Free The Phoenix Unchained by James Mallory

history—they remembered that, and even the poorest home in Armethalieh had its pot of flowers at the family Light-shrine.
    Beyond the last of the houses—and the thick white marker stone, which marked the official boundary of the City—Tiercel could see the rolling fields of the vast farmlands that surrounded Armethalieh. Once, centuries ago, this whole area had been forest and small isolated villages. But that was back in the Time of Mages, when Armethalieh had been a walled city considerably smaller than its present size.
    They kept to the edge of the road, staying well out of the way of the freight wagons that took up most of the center of the road. Early morning was the time of heaviest traffic, with the carts from the farms heading into the City for the morning markets, and the freight wagons heading off the docks by the North Road, which joined the Delfier Highway just outside the City. Even this late in the day—it was already Midmorning Bells—traffic was still heavy.
    “Is it going to be like this all the way to Sentarshadeen?” Tiercel asked Harrier, after they had to ride completely off the road so that two large vehicles—one freight wagon, one farm cart—could pass each other without injury.
    Harrier looked contemplative, and Tiercel reminded himself that Harrier didn’t have any more experience with the Delfier Highway than he did. “Pretty much, I’d say,” Harrier decided, after thinking it over. “But once we get past the farms, there should be less traffic.” He pulled out a map and consulted it. “According to this, there’s something called the Old War Road that splits off the main road once we ride a bell or so farther on from here. It parallels the Delfier Highway, but it looks like the wagons don’t use it. Why don’t we take that instead?”
    Tiercel grinned in relief. He’d just as soon not spend the entire trip to Sentarshadeen dodging wagons.
    “Sounds good.”
    “And maybe you can tell me what it is—if you don’t make the explanation too long.”
    “Deal.”

    BY the time they reached the turn-off for the Old War Road, Tiercel had managed to remember what little he’d read about the Old War Road in his recent reading, and since it was about battles, Harrier was willing to listen to it. It was also time to stop for lunch—or at least a snack, since they’d gotten up very early that morning.
    Here the road out of Armethalieh became the Delfier Highway, broad and well-marked, heading straight east. The trees were well cut back on both sides of the road, and the mile-markers clearly indicated distance. The Old War Road was not nearly as clearly marked. It was far narrower, and the trees grew right up to its edge. It was obviously a well-traveled road, as its broad surface was free of any sort of vegetation, but it was obviously only meant for horses and foot traffic. And from the map that Harrier had brought, it didn’t run nearly as straight as the Delfier Highway, which Tiercel thought was odd in something called a War Road. If you were going to war, wouldn’t you want to get there as fast as possible?
    At the edge of the forest—it was actually what remained of the ancient Delfier Forest, Tiercel knew from his reading—cattle and foraging deer had reduced the grass to a parklike shortness, and there was a pump-well with a watering trough and some tethering posts. They stopped there and gave the mules a chance to drink before tying them up, and then spread out a blanket from their gear and got out one of the hampers of food.
    “Mama says we can ask the landlords at the inns to sell us cold lunches for the road,” Harrier explained, setting the provisions out on the colorful Centaur-woven blanket. “That way we won’t have to find an inn to stop at for lunch if we don’t want to. So. You were saying that this is an old Elven road?”
    “According to the books I’ve been reading, it runs all the way from Ondoladeshiron to Armethalieh. North of Sentarshadeen, the