Chapter 2: The Road to the Broken Bell

The road west was a scar across the land, a pale ribbon of packed earth that wound through hills of dying grass and skeletal trees. Yan walked at a pace that would have shamed a younger man, his breath steady, his eyes fixed on the horizon where the city of the Broken Bell waited like a promise of violence. The poison in his gut was a low, constant hum, a second heartbeat that counted down the hou...