In the introduction to _The Lord of Castle Black_ Paarfi describes how his description of Zerika's journey at the end of the last book was "an encapsulation of and triumph over the 17 Great Houses" but doesn't specify any more. I think I can see which incidents correspond to the Houses. Phoenix: Z enters the Paths (passes tree without leaves). Dragon: Z plunges through the brush (she charges straight in and succeeds, but with difficulty). Lyorn: Z must go through many tricky parts almost too fast (succeeds using memorization, precision and training. Tiassa: Z must cross a pool without touching water or going around (she succeeds through an original idea of going up a vine and across a branch). Hawk: There are distractions, but Z looks ahead and doesn't stray from the path. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools