Episode 3
as told by Carrie Rouillard
The surivivors of Loud Earth, camped on the steep slopes of Elephant Ridge, had taken Wealsenthi for their chief. Wealsenthi told Sheno, Shade, and Asta that the clan had quarrelled and split in two. Half, following Wealsenthi's husband, had abandoned the Front Range, and had fled across the Dry Plateau (map), hoping to find shelter with their distant kinsmen, the Muttheow. The other half had stayed to defend their land. Some had been taken prisoner, she said, and sent down the Asalath by raft. Sheno's beloved Uri had likely been among them. Would the brave adventurers, the chief begged, go into the heart of the Kingdom to find out what had become of them. Sheno would go wherever she must to find Uri. Asta, grieved by these people's plight, agreed. Shade, wishing to see how the story of Sheno and Uri would reach its end, also agreed.
Some time later, out of the mountains, and mired in the marsh of the Marish, the three hailed a passing boatman of the River People, who, in exchange for a potion of Sheno's, gave them passage down the Asalath. Had he seen rafts pass this way a few days ago, they asked him, and told him their story. Yes, he had heard of the rafts, and seen their landing place, but he hadn't known the soldiers of the kingdom had been taking prisoners down the River! This was wrong, and strange! The river was the home of the River Folk, and the Kingdom, knowing or caring for it, was wont to stay away.
Finding the raft's landing place, they went ashore and Asta climbed a tree to get a view of the prisoner's encampment. She took forth her jewel, a clear, flattened stone as big as a plum, with one large facet one either side. It was mounted in a ring of gold wire, and suspended from a chain she wore about her neck. Gazing through the jewel, she could see the encampment as if she were in it.
There were perhaps fourty prisoners, mostly boys and old men, but Uri was not among them. What was more, none were of Uri's clan, the Loud Earth, but were from Cold Oak. When Sheno heard, she became furious, and swore at Wealsenthi. Wealsenthi was chief of the Loud Earth clan, but she had been born to the Cold Oak clan, and had tricked the three adventurers into helping her find her kinsfolk. Asta and Shade were not alarmed, however, as the Loud Earth clan and the Cold Oak clan were largely the same in their eyes, and these Nami still needed their help.
Gazing through her jewel, Asta also saw that there were only a dozen guards watching over the Nami as they gleaned the fields and broke the ground for next spring's planting. Why, when they were so many and the guards so few, did they not rise up and win their freedom? She crept off and found a boy working far from the others, and asked him this question.
"Because," he said. "They are holding the women in another encampment, and if we fight the soldiers or try to run away the soldiers will kill them, and bring back their heads as proof."
Sheno brewed a potion, and anyone who drank this potion would answer truthfully the first question put to him. Asta gave it to the boy to give to the captain to find if this story was true. The boy returned and said the women were in a garrison only half a day's journey from Elephant Ridge, and if the Nami men rose up, a Kingdom horse rider would ride up the river into the mountains to see them all killed.
So, although Asta greatly desired to free the Nami and prove herself to them, the three decided it would be wise to return to Elephant Ridge, and tell the other Nami what they had found and enlist their aid.
Riding back up the river, the boatsmen told them the tale of how King Olliven had come to power in the Kingdom.
