still on the road
After a pause, "I'm from the central Bannorn," says Thomar. "Good land for farming; with the Chantry techniques, it's almost too good. Leaving half the fields fallow, half years we still have more than enough, and not enough work for strong hands. Idle time is good for learning, and I learned to use a sword. But back home, that trade is like all others; more hands than work.

"So I came south, to the edgelands, where there's work to be had."

The wagon train continues for about another hour to where the road noticeably inclines toward the hill crest. The hill actually was cut here, long ago, so that there's a steep bank upward from the west side of the road. It's at the top of that bank, about fifty feet up, where the hawking party sit their horses. A curving track leads down from the crest to the roadside. Just next where the track meets the road, is another of the culverts; but just west of the road, the brook has been dammed to make a broad, shallow pool of fresh running water. Orhild calls a halt and begins to work with her drivers to unyoke the draft beasts, who need to drink.

Up above, the hawking seems to be ending. The riders are descending the track to a broad meadow next the pool.