Temur and Samarkar both thought it best not to wander about Asitaneh unescorted, but that did not mean they were idle. Samarkar took on logistics and provisioning, poring over maps with Ato Tesefahun and Brother Hsiung. The best route to Ala-Din was by ship to Asmaracanda—well, the best route to Ala-Din was by ship directly across the White Sea, but no ship’s master would gamble enough to accept the future regard of a would-be Khan and a defrocked princess as payment for carrying them to a coast bereft of major ports and infested with pirates and Rahazeen—and no amount of coin was likely to suffice. And so by ship to Asmaracanda they would go. They would find some way to enter the holy city—taxes were prohibitive to anyone not there on a pilgrimage, and Hrahima had uncovered intelligence suggesting that now that the city rejoiced under Uthman skies again, foreigners had been lynched in the streets. “Charming,” said Samarkar, when the Cho-tse related that particular fact. But Asmaracanda was where they could purchase supplies and mounts for the trip through the Shattered Pillars.
