The morning fog had not yet burned off the valley floor when the congestion at the primary eastern crossroads reached critical mass.
This intersection was the geographic fulcrum of the region's trade. Here, the packed dirt of the old King's Highway fractured into three distinct arteries. To the east lay the winding, treacherous descent toward the East Bend Swamp, currently marked by Baron Harth's freshly nailed canvas banner declaring free passage. To the south lay the graded, gravel-paved approach to the Silver River Bridge. And rising into the sky to the southwest was the raw, unfinished scar of Miller's Ridge.
By the seventh hour of the morning, the crossroads was a theater of logistical chaos.
