Dareth
Who he is
A cellarer with a gallery in Hushvault, on the ridge above Veylan Steps on Tiravel. He has raised Ansel as his apprentice and has spent years teaching him the gallery: “A cellar is only as good as the hands that know it.” People say he has a good nose.
Manner
- Tender but guarded. Calls Ansel “boy.”
- Drinks blackpress with vine syrup only when he is particularly upset.
- Firmly opposed to Ansel’s reaching: “It is a reckless game you play, chasing the ghosts of things that never were.”
- Cares for Ansel after the reaching but doesn’t indulge it: he turns his head so he won’t choke, and leaves the rest.
- Walks the gallery when he can’t sleep.
People in his life
- Ansel: his apprentice, whom he has raised.
- Ferra: Ansel’s closest friend, whom he trusts with him.
- Ruthe: the keeper at Auvren Groves, an old acquaintance.
- Tolliver: the cellar agent who comes every harvest.
As the story unfolds
These details come from the story itself. Choose the last chapter you’ve read, and only what has been revealed up to that point will appear.
The morning before the Opening
When Ansel says the faces said his name, Dareth goes still for a breath before answering, perfectly calm. Then, for the first time Ansel can remember, he readies the gallery for an Opening on his own and sends Ansel to Auvren for the cutting instead.
That night
Told that Tolliver “came in early,” Dareth straightens the cutting on its shelf, though it is already perfectly straight. “Did he.” He asks whether anything happened at the market. Then, as Ansel climbs the stairs: “Don’t reach tonight.” A pause. “Please.” He has never asked Ansel for anything before.
Later, when Ansel looks at the faces instead of reaching, Dareth’s footsteps in the gallery below stop.
Opening morning
He sings over the frying pan. Passing the stairs, he glances up toward Ansel’s cot, and for a breath the humming stops.
Stay with her
After the look goes down the road to him, he tells Ansel, “Stay close to Ferra tonight.” Ansel comes home to find him asleep in a chair dragged to the foot of the stairs, his coat buttoned to the throat.
The key
He keeps a key to Morwal’s door at the back of the hearth shelf. “Wendel gave it to me. In case.” When Ansel tells him about the man he couldn’t read, he says, “Then we have less time than I thought.”
The magistrate
“If I’d done this, magistrate, I wouldn’t have brought my apprentice to find it.” / “No. You’d have sent him to find it on his own.”
Long enough
He leads them through a door in the bare wall at the end of Selvane’s far rack, a door Ansel has never seen. “How long has that been there?” “Long enough.”
The crank
When the berthmaster falls, Dareth takes the crank so the shutters keep opening. “Someone has to close the door behind you.”