We also had a new mystic. Her name was Suri. Konniger had a talent for drinking, boasting, and the ax, but Suri could talk to trees. —THE BOOK OF BRIN For the past twenty years, Persephone had sat in the Second Chair beside her husband at every general meeting of the clan. That morning she entered the lodge as a visitor. It felt strange walking into what had been her home—into a world of memories—as a guest. Her eyes were drawn to the changes. The woodpile had been moved to the east wall and the bear rug brought down from the bedroom upstairs. Konniger’s ax hung from a winter pillar. Of all these changes, the one she couldn’t help staring at was the addition of Reglan’s shield to the pantheon of past chieftains’ weapons hanging from the rafters. The inhabitants of the dahl clustered around the central fire, sitting on the floor. Konniger sat in the First Chair, waiting for the crowd to settle. Although he had suffered no wounds from his duel with Holliman, he still bore the gash on his head from the fight with the bear.
