Leah, Worth, and Hook stood before a long, wooden wagon with several oxen hitched to the front. They were in the middle of thousands of Cru people-an entire mobile society, right here at the gates of Nolia.

Sif drew back a curtain on the wagon. A man sat cross-legged in the doorway, looking at Leah. Deep lines marked his face, and his head was spotted with age. His body was bent and contorted with the hardship of age, and a thin, long, ghostly-white beard seem hung in his lap and ...