Dawn broke over the Heavenly River Metropolis in a breathtaking sweep of gold and rose-colored light, lighting up a city transformed.
At the south gate of the city, the morning mist was beginning to lift from the wide stone royal highway that wound south toward the jagged dark shape of the Demon Cloud Mountains. Hundreds of honest merchant carts, unburdened by guild tolls, were already setting out along the road, their drivers whistling cheerfully as their draft oxen leaned into their leather harnesses.
Standing by the roadside milestones were Lin Tao and Tie Shan.
Their gear was stripped down to the bare essentials of survival and long-range march.
Tie Shan wore a fresh pair of heavy, triple-soled iron-shod boots crafted by the city’s master cordwainer, his bare bronze torso protected by a light traveling harness of oiled ox-hide. Across his muscular chest was tied the crimson silk sash bearing the stitched silver tigers—his badge of office as Grand Marshal of the Judicial Vanguard.
Slung across his broad back was his newly straightened twelve-pound cold-drawn iron pry-bar, dressed true on the anvil of the central works and gleaming with a fresh coat of midnight-blue whale oil. At his hip hung his six-pound steel posture wedge and his eight-inch driving mallet. At the same time, his field rucksack held fifty pounds of dried salt beef, hardtack, and clean water canteens.
