The West Road

The road west starts at the Grovebridge, an old stone arch over the river, and the toll booth beside it. From there it wanders past Kindleford, where you wade, past a little shrine with seven candles that somebody keeps lit, and on to a signpost where a lane forks south toward the farms.

Folk live along it: a fisherman, a laundress, a candle-lighter, a peddler and his pack animal, and the wardens who mind the bridge. Watch the scarecrow in the fields. Count its crows.

Left: where the West Road lies in the world (the lit box); click another place to go there. Right: the numbered circles are the landmarks listed below, and the small squares are where people live.

Landmarks

1. The toll-keeper's ledger: A ledger on the toll booth's sill, swollen with forty winters of damp.
2. The toll bell: A small bronze bell under the booth's eaves. Its rope is singed at the end.
3. The toll bar: A heavy bar across the road east, chained and padlocked. Rust has grown over the lock like moss. The road to Khemenu is closed.
4. The toll booth: An abandoned toll booth. A faded Kek glyph over the window. Something has nested in the eaves: the wood is scorched in little rings.
5. The bridge lantern: An iron lantern on the bridge's parapet.
6. The Republic Stone: A tall grey stone by the junction, its face cut with seven worn circles and an eighth, smashed.
7. The milestone: A milestone, leaning. KHEMENU 9 on one face, chipped out. HARROWFIELD 2 on the other. Somebody has drawn a frog on it with a very sad face.
8. The roadside shrine: A little stone shrine with a slate roof, seven candles on its ledge and offerings at its foot: buttons, crusts, a copper, a tooth.
9. The fork sign: A signpost at the fork. GROVE and HEARTH back the way you came. HARROWFIELD down the lane. KHEMENU east, crossed out, and under it in chalk: 'not this way, love'.
10. The fallen tree: An old ash lies across the farm lane where the flood brought it down, roots and all. The lane to Harrowfield is closed. Beyond it, the fields are very quiet.
11. The west road: The road west runs on into the wood and is lost under brambles grown over it since the Long Night. Nobody has cut them. Nobody has needed to.
12. The abandoned cart: A carter's cart, grey with age, one wheel gone. Burned into its side: FENN'S CARTING. The F is upside down.
13. Gerald: The field's scarecrow, in a coat older than you. Behind his head, like a halo, an old cartwheel turns in the wind. The crows keep their distance.
14. The moored punt: A flat-bottomed punt tied to a post. Its pole is missing. Pike says the river took it. Pike says the river takes everything except fish.
15. The west abutment: The bridge's old stone foot, green with weed. One stone sits a little proud of the rest.