Devil's Bridge

The pines rose wild along the mountain’s curve as Baron Palman Vordenburg tested his chains. He watched the mountainside roll by in waves of white, grey and green. Snow fell heavily across the Gotthard Pass, and thick drifts spilled to either side of the narrow gauge track. “An inauspicious time to try and travel across the mountains, Mr. Burchill.”

“One does what one must, for king and country,” Burchill said. “A sentiment you are familiar with, I trust.” Vordenburg’s captor was a grey man,...