More about relays
As they got underway someone pulled out the food Thelus had packed for breakfast and they ate as they traveled. The wagon was loaded with grain to resupply the relays.
The first one was the largest, it was over twenty miles out and had the capacity to house over one hundred head and a dozen staff. It only ran at full capacity at the beginning and end of each term. As it stood there were eight of the lighter bred carriage horses and a half dozen heavy drafts that were used to work the surrounding acerage with a handful of people managing it. They left the mules and exchanged them for a team of four horses. Two of the horses were stabled, at the ready for messages that needed to go through, while the rest eere turned out in the fields
There was only one road between the relay and Engama and from the relay the road split into three, North, Northeast, and West. There were no cities or towns between Engama and the first relay.
This was the largest of the relays and the only one that every carriage passed through on the way to and from Engama.
The relays kept a handful of horses during normal times. Thelus was over all those responsible for the care and maintenance of the horses and the occasional mule.
Some of the relays had hay fields surrounding them to help supply the animals over the winter.
It would make more sense if there was a narrow pass between Engama and the first relay making it less accessible. The first relay acts as a sort of checkpoint for anyone heading to Engama. This means I have to rewrite the travel to Engama to include a somewhat narrow path cut out the side of a canyon following a riverbed.
Engama was built post war to replace two schools in Eastern Ela'yas that were destroyed by the Klamon. Ironic they built it nested in the very mountains they pushed the Brehtsoln and Zegdaen into.
Despite Sherod's ignorance I'm pretty sure the complex of trip wires around Engama were to warn of Klamon approach.
"Behlsh, you ridiculous creature, you've smelled a Klamon before." Sray chided as Belsh snorted suspiciously at Meilah.