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Fall caue fires The end of the year brought bothholiday The latter was not arded Dark Evening as a pagan holiday, a superstitious holdover froods Soods said that a married woht of the year and not be held accountable for it, for on the night of the Dark Woman, a woman must obey no will save her own My mother and sisters did not hold with any such nonsense, of course, but I knew that they envied some of the other households in our area that still celebrated Dark Evening with ifts of pearl or opal jewelry wrapped in starry paper In our hoht of winter passed with little fanfare My mother and sisters would set tiny boats afloat on our pond with candles on theave each of his woift of money, but that was the extent of it

I had always suspected that my birthday was so well celebrated si in our household, and so my birthday becaave a special dinner in s But that year, hteenth year, my birthday marked my entrance into manhood, and so the party was more solemn and restricted to our immediate family

I felt it made the occasion more forht Vanze home from his studies in the western ed yet, but still he was so proud to hold the family book and wear his priest’s vest while he read aloud my verses from the Writ:

"The second-born son of every noble man shall be his father’s soldier son, born to serve Into his hand he will take the sword, and with it he shall defend the people of his father He shall be held accountable for his actions, for it is by his sword and his pen that his falory or dwell in sha, and in his old age let him return home, to defend the home of his father"

As ifts to rippedblack leather In the other I held aloft a leather-bound journal One was ift nificant moment for e when I was expected to behave as aof a family torch to me My father was a new noble, and the first to bear the title of Lord Burvelle of the east That made me the first soldier son of this new line of nobility For the first time in my life, the place of honor at the head of the table was mine The book I held had come all the way from Old Thares, and ’s official press

In thattable at ht wasjust beyond him, my mother To my left was my elder brother Rosse, the heir ould inherit er brother Vanze, home to read the Holy Writ in my honor Next to Vanze on one side of the table and next to ant Elisi and kittenish Yaril They wouldoff fa the fa My father had done well for hi of his children He had fathered all the fahter besides

And I, Nevare, was the second son, the soldier son of the family Today it became real to me Always it had been so down the years of ift to the good god, and the second son a soldier, to bring honor and fame to our fahteenth birthday was given such a journal as I now held in es stitched firmly in place, the creamy sheets heavy and durable My oords would hold me "accountable" as the Writ said This book and the serviceable pen kit that buckled inside it would travel everywhere I did, as surely as my sword did The journal was made to open and lie flat so that I could write easily in it whether at a desk or camped by a fireside The pen kit held not only two sturdy pens and an ink supply and tips but also pencils with various weights and colors of lead for sketching terrain and flora and fauna When this volume was filled, it would return to Widevale, to be placed on a shelf in the library as part of side the journals that told of our crops and cattle and recorded births, es, and deaths The journal I held in my hands noould become the first volume in the first record of the first soldier son to wear my father’s crest When this book was filled and sent hoin my new entries in the next volunificant event in , country, and family