The Wayfarer Cycle

• The CartographerAt the top of the Long Road a map is bought from its maker, who asks for only one thing back.
• The CobblerA wayfarer blames a rough stretch of road for a raw heel, and the village cobbler finds the trouble riding inside the boot instead.
• The FerrymanHigh spring water moves the crossing off the map, and the ferryman shows a wayfarer how to hold the guide rope without a fist.
• The InnkeeperAt the only inn on the road, a keeper who remembers no names airs every room each morning and corrects an old memory without apology.
• The PotterRained in at the clay village, the wayfarer learns the wheel, and clay that fails keeps no account of it.
• The GoatherdOn the road's one long climb, a wayfarer learns that a whole flock is watched one animal at a time.
• The SmithAt a market-town forge, a wayfarer wants the day's anger agreed with, and watches the smith answer it with iron, a trough, and one dry remark.
• The WeaverAt a loom in the market town, a wayfarer mistakes the working side of a cloth for ruin, and is shown how a pulled thread is found by feel.
• The Orchard-KeeperOn the orchard plain, a wayfarer eats fruit meant for travelers, then helps plant trees that will not bear until long after the planting hand is gone.
• The ScribeAt a table by the harbor town fish market, a furious letter is written whole, read back, and a shorter one takes its place.
• The FisherAt the road's end on a winter shore, a wayfarer sits out a night with a dying man, and the boats go out again the next morning.
• The ChildThe road is walked back up in spring, a year of corrections is copied into the new sheets, and the map's one line is handed on.