Summary

In Chapter 1, the 18-year-old protagonist of the novel, Mari, played a game in the burrow she shared with her mother, Leda. Leda told Mari old myths, and Mari drew the stories out. Mari belonged to a clan of Earth Walkers, a supernatural race of beings with magical ties to the moon that worshipped the Earth Mother Goddess. Every three days, Leda, the clan’s Moon Woman (a sort of priestess and leader in one), had to draw down the moon and magically wash away a permanent disease called Night Fever that could only be temporarily cured by the moon, which manifested in madness in the clan’s males, and sadness in the clan’s females. Today was the first full moon of Spring, and the clan had a celebration planned, though Leda predicted it would not be joyous. Many Earth Walkers had been...