Maris

The cooper's daughter from Holmford, about seventeen. For a year she saved for boots; when her father's debt turned her into the object of an arranged bargain with Oren, she ran — not carried off, but of her own will, into the deadly wildwood. She survived five days and the frost, sheltering in the ruin of an old steading, until rescue reached her along the causeway. Only Sela knew the secret of her flight, and kept it out of a promise — and that silence cost precious time.

The cost of surviving is lasting: she lost fingers and part of one foot, she limps and chills faster. The healer Nia tends her. In the end she is free — Oren forgave the debt and broke off the bargain — and she plans, come spring when her leg allows, to go beyond the Wool to her aunt, her mother's sister. Her quiet "and yet" comes back like the signature of her voice.