sample: "We can't—," Bardo was interrupted by the mother breaking free of the third raider and running towards them. Reacting to the mother charging, Medea began drawing her sword.

Before the sun had fairly risen, fifteen miles lay between them and the waypost. The road widened. Now the fields and marshes gave way to hedges and stone walls. Here and there upon the swells of the countryside, buildings clustered in markets or craft guilds, linked by meandering roads of hardpack, lined with wagon ruts.
Here, even the stone of the imperial highway was rutted. Centuries of use impressed their will on even the impeccably worked granite. Oru made an oath for the men and women of ages past whose toil and heartache lay so clearly etched before him.
Presently they came upon a village which crowded onto the main thoroughfare. Mostly the buildings consisted in stone greatrooms with stick and paper additions. On some, woodwork adorned the brightly painted gables of the many-leveled curving roofs.
As the village grew dense, they were pressed in on all sides by life. People and animals, cooking smells, the shouts of hawkers and penitents of other orders. From his seat upon the illhb, Oru could see above the crowds, and due to his station, everyone made way.