Vanandes

Took the convoy 25 days to cover 140 li from the border to Vanandes — at that pace finishing the trip in one winter was impossible. The Second Prince later fortified a pass 10+ li out on the road to Lichtdana castle.

Vanandes is the largest trading city of the Madrass Principality and its chief goods-distribution centre, owing this to its position at a road junction: south runs the route to the Andinak Kingdom, north to the Northern Lands, east to the Faker and Sabaj duchies, west to the principality's capital Shalisko. For this it is called the 'commercial flower' of Madrass. Its narrow streets thick with shops and the ceaseless din of traders remind Lorist of his native Morant.

From Vanandes to Kobo and on to the lower Mitoburo crossing is over a thousand li more. Nearby, by the Lichtdana fortress on the Leden Ridge, lie the Mantou Hills and the hundred-li White Heron Lake — the natural border with the Andinak Kingdom.

At first Lorist visits Vanandes posing as a merchant from the Kingdom of Reiderlis: he scouts the situation, buys guidebooks and maps, and at a bookshop, for a silver coin, buys the defence plan of the Lichtdana fortress, which sells briskly among war hobbyists (ch 149). He later uses this plan to starve Lichtdana out by cutting off its water.

In winter the northern convoy reaches Vanandes, and here winter catches the column: it took the convoy twenty-five days to cover just a hundred and forty li from the border. Lorist restocks supplies and gear in the captured city and decides to move to Kobo before the snows block the roads (ch 158). Later the Second Prince fortifies a pass ten-plus li from Vanandes on the road to Castle Lichtdana.