Section 13 Summary

"The Sound of the Desert"

The title of this section refers to and foreshadows the strange, wind-born music Mireille hears when she enters the spiritually significant Valley of the Statues in this section. The quote is a translation of a proverb, referring to the way the desert both hears and speaks in a way human beings can't understand.

February 1793. Mireille travels across Algeria in the company of Shahin, a taciturn but watchful man of the desert. He tells her she must capture, train, and win control over a falcon that will hunt for them, and guides her as she does so. She names her falcon Charlot after Charlemagne.

That night, Mireille resists the idea of branding Charlot, but Shahin tells her she must learn to do violent things if she is to have the revenge he knows she desires. After Charlot has been...