
Dry scrub snapped under your boots as you walked toward the granite kopje without looking back. Joseph Emson called again from the whitewashed iron house, louder and less patiently. You step into this one-chapter preview with Joseph Emson at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. Hooves struck the red ground as the empty horizon withheld both bird and answer. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
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