The Barrowood is large; it does not have one society, one government, or speak with one voice. That is not life wild and free. But druids have their society, rumors carried on the wing, and Flamefang learns that one of the elves is going to an all-meeting far away, where all the important fields-men will be. The government has changed; the elf believes that they might have peace. But the forest has always been at war, and the government has changed before. It will not be peace this time, either.

The druids do not bother with the months of men, but they know well the moon and stars, the turning of the seasons. He figures out when the fields-men will be gone, and takes to wing himself, and finds a spot where one of the more hated fields-men normally prowls the forest, and confirms he is missing.

Then he strikes, as savagely as any predator, sinking his teeth in deep. He goes first for the weakest; the plantations where he can kill the whipmasters and then the chained ones will cause their own trouble. He emboldens the creatures of the forest and sets them to hunting. He earns his name with burned homesteads and fertilizes fields with the ashes, growing thorns and hedges wherever he can, to claim back a bit of land for the forest to fill back in. The sparrows sing his praises, and some more of the forest's defenders and its hungrier beasts begin their migration towards his breakthrough.

It is the seventh of Sarenith. There has been a week of attacks, across the whole county of Nocito, and they are losing badly. Normally he would call on the Baron de Terpi, or even their new count, but both men are in Westcrown and it seems unlikely that they will be back anytime soon. He writes a letter, triplicates it, and sends three messengers by three different roads, then rides out to deal with this menace.

A single bowman who knows the woods might trouble him. A crowd of blundering pikemen, every movement a drumbeat? They never even see him.

He can outrun a horse. One messenger ends in the bellies of a wolfpack, the other fertilizing an oak tree. If he can keep the fields-men from coming to each other's defense, he can be strong where they are weak and absent where they are strong. Fear and fire will amplify his work, and he hopes they choose to flee and keep their wretched lives, instead of staying chained to their doomed lands.