Daja Kisubo, an outcast to her people after she was the lone survivor of her family ship's wreck, and a smith mage in training, travels with her three friends and their teachers north of Emelan, to a valley plagued with drought and forest fires.

Rosethorn, Briar's teacher, stops to examine the tree-litter and while she does this, Daja catches a glimpse of a forest fire miles off.

As Daja is working in the smithy, a woman named Polyam, a wirok, a scorned Trader who negotiates with lugsha, tradesmen, stops by to talk to the smith.

Lastly, Daja creates a living metal leg with the copper which is now a part of her for the wirok, restoring the Polyam's ability to work with horses, her original job.

In the end, however, she becomes a Trader again because she had gained enough zokin, or honor, by saving the Tenth Caravan Idaram from the huge forest fire.