House Halvek
The Halveks maintain the three highland passes and charge for the warmth that keeps them open.
A family in the present
The Halveks maintain the three highland passes and charge for the warmth that keeps them open. Their oldest oath promises shelter to the last traveler, even when the stores cannot support another guest. As the transfer chambers fail, the family must choose between its toll monopoly and the obligation that once justified it.
Eight voices
Boren Halvek — retired passwarden. Jessa Halvek — caravan provisioner. Oren Halvek — warden of brynvale. Sella Halvek — hospice quartermaster. Miren Halvek — pack-train master. Tarin Halvek — glacier road surveyor. Hedra Halvek — pass engineer. Noll Halvek — mule keeper.
The family is shown as three generations. Birth years use the Hearth Reckoning; the present year is 684. Marriage joins households without erasing the married partner’s earlier life.
Hedra records the sound of furnace valves by making notches in a wooden flute.
Noll knows which pack animals refuse the eastern tunnel and which merely dislike its echo.
Tarin found shell-bearing paving under high ice and recognized the pattern from a pilot’s drawing of Highby.
Boren names shelter ledges after the people who built them, rejecting the numbered military charts.
Sella sends food to Rose Citadel and redeems road workers’ tokens at face value.
Stewardship of winters that cannot be abolished