Chapters One through Five Summary

The story opens with a description of the lore describing the area of two ridges, Kameno and Makuyu, and the river, Honia, that runs between them. The river is strong, even in the dry seasons, and the name means "cure." The legends of a magician, a seer and a warrior are ingrained in the children of the tribes that live there and those who live there are largely untouched by the outside.

Chapter two begins with two young boys fighting. The boys are Kamau, son of a man named Kabonyi from Makuyu, and Kinuthia, a boy who lives with his uncle two ridges from Kamau. Kinuthia's father had died and now the two boys are fighting, first with sticks and then with their bare hands, apparently because Kamau said that Kinuthia's father had died poor and Kinuthia...