Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 57 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

Claire, Jamie, and Young Ian start making their trades. Jamie makes it clear that nothing is guaranteed right now. While some of the tribe want the whisky, others don’t. The older men know what whisky has done to some of their people in the past.

It’s Young Ian who manages to set some things up. He’s taken a liking to a young girl called Works With Her Hands, although he calls her Emily. Names in Native American tribes are only used in ceremonies, so they get nicknames like Works With Her Hands. However, Ian wants to put a slightly more personal element to the name, so opts for a Western name.

Emily has taken a liking to Young Ian, though. Jamie and Claire know that Ian has been spending the nights with her. And together, they’re able to encourage the tribe to have a ceilidh. This allows them to sample one of the casks of whisky, and this sort of fun helps to open a discussion for a trade.

While that happens, Claire tries to find out more about the opal. Nobody really wants to talk about it, but there is one woman who is willing to tell the story of Otter-Tooth. He’s a man that nobody wants to remember.

This man spoke strangely but did know some of the language. He spoke of destruction and death, calling for all the tribes to go to war against the colonists. The tribes didn’t want war. And as Otter-Tooth continued his tirade, people turned against him. Eventually, it led to him being burned and then taken away.

The woman says that her husband was one of those who went out with the group to kill Otter-Tooth. However, his head kept talking. Even when they chopped his head off, it would talk. The woman’s husband buried the head and finally the words stopped. Everyone was able to return home.

Now Claire has found the head and the stone. Why does the ghost walk with her? Claire realizes that Otter-Tooth was likely a traveler and he’s connected to her because of that.

The woman says Otter-Tooth called the opal “tika-bak.” It means nothing to Claire until she really understands that Otter-Tooth was likely a traveler. The opal was his “ticket back.”