In which the intrepid travellers continue their arduous journey across the vast Siberian steppe toward Ichim, their spirits tested by the perils and the ever-looming threat of invasion, rendered all the more pressing by the scarcity of resources and the uncertainty of the road ahead. At a post relay, a tense encounter unfolds between Michael Strogoff and a menacing stranger demanding his horses, revealing the subtle and profound sacrifices woven into the fabric of a mission fraught with danger.