Ingewel is a settlement on Tiuri and Piak’s route between the Moon Hills and the Rainbow River, and a place where private news becomes public knowledge. On their return, the friends find its people discussing Sir Andomaar’s death; soon afterward, they pass a small mourning procession. At the nearby toll crossing, Warmin welcomes them and tells them that his lord is preparing for the possibility of renewed conflict. Ingewel thus marks both the reach of the political crisis into local life and the friends’ passage home with news they helped deliver.

Setting and Route

Ingewel lies close enough to the Rainbow River for travelers to reach the crossing soon after riding through the Forest of Ingewel. During their return, Tiuri and Piak arrive in Ingewel late in the day after crossing the Moon Hills in sunshine. They return their horses to an innkeeper, who offers them fresh mounts for the onward ride to the toll. The next morning, after passing back through the forest, they cross the bridge over the Rainbow River and meet Warmin again at the crossing.

The settlement is also identified as the nearest place where a messenger could be found after Sir Andomaar’s death. Warmin proposes that the news be sent to Dangria and the king, or at least to Ingewel, where it could be carried onward. He also suggests that Sir Andomaar’s soldiers could help search for the killer, who might have fled there. Ingewel is therefore not merely a waypoint: its position makes it a practical link in the movement of news and the pursuit of the murderer.

Public News and Mourning

On the friends’ return, the inn’s common room is crowded with villagers discussing the alarming news that has recently reached Ingewel. Sir Andomaar’s death has especially affected them. Tiuri and Piak initially listen without speaking, but the innkeeper’s announcement that they have come from Unauwen City draws the villagers into questioning them. They ask whether the Lord of Eviellan killed Sir Andomaar, whether the Lord of Forèstèrra was also defeated, what the latest news from the city is, and whether war is coming. They also ask if the Crown Prince will challenge his brother to a duel.

King Unauwen had told the friends at their parting that they no longer needed to keep anything secret. They answer the villagers as well as they can, but, in a tacit agreement, do not disclose their own part in the events. The scene sets the public appetite for information against their restraint: Ingewel’s people know that the crisis is serious, while the travelers who could explain more choose not to make themselves part of the story.

The following morning, a small mounted party approaches beside the lake and passes the inn heading west. People standing along the road bow respectfully. At its head rides a young man about Tiuri’s age, grave but upright, dressed in gray mourning clothes and carrying no weapons; several soldiers follow him. The innkeeper identifies him as Sir Andomar of Ingewel. Tiuri repeats the name in surprise, leaving the moment’s significance unresolved in the account. The procession gives mourning a visible place in the landscape: the news discussed indoors is embodied in a solemn, unarmed rider passing through the town.

Warmin and the Toll Crossing

After riding through the Forest of Ingewel, Tiuri and Piak cross the Rainbow River bridge and ask to see the toll keeper. The guards do not recognize them at first. Warmin arrives, greets them warmly, and then they are recognized. He takes them into the castle and explains that his lord knows they brought important news to King Unauwen, though he does not yet know the details. The lord has begun drilling his men and says that his castle may again become a fortress, as it was hundreds of years earlier.

Warmin describes his lord as somber: in the evenings he stands on the bridge, silently gazing into the river. The toll keeper himself greets the travelers kindly and welcomes them as guests. Although they have brought money to pay the toll owed, he refuses it, saying it has already been paid; the account suggests that he may have paid it himself. Ingewel’s crossing therefore carries two distinct signals of the crisis: the castle’s renewed military readiness and the personal generosity with which the travelers are received.

The Forest and the Return

The Forest of Ingewel makes a quieter impression on the friends as they ride back through it. They are both silent, and Tiuri notices that the flowers are still blooming as abundantly as before, seemingly untouched by what has happened. He hopes the forest will never be destroyed; then he considers that, even if it were, new flowers would come to take the old ones’ place. These are thoughts he has never had before.

That reflection places Ingewel’s local landscape beside the unsettled news carried through it. The villagers fear what the political conflict may bring, and the toll lord prepares for his castle to become a fortress again; yet the flowers persist, and Tiuri imagines renewal even after destruction. Ingewel is both a working junction on the road home and a setting in which the consequences of violence, the habits of hospitality, and the possibility of renewal briefly occupy the same route.