We have heard, you and I, how young Hans Forester was awakened late on Old Man’s Night by a green crow rapping on his window-pane, and how many things befell him on that night. He saw the Charcoal Burners as they truly were, and he touched the Mankiller tree in the Devil’s Cathedral against the warning in his dreams. Then the trees sprang up about his house and tore it down and killed his family before his very eyes. He saw the White Lady and the strange boy Yellow Socks come to gloat over the wreckage. He followed Yellow Socks into the Charcoal Burners’ camp, but the wicken-soldiers caught Hans spying and chased him down Dimmerthal valley. They tried to burn him alive in a haystack, but dawn broke and Hans was saved by Farmer Groening and his men.
And we have heard how Hans swore to himself that he would fight the wicken-things and defend the valley against them.
But what could he do, a boy alone and fatherless? And how could he make the farmer and his folk believe him and understand the danger that hung over them all?
Here we will learn the answers to those questions and much else besides.
