With the eighth full moon of her pregnancy rising, Queen Athersalk walks from the palace at sunset with her masked court women, their green robes gold-embroidered with leaves to match the robe she'd had made for the occasion, up the white gravel road to the Dream Grove, surrounded by servants and food bearers, guards, flute players, singers, and a pair of bird priests, one a famous mixer of scents, the other a summoner known for the carrying distance of her calls.
