Elspeth drifts in water, suspended between waking and sleep, and enters a memory that is not her own. In the memory, Elspeth experiences life as a richly dressed boy standing in a wood among people asking the Spirit of the Wood for blessings such as health, harvest, and a namesake.

The boy separates from the crowd and touches a gnarled tree. Pain runs through the boy's arms, and the boy sees black veins, marking the fever-born magic within him. The boy can hear the trees speak in a rhyming, inhuman chorus, revealing that talking to the trees is his gift.

The trees call the boy young Taxus and speak of his future: a prince becoming king, a kingdom called Blunder, and Taxus returning to the wood. Taxus asks the Spirit of the Wood for the means to make Blunder abundant in magic and to shepherd the land and its people.

In response, the tree and then every tree beyond it point west, guiding Taxus home. When Taxus reaches the meadow outside his father's castle, a stone materializes near the seedling tree planted on his seventh nameday. Resting on the stone is a shining sword whose hilt bears the image of a shepherd's staff.