Synopsis

Huddled fearfully beneath the rugged Stone Towers of Great-Grandfather Mountain, the village, once an extensive, thriving, open community, is now closed within a cobble-walled compound. The shaman has convinced the People the gods have abandoned them and only he can restore them to plenty. When Ha-wani comes here after her marriage to the man her father chose, she is shocked to discover her new shaman is a man who had previously terrorized her, promising that she would be his wife and her powerful spirit would belong to him.

Because he will stop at nothing to have her and to control the village, resisting him is a matter of survival, not only for her, but for her family and others in the village. When she embraces the power of her spirit–the power the shaman recognized even before she did–she must learn to control and use it. Calling on the Raven, her spirit guide, to teach her how to resist his attacks and to protect those she loves, she becomes his mortal enemy. With the lives of her family and the future of the village at stake, and despite her husband’s objections, she alone must confront the shaman’s magic. But at what cost?

When, finally, she must leave the village, her spirit, song, and story live on in a simple pot which will be found by the women who come to this place centuries later, offering them the strength and courage to confront the challenges they face here. Their stories are told in the first two books in the series.