Annan would never have imagined he'd come to Star-Moon Bay. As the Carriage jolted along, Gema's lips curved with pride.
After discovering Annan in Breeze City, Gema had realized this was the perfect chance to slip into Glacier Bay. He joined a caravan bound for the bay and set off with those Merchants, lowly and irritating as flies.
It was now the afternoon of the fifth day. Glacier Bay should be just ahead...
What interrupted Gema was the sudden absence of jolting. Outside the carriage, the horseshoes rang crisply, as though striking flagstones.
Gema opened the Carriage door and found the Merchants in the other Carriages looking around and down at the ground in surprise. They had not reached Star-Moon Bay yet, but the road was no longer Soil that turned to Mire every spring. It was a smooth, astonishingly level Stone-Paved Road.
The caravan kept moving, leaving the merchants no chance to satisfy their curiosity. A few minutes later, the endless forest on either side gave way. The road stretched ahead, and a brand-new, elegant Town appeared before them, with a sea bay in the distance.
The houses resembled those of the Northern Frontier, but looked far more refined. Some buildings had the solemn grandeur of Mansions, yet townsfolk could come and go freely. They stood along neat, intersecting roads, giving the Town a beauty born of order.
The vast bay in the distance left many speechless. They had never seen the Sea and had thought it was merely a somewhat larger lake.
The merchants could not help exclaiming in wonder. They could scarcely imagine that this already thriving Town had been built in less than four months, or how much money the "King of the North" had spent on it.
But when the caravan stopped, their attention shifted