In which the last pieces fall into place.

I think, if memory serves, this is the first place (in publication order) that the lives and times of Cantra and Tor An were described in any detail. And the details given here, I can’t help noticing, differ in some significant respects from how the story was eventually told in the Crystal books. (One could suggest that the differences are due to the details here coming from Cantra’s logbook, which Crystal Dragon tells us she didn’t actually start keeping until after the War, when she would have been depending on a perhaps-fallible memory. Or perhaps she remembered fine, but chose to present things somewhat differently from how they actually happened; I note that one of the differences of detail is that the logbook entry quoted here presents itself as having been written during the War, before Jela’s death.)

A little detail that might easily be missed (in fact, I don’t recall having consciously noted it on any of my previous reads): Anne is now wearing the ring Er Thom gave her, the “never goodbye” present.

Tomorrow: Scout’s Progress