After Flint, the Midvale farmer, died, his widow continued to live on the farm.Since her son became a sailor and her daughter married a merchant at the mouth of the valley, she lived alone on Oak Farm.It was said that she was a great person in her native country, too, and that Ogion the Wizard used to visit her at Oak Farm, but that was nothing, for Ogion would visit all sorts of little people. She had a foreign name, but Flint called her Goha, a small white web-spinning spider of Gont.The name suited her well, for she was fair-skinned, small, and good at weaving goat and sheep wool.Geha is now Flint's widow, who owns a flock of sheep, a pasture, four farmlands, a pear garden, two rented cottages, an old stone farmhouse under an oak tree, and the grave where Flint is buried behind the mountain. In the family cemetery, the soil returns to its soil.

"I've always lived near the grave," she told her daughter. "Mother, come and live with us in the city!" said Apple, but the widow would not give up her solitary life. "Maybe after a while, when you have a baby and need help." She said, looking at her gray-eyed daughter happily. "But not now, right now you don't need me, and I like it here." Apple returns to her young husband.The widow closed the door and stood on the flagstones of the farm kitchen.It was already Xiangwan, but she didn't turn on the lamp, she just recalled the appearance of her husband lighting the lamp: his hands, sparks, and the dark face focused on the gradually brightening fire.The room was silent.

"I have lived alone in a quiet house," she thought, "and I am living like this again." She lit the lamp. One afternoon during the first summer season, Skylark, the widow's old friend, left the village and sprinted down the dusty lane. "Goha," she called, seeing the widow weeding in the bean garden, "Goha, something has happened, it's terrible. Can you come?" "Okay." The widow replied, "What's wrong?" Skylark held his breath.She was a heavy, unassuming middle-aged woman with a name that did not match her appearance at all, but she was a slender and pretty girl when she was young, and she was friendly to Goha, regardless of the group of white-faced Kargs that Firestone brought home. Witch gossiping villagers.Since then, the two have become friends.

"There's a kid with burns," she said. "Whose child?" "Wanderer's." Ge Ha closed the gate of the farm, and the two walked along the path.Skylark walked and chatted, panting and sweating profusely.The dense grass on both sides of the path released tiny seeds, which stuck to her cheeks and forehead. As she pushed the seeds away, she said, "They camped on the riverside grass all month. There was a man who called himself a tinker, but was actually a tinker." Thief, there is a woman with him. There is also a man, younger, who hangs around with them all the time. They don't work at all, just steal, beg, or rely on the woman for food. The boys downriver often bring crops Give it to them, to hang out with her. You know what time of year it is, when highwaymen come to the village again. If I were you, I'd lock up the door. When the young man comes into the village, I was standing in front of the door. He said, "The child is not feeling well." I saw them have a child, like a young ferret, blinking away, and I thought I was wrong. I asked him, "No Are you comfortable? Have a fever?” The guy said, “She made a fire and hurt herself.” Before I could walk with him, he ran away and disappeared. When I got to the river, the couple disappeared. It's empty, there's no one in sight, their nets and rubbish gone, just a campfire, smoking, and right there beside it... half down in it... on the ground..."

Skylark walked a few steps and didn't speak.She stared straight ahead of the road, not at Goha. "They didn't even cover her with a sheet," she said. She strode forward. "She was pushed into the fire that was still burning," she said, swallowing, brushing away the seeds stuck to her hot face. "Maybe she fell in, but if she was awake, she'd at least try to avoid it. I guess they beat her up, thought they killed her, and tried to hide what they did to her, so... ..." She paused again before continuing. "Maybe he didn't do it, maybe he pulled her out, he came for help after all. It must have been her father. I don't know, who cares. God knows? Who cares? Who's going to take care of the baby? Who knows How to do it?"

Geha asked in a low voice, "Will she survive?" "Maybe." Skylark said. "She might hold up." After a while, as they approached the village, she said, "I don't know why I feel that I must come to you. Yawei has arrived, and there is nothing we can do." "I can go to the mouth of the valley and ask Bi Zhen to come over." "He can't do anything. It's not... It's not human power that can save her. I helped her warm up, Yawei gave her a dose of medicine and a sleeping spell, and then I carried her home. She must be six or seven She's a year old, but not as heavy as a two-year-old. She hasn't fully woken up, but she's wheezing...I know there's nothing you can do, but I want you."

"I want to come," Geha said.But before entering Skylark's house, she closed her eyes cautiously and held her breath for a moment. Lark had driven the child out of the house, and the room was silent.The child lay unconscious on a lark bed.Yawei, a witch in the village, has applied ointment made of witch hazel and healing grass to the minor burns, but left her right face, right head, and right hand injured to the bone, without any treatment.She drew amulets on the bed, that's all. "Can you help her?" Skylark asked quietly. Geha looked down at the burned child, her hands not moving.Geha shook his head.

"Didn't you learn medicine in the mountains?" Pain, shame, and anger came out of Lark's mouth, begging for a little relief. "Not even Ogion could heal such a wound," said the widow. Lark turned away, bit his lower lip, and began to sob.Geha hugged her and stroked her gray hair.The two embraced each other. Witch Yawei walked in from the kitchen, and frowned when she saw Geha.Though the widow neither recited nor cast spells, it was said that when she first came to Gont, she lived in Riabai as the adopted daughter of a mage, and knew Archmage Roke, so she undoubtedly possessed unfathomable and strange powers.Seemingly afraid of losing her status, the witch went to the bed and fiddled with it, piled something on a small plate and set fire to it.In the smoke and smell, she kept chanting the healing mantra over and over again.The stench of herbal smoke made the burnt child cough and half sit up shivering.She began to wheeze, her breath short and husky, and one eye seemed to be on Goha.

Geha stepped forward and took the child's left hand.She spoke in her own language: "I have served them and I have left them," she said, "I will not let them take you." The child looked at her, or at nothing, and tried to breathe, and tried again, and tried again.