The Tollwright's Camp

The Marrow-Lance road-camp where the barrow road bends toward the Weeping Vault — tents, a corral, and Reza's fire. Pay the toll and you buy steel and a night's safety; refuse and the road is yours and everything on it.

A chokepoint by design: the wash narrows here to the width of two horses abreast before it opens on the last straight toward the Vault, and the Marrow Lances have sat on this neck since someone first needed the crag road watched. Three canvas pavilions, a remuda of road horses, and a weapon-rack that makes the camp look better-armed than it is. The fire stays lit through the night as advertisement and warning at once. Reza the Tollwright runs it with brittle precision; she knows exactly what the three contracts she's holding are worth and exactly when they start to contradict each other.