Written for readers who have finished Book 1.
Marga kept the col-house for the better part of a lifetime before Toll, and she is the one who took him in when he arrived at the top of the pass with nothing left. She fed him, gave him a thing worth doing, and — when the mornings grew too long for her — handed him the kettle and kept her own corner by the fire. Warm without ever making a show of it, sharp-tongued in the kindest way, she is the keeper who taught the keeper. Half the mountain has been warmed at her table.