Chapter 2 Summary

While the stranger sleeps, Birle has second thoughts about having chased him. She realizes that she has compromised herself by spending the night with a stranger, however innocently. Her fiancy, Muir, may use this incident as an excuse to cancel their wedding. The stranger wonders aloud if anyone lives among the stars. Looking up at them, Birle wonders if any man has ever mapped the stars. Birle herself has seen a map of the land. It belonged to her grandparents, a long hidden treasure. They taught Birle to read the map, and the letters that went with it, although such skills are forbidden to the people and reserved only for the Lords.

Her grandparents told Birle the story of her mother Lyss. When Lyss's mother died at her birth, and Grandma's own baby died after just three days, the old couple adopted Birle's...