could take anything they wanted. So Rah made a decree that all metal was to be given to him, and no ordinary citizen was allowed to own it. It was terrible, no one believed it at first but they sent men round to investigate each house and if someone had a large hoard the punishment was a year in Rah’s prison doing labour for him. People threw it all out the windows and onto the path, no one dared touch it, and his men came round and picked it all up. That was last year, and now they come and search every so often, they always manage to find someone who's got a bit stashed away. If anyone knows you've got it, they'll inform on you, for the reward, or just to turn suspicion away from themselves. If they are angry they might even burn the whole house down, they have done that once."

"Diis I should go back to Athelea. What have I brought? I came to bring my horses to you and now not only have lost them but I've brought disaster with me as well. Like you say, you'd better wrap these up and get rid of them. Maybe home would be better. He slumped in his chair. "But I'm so tired, I've got to sleep before I can start the journey."

Though it was well before sunset they took Luke to his quarters where he slept well into the next day. Feeling better he made himself ready and across to the large hut to find Sarah and Rosa in the kitchen part.

"Morning, Mr Day-off. Just go and sit over there while we prepare the vegetables." Sarah came up to him and threw her arms round his neck. "We're making lunch. You can help get the fire going if you like. We'll sit outside this afternoon and have a rest, I agreed with the boys that we'll start helping with the farm tomorrow. Here, have some of this ranggia stuff, the store seems to be full of it."

Luke took the hot cup and felt invigorated by its sharp taste. Stretching he yawned mightily, shuddering his whole body. Gradually he went over the conversations of the previous day.

"Sarah, ... oh I was so tired yesterday I can hardly remember it all. What are we going to do here? I've almost forgotten who I am, this place is so strange to me."

"Sit down," she commanded, pushing on both his shoulders. "We're going to recover from the journey then do something to make ourselves useful here. Once we've learnt the ways of this country we can either stay here on the farm, if they still want us, or we can start up somewhere ourselves. It's so beautiful here, look at all the hills and fields. All cultivated, no wild animals, no dangerous forests or cliffs. Our Hannah would much rather grow up here than in the north. Wouldn't you, my darling." She patted her tummy, smiling as she felt the response inside. "So that's it. It was all decided while you were asleep. Now get that fire ready and we'll have you a big lunch."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Tell me,” he asked Rosa. “You have a different system here, I didn’t really learn it at the farm I stayed last time. What year do you call it? We are on Lion so it is a mythical year.”

“A hundred and seventeen,” said Rosa.

“How many is that?”

“A hundred is ten lots of ten. How do you count in your country?”

“Oh we just weigh things in lumps and stones and trees, our age is just a number. But ten lots of ten, no one is that old.”

“It is the age our ancestors would be if they were born at the time of the Great Flood. That was the start of Rah’s family. Well there was an old Rah before that but we count this as the modern era. Peter would be able to explain it better.” Luke looked at her questioningly. “He’s my nephew, lives at Cedar. We can go there when the weather improves. It’s most of a day's walk.”

When the men came in late that afternoon he felt guilty to have been sitting in the yard all day, so he took another early night and rose at dawn to help with the farm work. They went out to the stockade, where they were rebuilding a fence to keep the cows penned in. The old wood was nearly rotten and had been broken by one of the cows leaning against it, so they were herded temporarily in an old barn. Luke was relieved to see by their distinct crescent-shaped horns that they were the tame 'moons' rather than the bad-tempered animals he had worked with before. There were only six in the herd, and one of the hands milked them while Huw explained the basics of branch fencing, which Luke was already familiar with. When the milking was finished he helped carry the pails of fresh milk to the house, where two men were waiting with an amazing contraption.

"By the great oak tree, what the thunder is that?" Luke was shocked at the weirdness of the device. He had seen nothing like it on his previous visit. It was basically an open wooden lifting-box, in itself a feat of rare craftsmanship, with poles sticking out the front and back, but it had poles at the bottom as well, and impossibly huge circles of wood supporting them. One of the men was holding it level by the poles at one end, and as he moved the two circles moved round, so that the platform stayed level even while the whole body moved along the ground. On the wooden platform were pails of milk and all kinds of food and goods. The men in charge of the cart had powerful arms and legs and stood as tall as Luke had ever seen.

The women provided tight fitting lids for the milk urns, which were placed onto the platform and the whole assembly was pulled away by the two men. Luke could not help but walk alongside watching the circles moving round and round, the platform jolting up and down on the bumpy ground.

"Well I've certainly seen everything now," said Luke, recovering his composure. "Those are wheels, I presume. The gods must have dropped them down while they were moving thunder. They're all right for legends of course, but no one's ever actually been able to make them. My dad tried dozens of times, it's almost impossible to join them with poles without splitting them. The masons use tree trunks for moving their massive stones, you know that of course, I'm being ignorant aren't I. Well who made them, and how come I didn't see them last time I was here?"

"As far as we know there are only three wheelmakers," said Huw. They are the most prized craftsmen in the land, now metalworkers are out of favour." He lowered his voice at the mention of the forbidden substance. “Or perhaps hidden away in the Northland,” he muttered. “You're right, it's enormously difficult and highly secret. It's rumoured that even the best of the three takes a whole week to make one wheel. That cart you saw is owned by the family who distribute all the milk in this area. Their farm is small and they don't grow much at all. Still they are enormously rich. They lost a lot of their visible wealth in the recent trouble, but we have gone back to working on obs and everyone knows what they owe them, so they get given fruit, vegetables, wood, anything they need, even a whole pig by one family recently. They send their men round all the farms for milk and send it out again to all the places that don't have enough, as well as the local villages, and they make butter and cheese for the city where there are no farms. They send it down once a week. They record how much they have taken from each farm, and how much everyone has had back, and of course they always keep a small amount for themselves, so they're never short of anything. Especially labour because men know they'll always get something good in return. So that's how they got their wheels, and well worth it they are too, if you ask those men how much easier it makes life for them."

Luke soon became used to the wheeled cart arriving every day, and started to look forward to it once he realised it was bringing food as well as taking it away. He tried discussing its manufacture with the two carriers, but they seemed grumpy and uninterested, not allowing him to examine the mechanism. He soon became accustomed to the farm tasks, milking and fencing and feeding the various animals and their litters, checking crops for damage and keeping the barns and outbuildings in good repair. One thing that surprised him was that he never had to work on the house, as the women performed even the most difficult tasks in what they regarded as their own province. He was a little surprised when the rains started realising they had been on the farm nearly three months, and both shocked and delighted when he found himself the father of a baby girl.

"Ooh, look, you're a pretty thing now, aren't you just like your mother? Come on now, let's see if you need a change." The women became so preoccupied cooing over the new arrival that they almost ignored the men who simply spent more time on the farm, particularly Luke who now felt obliged to work harder to make up for the extra mouth. Rising early one morning after being wakened by the baby he saw three well-built men all dressed in the same outfit. They appeared to be examining the farm buildings.

"Are you the owner of this house?"

"No, I'm just staying here. Who are you?"

"We'll ask the questions. Are you the stranger recently arrived from the Westerland?"

"Yes. My name is Luke." He felt bemused by the sharp questioning, while the men pushed their way into his hut and one of them sat on the single chair, in front of him.

"Do you know what this is?" The man produced a gleaming metal disk, with an effigy of an ageing leader on one side.

"No." He reached out to handle the object, but the man withdrew it. Luke heard the sound of the baby crying as the men went to the rear of the hut.

"Who are you?" asked Luke angrily. What are you doing here at this time in the morning?"

"I told you, I ask the questions. Don't you recognise the uniform of the king?"

Luke immediately realised the danger they were in, so he kept silent. The man nodded at the bright disk.

"Have you seen anything made of this substance since you came here?"

"No, I don't know what it is. Why are you asking me all this?"

"This is money. As you can see it is made of metal. It is forbidden throughout the land because it can be used for making weapons. Some weapons made from this metal have been found very close to your farm. We want to know where they came from and where the rest of them are."

"Well it's nothing to do with me," Luke started to say, but he was interrupted by the others coming back. Hannah was bawling heartily, and Sarah too was crying, but the men simply had blank expressions on their faces. Luke looked at Huw who had appeared in the doorway but received no response.

One of the men produced a bag and the leader took out a few arrows with flint heads attached. "We're taking these," he announced, "you're not allowed weapons in this country, if you are from the west." He said the final words with evident distaste, and the trio marched out the door.

"Well," said Luke, "that takes some beating." Huw put his finger to his lips, lest Luke say something incriminating while the men were still at the door.

"Come on," he said, "Rosa's in the main house. Let's get the water boiling and have something to drink."

From outside they saw the men walking away up the path, and Luke turned to Huw.

"Was it your idea to put the flint heads on?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, unfortunately I just chucked the metal ones away and someone obviously found them. Now forget all about it. They won't be back. Not if we keep our heads down and don't make any enemies. Just don't mention it to anyone, nothing at all. There's no harm done, we can just get on with the farming as if nothing had happened."

At the first opportunity Luke went back to his hut feeling once again the pressures from the first day in this new home weighing on his mind. Unsure of whether he would ever settle in but he understood Sarah’s desire not to return to the old country. For the first time he felt homeless and wondered if he should move on again, but at least to his relief the search had not been so thorough as the soldiers would have claimed, as when he checked the secret place in the floor under the bed the ring Hartor had given him was still in its little hole.