Joia and Seft travel to Stony Valley, where Joia is surprised to discover that Seft has quietly established a small settlement. They are both “still determined” (262) to erect the Monument in stone. 

Several cleverhands, including Tem and his partner Vee, now live there with their families, supported by shared livestock. The settlement benefits the surrounding area by clearing dead wood, which pleases Hol, the elderly shepherd who grazes sheep nearby. That evening, Joia and Seft discuss the central obstacle to rebuilding the Monument: Time. Ello’s calculation that moving a single stone could take 50 days still stands, and Joia worries that no one would volunteer for such grueling labor. Seft hints that new experiments are underway and promises to show her more the next day. 

In the morning, Joia sees a prepared demonstration. The cleverhands have embedded a series of long logs into the ground, forming a stable path. Using rope lines, a team of about 20 people pulls a medium-sized stone along this log path. Joia is astonished by how smoothly the stone moves, barely stopping even when it meets minor obstructions. However, Seft explains that this method is impractical for long distances, as it would consume enormous amounts of timber and labor. A second, more easily constructed path of branches and earth is also tested, but it proves too unstable to support sustained movement.

Although discouraged, Joia realizes Seft has one final idea. He takes her to his workshop, where the cleverhands unveil a large, carefully shaped wooden structure carved from a single tree trunk. Seft explains that it is a runner, designed to form part of a sled. Two runners joined by cross struts would support a platform on which a stone could rest. The curved front ends would allow the sled to glide over uneven ground without stopping. This invention could reduce the transport time of a stone from 50 days to two or three. Joia is filled with cautious excitement, recognizing the potential of the design while fearing disappointment. 

Their work is briefly interrupted by Dee, Hol’s granddaughter, who brings mutton as a gift. Joia is struck by Dee’s “vivacity and warmth” (267). After Dee leaves, Seft suggests they cook the meat.

The winter in the hills is “the happiest time of Pia’s life” (268). She and Han live freely on their island refuge, where they are warm, fed, and deeply in love. They butcher their cow in autumn, smoke the meat, and survive comfortably through snow and cold. Pia is heavily pregnant and exhausted but content, though she knows their safety is precarious and cannot last forever. 

As spring approaches, worries about long-term survival return, especially once their stored meat runs low and Pia gives birth to their son, whom they name Olin after Han’s late father. Life settles into a domestic routine. Han hunts for food and sings to the baby, while Pia nurses and tends the shelter. Then the woodlanders migrate north again. Bez and Fell visit the island, confirming that the drought continues and that Stam is still searching for Pia. Although the visit is friendly, the presence of others reminds Pia how vulnerable their hiding place is, especially since their fire smoke can be seen from a distance.

Not long afterward, Fell returns alone with a hunted deer and Pia thanks him for the “wonderful gift” (280). While he is visiting, Stam arrives unseen and ambushes them. Han is shot through the neck with an arrow and dies quickly. Thunder is also fatally wounded. Fell attacks Stam but is shot and then brutally killed with a knife. Pia tries to defend Han and Fell but is overpowered. When she attacks Stam in rage, he seizes her infant son Olin and threatens to kill him unless Pia submits. Faced with losing her child, Pia surrenders. 

Stam forces her to tend his wounds, feed him, and prepare to leave. Before departing, Pia drags the bodies of Han, Fell, and Thunder into the shelter and sings the song of the Earth God over them, marking a final farewell to her lost family and her former life. With no power left to resist, Pia leaves the island with Stam, carrying her baby, knowing she is leaving behind “the best time of her life, and the worst” (286).

While hunting in the Northwest Hills, Bez and his companions lose a promising deer hunt when a dog disrupts the herd. Bez recognizes the dog as Fell’s, which immediately fills him with dread. Realizing that Fell had gone to bring venison to Pia and Han, Bez and Gida travel the next day to the island refuge. There they discover the shelter abandoned and find the bodies of Fell, Han, and Han’s dog inside, already showing “early signs of decay” (289) and scavenging. Pia is gone. Bez and Gida conclude that Stam abducted her after killing the men. 

They cremate the bodies on a pyre, singing mourning songs. Bez takes Fell’s necklace of bear’s teeth and Han’s bloodstained shoes as proof of what occurred. Returning to their tribe, Bez announces the deaths and names Stam as the killer. The woodlanders agree that “the gods demand a balance” (291) and that murder demands death.

Pia is back at Farmplace, forced once again into exhausting labor under Troon’s rule, carrying water with her infant son Olin always in her arms. Stam avoids the house, frightened of Pia’s hatred. Troon sends Katch to pressure Pia and Yana into forgiveness, but the attempt fails. That evening, Bez secretly visits Pia and hears her full account of the killings, confirming Stam’s guilt beyond doubt. 

After delivering the news of Han’s death to Ani, Bez then executes a carefully planned abduction. Observing Stam’s nightly routine, he and three other woodlanders ambush Stam as he walks alone after leaving Pia’s house. They gag, bind, and strip him, leaving his clothes by the river to suggest an accident. Stam is taken to West Wood and buried alive beneath branches and leaves, with enough air to keep him alive. When Troon searches for his son, the woodlanders allow him to look unsuccessfully through their village. After the farmers depart, the woodlanders prepare for the execution. Stam is unearthed, tied upside down to a tree, and burned alive in a ritualized act accompanied by mourning songs. Bez oversees the execution without hesitation, declaring that the deaths of Fell and Han have been answered. When Stam’s body is reduced to ash, Bez declares that the balance has been “restored” (307).

The summer is “hotter and drier” (308) than before, as Pia works endlessly hauling water from the river with Olin strapped to her back. Despite exhaustion, the irrigated fields are producing a weak but real crop, which gives Pia cautious hope that her milk will sustain her son. Her private grief for Han remains, though she tries to take comfort in Olin, her mother, and the fact that Stam is gone. Stam’s disappearance remains unexplained publicly, though Pia suspects the woodlanders are responsible. 

While foraging in East Wood for crab apples, Pia notices an unusual movement of cattle toward the Break. The herders, including Zad and Biddy, struggle to turn back a “menacing” (310), thirsty herd that can smell the river. The cattle’s pressure toward the farmland creates imminent danger. Realizing the farmers are unaware of the risk, Pia warns them, organizing a hurried evacuation of workers in the fields. 

Troon arrives and reacts with fury rather than coordination, ordering fires lit and stones thrown at the herd. The situation escalates rapidly. A farmer strikes a bull, enraging the cattle. Fighting breaks out between farmers and herders when Narod attacks Zad. An arrow wounds Zad and the herders suddenly flee, recognizing the signs of an imminent stampede. The cattle surge forward in a terrifying rush, trampling the fields and killing several people, including Mo, whose crushed body Pia later finds. The herd eventually reaches the river and calms, but the crops in the Break are destroyed, leaving many farmers “facing starvation” (316).

In the aftermath, Troon demands compensation in cattle, but the herders refuse. When a farmer attempts to steal a cow, he is shot, ending further attempts. Yana reveals she secretly took a cow before the herd reached the river, intending to give it to Mo, then deciding instead to give it to Duff, whose farm was destroyed. 

The next day, Ani arrives with Seft, Keff, and Scagga. Seft proposes a compromise: a narrow cattle path through the Break, protected by a ditch and bank, allowing farmers to keep most of their land while ensuring access to water. Though some farmers are receptive, Troon rejects the plan outright, prioritizing land expansion and threatening violence against herders and cattle. Ani recognizes that negotiation has failed and that the “angry stand-off” (320) between farmers and herders remains dangerously unresolved.

Ani and Seft discover that Scagga has secretly mobilized young herders to prepare for war, manufacturing bows and arrows. Ani confronts Scagga, who openly defies the elders and calls for violent revenge against the farmers. 

Ani argues that war would bring pointless death, and although she briefly halts his momentum, it is Seft who redirects events by proposing a nonviolent alternative: creating a new cattle path to the river by clearing a strip along the edge of West Wood. This would bypass Troon’s farmland entirely. Ani realizes the plan can work only with woodlander consent and goes to negotiate with Bez. She offers “compensation” (325) in cattle for the loss of hazelnut bushes that sustain the woodlanders. After careful bargaining, they agree on 12 cows. The cattle are delivered and the woodlanders accept the deal. Work begins immediately, led by Scagga’s “young army” (330), who turn their aggressive energy toward labor instead of war. Ani feels relieved, believing she has helped avert bloodshed.

As clearing nears completion, Scagga orders the accumulated vegetation burned rather than carried away. Farmers, including Pia, gather to watch. Although precautions are taken, a sudden wind change causes sparks to leap into the dry woodland. The fire spreads with “terrifying speed” (332), engulfing West Wood. Panic erupts. Pia flees through the burning forest carrying Olin, but she cannot run fast enough. Duff turns back to save her, taking Olin and helping her escape. Pia’s hair catches fire and she barely reaches the river before being overcome. They plunge into the water and survive, but West Wood burns almost entirely. The destruction leaves the woodlanders homeless and facing starvation. 

As the fire dies down, Troon declares that the burned land should be plowed and farmed, arguing that it is now fertile soil that is “perfect for farming” (335). Pia protests, but Troon dismisses woodlander claims. Bez confronts him, stating that if the woodland is farmed permanently, the woodlanders will starve. Bez demands food from both herders and farmers to restore balance. Troon refuses. Bez walks away into the ashes of West Wood, declaring that “the gods will have a balance” (336).