Summer was well on its way round again by the time Luke had the opportunity to sit back and remember the original purpose of his trip to the east. Rosa's nephew Peter and his father were visiting the farm. Huw spent his time discussing farming with his brother-in-law, while Peter helped Luke and the other men with the farmwork.

Peter was a strong and intelligent boy, his brown hair almost completely shaved in the fashion of the time and just starting to show the faint hint of a moustache. He was a hard worker and when they stopped for lunch he threw himself down with relief on one of the dry stacks of fodder in the barn.

"What's for lunch today? No, don't tell me, bread and cheese and apples. We have meat for lunch every day at Cedar. Why don't you keep meat-cows here? Tertens, is their name in the old language. Then we could have something other than boring bread every day.

"We've only got six cows," replied Luke defensively. "We can't go killing them just for meat you know."

"No, of course. But if you had meat-cows you could eat them couldn't you? They don't produce milk."

"What, you mean bulls? They're terribly dangerous to keep."

"No, I know what bulls are, silly. Tertens are female. They just have one male to herd them and give them babies, and the other young males are slaughtered when they are two years old. The females are either used for meat or breeding. They're terribly easy to look after. Come to my farm and I'll show you."

Luke discussed the idea with Huw and Carl that evening. Carl was dismissive.

"Yes, a few of the farms stock these animals for meat, but there's no point really. You may as well grow a cow and kill it if you want meat. We do that occasionally but they are more valuable for milk and we can get meat anyway, in exchange from the trading cart. I'll make sure we get some next time, and you see if you can tell the difference."

“Where is your farm, Peter?” asked Luke.

“It’s on the edge of Elenea far from the city on the slope of the hill that leads to the north land where no one can go.”

“Is that the spur jutting out from the far end of the bay beyone Rakir?”

“Yes. The land that has no name. I’ve been up the hill and there is little there except more mountains. If you go the other way there is a large apo and beyond that the Hinderith of Athelea.”

“Yes I know,” said Luke. "I've seen the apo but it's dangerous bandit country."

“The farm's called Cedar. It’s old name was Sedir so quite similar. There is a grove of trees in the sheltered valley, they have slightly harder wood so are difficult to split and fashion but the wood is strong and dependable and ideal for the ground course of a house as insects don’t like the smell.”

“Why are you making a new language?” asked Luke.

“Don’t want to sound like bandits do we? Ever since the flood Rah has tried to improve the country. All the houses in Rakir have stone from the apo, they are starting to call it Kingston City now. That's why my name is Peter, my grandfather was the old name Petrus. We are coming into a new age, Luke.”

“Stone from the apo? How dangerous is that?”

“You’re right, people don’t normally go in them. But the one at the south of the bay, it was washed out in the Flood. My granddad told me, all the horrible animals were swept away and the ancient bones of the Old Ones littered the shore and even their shells were left floating in the bay. So apart from the risk of collapse it was safe to go in and recover their building materials. Most of it was done by Rah’s prisoners so it didn't matter so much. And of course it saved everyone a lot of money.”

“So they really did have shells? Yan told me about that. He was a devil for wanting to go into the apo.”

“Yan?”

“My friend.” Luke said no more and Peter did not probe.

“When you come to Cedar you’ll see our counting house and I’ll teach you about money, it’s a huge improvement.”

“You have to teach me about your counting first, Rosa tells me you are the expert.”

“My dad's the expert, but we can talk about it later. Sarah will be interested too.”

Luke was impatient for Peter to make good on the promise and as soon as dinner was finished that evening and all were sitting round the fire in the main house he started quizzing the boy.

“Let’s start with this,” said Peter. “How old are you?”

“Twenty,” said Luke without thinking.

“And how old are you, Sarah?”

“Twenty,” said Sarah.

“So you are the same age?”

“Well not exactly,” said Luke. “I am a little older.”

“How much?”

“A year and a month.”

“Hmm.” Peter though for a second or two. “When do you change from being twenty?”

“When I am thirty.”

“I get it. So in our system you are twenty-one. And Sarah is exactly twenty.”

“So how does that make a difference?”

“Not so much with ages. But when you learn about money it makes all the difference.”

“Is this to do with the cart?”

“The cart and everything else. You have obs in Athelea?”

“Sure. One obligation is equal to a day’s work. Mostly the Lodge Master settles them for us in exchange for us guarding the country and doing whatever work is required.”

“We have always worked on obs but recently metal money tokens came into fashion. Not now, they have gone away again as metal is banned.”

Peter’s father struck in. “Probably shouldn’t talk too much about Elenean inventions. Don’t want to be taken as spies.”

“I think none of us have a problem with westerners on this farm,” said Huw. “We’re from there ourselves and know all about money.”

“Well there are plenty of others on this farm, they are almost all locals. Wouldn’t want anyone to hear something out of turn. Ours is more secure.”

“Come to Cedar,” said Peter. “You will see how modern people live. Almost as good as the city itself.”

“We’ll definitely do that,” said Luke. Sarah nodded and the baby simply slept in her arms.

Peter would not leave without confirming the promise but it was not until after harvest with the hot part of summer coming to an end that Luke managed to find the time.

"Yes, it would be nice to go over to Cedar," said Rosa. "Maria and Carl can keep the farm going easily enough for a while. But won't we need permission to travel? You haven't lived here two years yet."

"What?" Luke was incredulous. "Permission to travel? How did we get here?"

"You haven't been keeping up with the news, have you? When you came down we arranged your journey and it was all very easy. But things have changed here in the last year. It's all full of suspicion now, all this bandit stuff and the metal business, and talk of closing the borderlands. You're still a visitor, until you have stayed two years and taken your oath of allegiance. And the distance is more than ten leagues, it's over on the far side of the Nehir and the Elen, the other side of Rakir and close to the north land. But we'll go up to the Trading House tomorrow and see if we can arrange the journey."

The Trading House was just a single hut on the milk cart farm, one of dozens of official buildings dotted around the countryside, and the clerk was dressed in the uniform of the king's servants; Luke later found out he was a member of Rah's family who between them occupied all the high ranking offices. He clearly hated his country posting. He recognised Luke, though Luke did not recall ever having seen him before.

"No permissions to travel are being granted to visitors at the moment. It is not safe out there, there is too much bandit activity. When the army has the situation under control you will be able to travel." And that was final. He sat with his hands clasped in front of him, a solid immovable mass. Luke felt insignificant.

"How can he tell me where I can and can't go?" he complained to Carl later. "All that way and back again for nothing. I could break his arms any time."

"You wouldn't do well to try," Carl replied. "But surely you've met people like that before?"

"What, at the Lodge? Yes, I suppose so, but all you do is leave half a cask of Oak outside their door. Then they'll quickly give you any authority you need."

"I'm sure that would work here too," said Carl. "Let's see if we can find out when the cart comes tomorrow. I'll ask him myself, he'll be more talkative."

"That old duffer?” scoffed the big man who guided the front of the cart. “He'll do anything you want. He's so greedy. Shame we can't use the little brown coins. One of them would go down a treat. How about a nice big cheese? I reckon that would suit him fine - just the right shape too, ha ha. Get it from our farm. Leave it outside his door so he finds it first thing in the morning, then go up there on your own and repeat what you asked him today."

Luke heard the instructions from Carl, who had already arranged for part of their milk payment to be waived in exchange for the cheese. He walked the hour or so to the Trading House and went into the nearby farm buildings. The cheese was flat on both ends and round in the middle, and as the cart man had suggested was a great symbol for the fat bureaucrat. Luke left it outside the hut and walked into the office in the middle of the morning.

"One pass to Cedar Farm, leave two days' time, return any time within the next ten days." He picked up a wooden stick with a number of notches cut into it, and deftly split it down the middle. Luke noticed that he used a metal knife. One half he handed to Luke. "Bring this back when you return. If you overstay you’ll need a new permission." He dismissed Luke, who had not spoken a single word.

Cedar was a good day's walk, and the party of five - Luke, Sarah, Hannah, Huw and Rosa - reached their destination late in the afternoon. Luke craned his neck for a sight of the meat-cows, longing to see a completely new kind of animal, but saw nothing. Plenty of time later, he thought. They relaxed inside, Rosa and her brother exchanging gossip, while Sarah talked with Peter's mother about life in the western land. Peter and his father Joe discussed the political situation with Luke, who had been updated on the situation by his companions on the journey over.

"So they didn't want you to come over here? That's hard to believe, we've had no bandit activity around here, though we have seen a few soldiers."

"Soldiers? Well that's precisely what they don't want me to see. Or maybe they are there keeping an eye out as I am an Athelean warrior. You say they may close off the border? I'm under loyalty to the Lodge so they want to be careful their secrets don't get out. But it hardly matters. They've got these metal weapons which are far stronger than any number of soldiers. They could ..." He stopped. Even with friends it would be inadvisable to say that the east could wipe out the west completely, despite the hostile terrain. He realised also that he didn't officially know about the metal weapons. "Well, I'm not interested in that sort of information anyway. I've come here to look at these marvellous cows of yours which don't give any milk. They must be something special indeed."

"Yes, you've just eaten one. Luke looked at his empty plate. "I wondered what it was. It was slightly familiar but not sure how."

"Doubt if you'll have had it before. It's a bit of a new thing." Sarah was starting to get drunk, and Luke swilled down his beer in response. Peter served, getting a little unsteady as the evening went on, and Joe came out with some local songs with bandit style lyrics that Huw and Rosa knew and Luke and Sarah soon picked up the words creating a raucous chorus, Eventually they fell asleep one by one in front of the fire, which Peter built up to a blaze that would last all night before lying on one of the pallets to sleep.

Luke woke in the early morning, as the sky was just beginning to grow slightly less dark. His sudden start woke Sarah.

"What?" she asked sleepily.

"Lianna. I ... No, of course. I just dreamt of Woodside and it seemed so realistic. Sorry. Let's go back to sleep."

But Luke could not sleep, and a little later he heard a distinct cry from the farm. Sarah woke once again.

"Did you hear that?" he asked urgently.

"What?"

"I don't know. It was a kind of cry. I'm going to go outside and see if I can hear it again."

They rose quietly and tiptoed out into the grey dawn. It was cold, and the slight wind made their teeth chatter. Luke dared not go back in for a coat for fear of wakening the others. They stayed out for about ten minutes.

"Come on, let's go back in. It's freezing and I'm tired."

"You go in, I can't sleep any more. I don't know what it is, but I'll have to stay out here. Listen."

They both heard the strange animal noise wafting across the fields . Then it came again. It was unmistakable. They looked at each other.

"How can it be?" Luke asked. Sarah was silent. "Let's go over and have a look."

The sky was getting brighter but the ground remained dark in the false dawn, the high hills to the west glowing brightly on their peaks. They walked across two fields, the earth still dry from summer, and peered through a huge wooden fence, more than twice the height of those Luke had built to stockade the 'moons' at Briary. They could see shadows moving at the far end of the field. Suddenly one of them gave an enormous whinny.

"It is, its got to be." Luke nearly jumped with amazement and excitement. He grabbed hold of Sarah. "Look, see that one in the middle. She's coming towards us."

She was like Lianna, Luke thought as the beast approached, but thinner, more graceful, with a smoother and shorter coat. She compared to Lianna as Lianna compared to the rough wild horses in the Forest, those Luke had never been able to capture. Luke thought she was magnificent, the best creature he had ever seen. She spotted the couple and came ambling over, nuzzling against the fence.

"These people, they breed animals like that to eat," exclaimed Luke. Sarah was nearly in tears at the thought.

"They don't know," he suddenly said aloud. "They keep horses and they don't even know what they have. Sarah, what we can teach them. And what a weapon they have. This makes all our efforts seem like nothing. But they don't know. What shall we do? What on earth shall we do?"

Luke and Sarah walked silently back to the house, where the rest of the party were still fast asleep in front of the fire.