Chapter Two The Unexpected MarchWhen the children reached the road, they were met with riders on animals Kalin called equi. Mai had never seen such amazing animals. They had broad foreheads, large black eyes, and big leathery nostrils. They pranced past them, heading toward the city’s gates. A sudden honking noise came from behind them and a mechanical machine with steam shooting out of a long tube at the front rolled past. A poshly dressed fireruler sat inside a square compartment, decorated with carved timber treatments but open to the elements. The front of the machine jutted out from the compartment and had two wheels spinning underneath. On the sides of the machine’s front was a timber treatment in the shape of an equi, which had been stuck to its metal body.
‘Out of the way,’ the fi
