In Harvest Week of the year I became a woman, our clan met a terrible challenge. That year was not a good one. The harvest was poor. There were fewer children born to our clan. The Deer Folk were more active in their fight against the Lunar Empire. Things didn't look promising for our lands or our tribe. There were rumors that Kallyr Starbrow was going to rise up and lead another rebellion. Some people were glad to hear that and some were angry with her because her last rebellion failed and many of her followers were killed. Wurk supports her. His mother had died a great warrior in the last rebellion.
A Deer Folk band, the Third Wind, came to visit the Vale that week. Gordangar greeted them as friends. They were led by Gorvara Redcloak, a Vingan warrior. We weren't supposed to listen to their talk, or even pay any attention to them, but Jaryan overheard them and called us over to hear what we could. Gorvara told Gordangar that they were going to seek out a temple in the mountains that had been a temple of the Empire of the Wyrm's Friends in the Second Age. It seemed like they wanted to find something the Starbrow could use. This place they sought was called the Eye That Opens and Closes, or maybe that was the name of the thing they were looking for.
Gordangar gave them permission to cross the Vale and some supplies to take with them. Later Collan told us that he recognized Gorvara Redcloak's second, Koralmath Shieldbreaker. He also wondered if Gorvara could be the Starbrow herself, in disguise. Then Collan's mother caught us listening and we were sent away.
On Clay day of Movement week in Earth season we held the rites. It was my first time to walk the fields with my mothers and sisters, singing the laments of Esrola. In the Riddle I listened to Morganeth sing mournfully in Earthtongue of Esrola's abduction by Angdartha.
That night we stayed inside our homes with the children while the men went out into the fields and sang their own songs, and it was the first time for Collan and Jaryan and Wurk to go with them. In the morning we burned the straw effigy of Esrola that was soaked with the blood of our sacrifices. I made sacrifice of my own, giving some of my magic power to honor the goddess.
On Fire day more visitors came. We didn't want them, but we couldn't turn them away. A Lunar envoy brought many soldiers and slaves to Black Stag Vale. It was a woman from Tarsh, I don't remember her name. Again we weren't supposed to be there, but we hid in the kitchen of the Hall and listened as she told Gordangar that we owed the Lunars more tribute of cattle than we had given. It was custom that our clan didn't tell them how many people we truly had, but someone told them. She wanted more than two hundred cattle to make the tribute! We would starve if we gave up that many cattle.
Then she said that if Gordangar would tell her where to find the Third Wind the clan would only have to give a hundred cattle instead. I realized then that if Gordangar accepted that bargain and betrayed Gorvara and her people, he would have to host the envoy until the Third Wind was taken. I also knew that if we tried to fight we would probably end up like the Sambari slaves the envoy had brought with her to intimidate us. The Lunars crushed the Sambari clan and they were a clan no more. King Harl in Boldhome wouldn't oppose the Lunar oppressors.
Keladon Blue-Eye the Eurmali trickster came in then and found us but he didn't tell us to leave. He whispered to us that we could go and warn the Third Wind and buy time for the Ring to make a plan. I knew that if we were caught by the Lunar scouts they could deny knowing anything about what we did.
After the envoy left we asked the Ring if they could give us anything to help us in that task. They showed me some things that looked like jujubes and asked me which color I chose. I chose green because it made me think of Ernalda. I was shown how to spin this thing above my head like a top, and then it would let me float up or down like the seed pods that blow in the wind in Spring. To Collan they gave a broken arrow that could find other arrows like itself, fletched as the Third Wind's arrows were fletched. Wurk was given a sword and scabbard that belong to the clan, the sword could let him jump farther than a man can jump if he said the name of our clan to it in a certain way. Jaryan they gave a black stone like the green one I had, but his could find chaos.
We were given a map to where the Third Wind had last been camped. We had to cross over a stream by jumping. Wurk used his sword. I made the jump but had to fight not to fall in. We climbed up into the mountains until we were inside a cloud. It was cold and hard to see in there and everything felt damp. We came to a sheer cliff, and while we looked up at it we realized that there was a cave opening, carved with entwined dragonewts and marked with the dragonewt rune. Even though we were trying to find the Third Wind we wanted to climb up there in case they had already found the temple.
While we wer trying to see how we could climb, a javelin flew out of the cloud and hit Jaryan's shield. Then another javelin hit him in the belly and he fell down and blood spread around him on the ground. Collan took out his bow and fired on our enemies, and Wurk used his sword to jump closer to them. I hit one in the arm with a sling bullet. An arrow flew past Jaryan. Wurk cut off one man's arm. I hit another man and disabled his arm. One of them hit Collan in the leg. They had an archer hiding among some trees and Wurk jumped over to him and cut his leg open so even in the cloudy mist I could see the bone. Two of the wounded enemies called for ransom. Then one of them knocked Wurk's sword out of his hand and Wurk was wounded in the gut. But Collan slew the last one who was still fighting with an arrow. We didn't want to deal with prisoners or use our magic to heal them. Their arrows were Sambari. We killed them and healed ourselves.
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