This is the story of us all at Sarn of Mother and Gideon and me and Jancis and Wizard Beguildy and the two or three other folk that lived in those parts that I did set out to tell. There were but a few and maybe always will be for there's a discouragement about the place. It may be the water lapping year in and year out--everywhere you look and listen water; or the big trees waiting and considering on your right hand and on your left; or the unbreathing quiet of the place as if it was created but an hour gone and not created for us.