A Life Barbaric and Brutal Content . By Arthenice Belloq Chapter One : Abducted by the Reachmen I was born in Murcien ' s Hamlet , just north across the Bjoulsae from Evermore . My mother was a weaver , and my father was a boat - builder who made small fishing smacks and coracles for the river trade . I remember my youth as a happy one , playing around the docks where Father worked , or hunting through the near woods for entoloma caps and hickory nuts . It was while doing the latter one day that I strayed a bit farther from the hamlet than usual , pushed my way through a briar thicket … and suddenly found myself staring at a pair of human skulls . Startled , I shrieked and dropped my basket of nuts . By the time I realized that what I ' d seen was a skull on a staff next to a woman ' s face painted like a skull , I ' d been knocked down , bound , and thrown over her shoulder . I was being borne away to the north , away from my home and into the mountains . I began to kick and scream , at which the woman threw me down , bound me tighter , and gagged me into the bargain . Then she resumed carrying me off into the wild . Eventually I passed out from sheer exhaustion . When I awoke it was dark , but I could see forms in the dance of firelight , silhouettes sporting horns , bones , spikes , feathers . Reachmen . I closed my eyes and tried to wake up , but it was no nightmare : when I opened my eyes they were still there . My gag was gone , so I cried out for water . The skull - faced woman , whom I later learned was named Voanche , brought me a cup . She checked my bonds , and where I winced in pain , she actually loosened them a little . This surprised me , as I ' d always heard that the Reach Clans were barbarians , wicked Daedra - worshipers who reveled in cruelty . Maybe , once they realized how distressed I was , they would set me free and send me home . It was a false hope : I was to be the captive of the Crow - Wife Clan for the next eight years . The Reachmen were far more complex than I had been led to believe in my Breton home , but in one thing we were right : barbarism and cruelty are everyday facts of life in the Reach . Voanche was a horse - breeder who had abducted me because she needed a slave to tend to her livestock , since her former thrall had died of a kick to the head . She had given me water and loosened my bonds solely out of concern for the condition of her new possession . Voanche ' s clan was ruled by a hagraven named Kloavdra , a claw - fingered crone who was a witch - shaman of considerable power . She was a priestess of Namira the Spirit Daedra , the lady of ancient darkness who commands repulsive vermin such as spiders , insects , slugs , and serpents . Because Namira is the mistress of small pests , the Reachmen call her " the Children ' s God " ( they are not without humor , though their jests are always malicious ) . At every two - moons ' - dark Kloavdra would draw lots at random from the children of the clan , both Reach and slave , to select a sacrifice to the Goddess of the Dark . The chosen child would end up on the Ever - Oozing Altar where Kloavdra would cut out its heart as an offering to Namira . Every time I was sure it would be me , but the name - feather drawn was always of another . Kloavdra ' s hag - husband was a crude and vicious man named Cointthac . He was a gravesinger , a witchman shaman who could command the dead — in our land we ' d call him a necromancer . He was always looking sidewise at Voanche and licking his lips , as at a savory roast fowl . Though he had power in the clan and was feared by all , Voanche treated him with disdain , which would sometimes provoke him into sending hoot - haunts into her tent at night , or hexing the horses ' oats with writheworm . Voanche never turned a hair , just threatened to complain about Cointthac to his hag - wife Kloavdra , which always sent him packing . Life was hard in the Reach . Crow - Wife was a hunting clan , so our life was following the herds across the wastes . It was a rugged and perilous existence , where life could be snuffed out in a heartbeat by the antlers of an elk buck or the fangs of a sabre cat . But what I feared most were the semi - annual crossings of the Karth River in the wake of the tundra herds . It was my job to help Voanche and her useless daughter swim the horses across the ice - cold , swirling current , and every time I was certain would be my last . How I wished I had learned to swim in the Bjoulsae , like my two brothers , whenever the Karth had me in its grip ! Occasionally during a crossing one of the horses would panic and break free of us , which usually meant drowning and death for it . Then Voanche and I would search far downstream until we found where its body had washed up , so we could skin and unmake the dead horse for its valuable fat , flesh , and bones . Nothing was wasted among the Reachmen . It was during my sixth summer as a slave of the Crow - Wives — I had crossed the hated Karth eleven times ! — that I began to attract the unwanted attentions of Aiocnuall , the loutish son of Kloavdra and Cointthach . He expressed his attraction by pushing me into mud puddles or putting dead voles in my stew . He was a year younger than me , but soon I knew he would want me to the object of more than just practical jokes . As the son of the hagraven he could do pretty much whatever he wanted with impunity , and Voanche couldn ' t protect me by complaining to Kloavdra — the old virago would just cackle and wave her away . So at night , when I should have been sleeping in my pile of furs , I started making a spear .