Before he climbed up Jaryan said this place seemed like a sacred place, like the Riddle or the wyter's grove where the clan tree stood. When I got to the door ledge I felt air coming from inside that was warmer than the air on the mountainside. The others took torches from the dead enemies and came up to join me. Jaryan came up last and pulled up the rope so no Lunars or their Sambari dogs could follow us.
Inside the doorway we could see carvings and paintings on the walls that showed pairs of dragons. Wurk called out to the Third Wind because Collan's broken arrow had said they might be there. But no one answered him. We went inside too look. In the first room there was a big block of stone like an altar made of a kind of green stone I had never seen before. Later I saw more stone like that and found out it was called jade. It comes from a long way away from the Vale. I don't know how those dragonewts got that big block of it or put it in that place inside the cliff.
He stopped before his hand touched the ball. We decided we would leave and tell Gorvara about the place so she could decide if the ball was the thing Starbrow wanted. We climbed back down and took our rope with us. We followed a narrow path through a gorge until we came to a canyon that was called Grothrang's Well, where we had been told the Third Wind were camped. The stream formed a bowl shaped pool. Around the edge of the pool was a sandy beach. There was a campfire there that had been put out but no one was near.
As we wondered where to go next, the Third Wind came out of hiding. Wurk was very surprised to see his sweetheart Erynn was with them. They had just come from ambushing a party of Lunars who had been searching for them.
We went back to our people by secret paths that the Third Wind knew. While we walked Wurk discovered that the strange orb was in his bag! When the Third Wind left us Erynn gave Wurk a kiss and said farewell to him. Then he showed us the orb. We talked about whether we should tell the members of the Ring about it, and in the end we agreed that we wouldn't mention it to them. It was better if they didn't know.
Wurk asked if we could speak with the Ring and told them about what we'd seen in the cliff temple. He spoke of the orb but didn't say that he had it with him. Then Morganeth gasped and seemed to be looking at something only her blind eyes could see. Then we learned that it didn't matter that we hadn't told them anything else about the orb. She knew it was there, and that the spirit inside it had called Wurk a priest, something he hadn't even told the rest of our company. We didn't know then what that would mean to us, but soon that spirit would become very important to us all.
The end of Earth season came, and we joined our people in helping with the harvest. Wurk talked more with the spirit in the orb, which looked like a serpent or dragon made of rainbow. Its name is Shavashank. It is a wyter like the Black Stag. We could sacrifice power to it and become its community. I didn't know then that anyone could belong to more than one community.
Collan joined the cult of Orlanth Adventurous then. Jaryan tried again to get a sponsor to join, his uncle Karenstar, and this time he succeeded. Things seemed like they'd gone back to normal, but we knew the Lunar tax collector would come back.
In Dark season that year on Clay Day of Stasis week the Crimson Bat flew across Sartar toward Whitewall. While it flew over our country, Keladon Blue-Eye told a ballad of Jarndor and Gralala.
I heard a rumor from Keladon that Esrala had gone missing. There was heavy snow that season, so searching for her was hard. Then we heard that Darastan had gone missing too. Some people said they had run off together. Darastan had been strange since he failed his manhood initiation.
Our company used our Stag's Leap to travel to the cave where we'd fought the witch, thinking Darastan might have gone there. But there was no one in the cave. It was empty and dark. Even the spirits didn't visit there.
From there we went to visit White Bark to talk to Grandmother White Bark. She was very anxious to bring Esrala home. She dismissed the idea that Esrala had run away with Darastan. She told us that Esrala's heart belonged to someone else, but she wouldn't say who, she just said we should ask Fiedor because he kept company with Darastan sometimes.
On Fire Day we went to talk to Fiedor. He had a reputation back then for spending time with women who had husbands. That day he had a blackened eye and a split nose. He said that Keladon's song about Jarndor and Gralala put the idea in Darastan's head to run away with Esrala, and confirmed that they were together. He also asked us not to talk to Soratha.
When we left him Soratha approached us and told us she was unhappy because Fiedor had broken with her. She said we should talk to Daladra, the wife of Jaryan's uncle Karenstar, or to Karenstar himself.
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