Chapter 1: Apple and Elderberry

Bast, bored in the empty Waystone Inn, amuses himself with bottle tastings and a counting rhyme until Kote appears. They discuss the previous night’s attack by a creature from the Mael that killed Shep. Kote privately credits Bast for slowing the thing and likely saving lives, though the town will praise the smith’s prentice. Seeking added safety, Kote asks Bast to place protective boughs, recalling the White Riders’ song; Bast rushes to it.

Kote slips into his practiced routine: bread, fires, water, meat, and wood, then finds himself with nothing left but silence and the sword Folly on the wall. The inn’s stillness breaks when Graham arrives with three new brass-bound barrels. They move two to the cellar and one to the pantry, the missing stools and table marking last night’s loss.

Over a morning beer, Graham, red-eyed, calls the night’s events “bad business,” then asks about the visiting scribe to draw up “laying-down papers.” They speak of thefts, taxes, failing farms, and the spider attack near Oldstone bridge. Kote first deflects, then admits things are grim and likely to worsen, urging Graham to prepare for a hard winter and to be able to defend himself. Graham agrees and leaves for the fields.

The Bentons deliver late apples. Kote buys half the load, storing the firmest in sawdust-packed barrels, reserving ripe fruit for the pantry, and bruised ones for cider. He works alone in the garden press, methodically crushing apples. The rhythmic labor reveals old scars corded across his strong forearms, and while his hands are steady and skilled, there is no song in him—only distant, joyless focus.