Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

Chapter 1: Snow

Ana is not new. When she had been five she realized she was different. In the spring equinox on Soul Night in the Year of Souls when the others talk about prior lives - as many as ten or twenty lives - and the adventures they had and things they discovered, she know she is different. She doesn't say a word because she has no tales of a past life to share. She watches them as they laugh and dance around the trees and fire. Li takes her home and the next day, Ana is able to blurt out a question. Who is she, she asks Li who responds that she is no one, a "nosoul."

At eighteen Ana is leaving home. Li tells her to have a safe trip but Ana senses she didn't mean it. Ana is...