He shot her an amused look. "No," he agreed. "But not for want of trying."

She snorted. She spent the next two hours chewing on her thoughts and studying the Tamrani while Rishte howled to pull her back into the forest.

Inns and taverns dotted the road at regular intervals, as did tiny wayside markets. That was one thing about cozar trains: they were slow enough that every family could shop, bargain, trade, and still keep up.

Hunter wasn't the only one to stop at the waysides. Nori watched while he pa.s.sed three written messages and a coin to one of the ring-runners who waited in the shade. Fentris did the same, as did severalchovas and two of the Sidisport merchants.

Nori could feel Rishte watching from the forest. She wanted to be out there, on the trails. She needed to smell the trees, the ground, taste the branch water on eerin trails. And Rishte needed her. He needed the bond of the pack for company, for hunting, for defense. Danger that first night had tightened their bond, but they were not yet used to each other, and they gnawed in each other's minds. Yet when she tried to stretch into the grey, the slitted eyes deep in her thoughts seemed to blink open to stop her. Death and the smell of predators, of lepa, of Aiueven and plague were too close in both their minds.

Soon, soon,she tried to send. She needed to go now, into the wilderness. Feel the firm dirt on her heels, the soft leaves on her hands- "Nori," Payne snapped sharply.

She jerked. She was heading right for the verge, about to spur her dnu across and into the forest on the other side of the gra.s.s. She hadn't even noticed her brother.

He leaned across and gripped her arm for a long moment. "Alright?"

"Aye," she whispered. She blinked to clear her vision. Color washed back in. The movements around her dulled. "Alright," she agreed shakily.

Payne watched her closely. "He's a year old, Nori-girl. There's already strength in his call."

She opened her mouth, cleared the snarl from her throat, and finally said, "I understand. I won't do that again."

"d.a.m.n right, you won't." But he scowled at a pair ofchovas women who eyed them curiously. He drew her ahead and lowered his voice. "Why did he call? Was it . . . plague?"

"No. He's lonely," she managed. "Just lonely." She would go to the ridges tonight to be with him. She'd be safe enough in the forest. Even the raiders seemed as inclined as the cozar to stay within the circle or on the main bridle trails.

He hesitated. "Can you feel it through him?"

He meant the plague sense, and she shook her head. "Not here, not right now. There was something earlier, when he was near the base of another ridge, but I couldn't tell if it really was plague or just something, like lepa, that reminded him of it."

"Best mark it down for Mama."

"Every time he's nervous?" Nori snorted. "Mama would end up chasing every poolah trap, badgerbear den, lepa cave, and lily swamp from Sidisport to Shockton!"

He gave her a sober look. "If even one of those sites is real . . ." He let his voice trail off ominously.

"And if it's just memories in the packsong?"

He shrugged. "Mama will sort it out."

"Aye," she agreed. Her gaze flicked to the hills. Even out of sight, Rishte was strong enough to challenge her. She had to remember that. If she forgot it, she could find herself riding blindly into the forest again, following the call. "Aye," she repeated. "I'll mark it down tonight."

She barely tolerated dinner when Payne and their uncles went to the circle tavern. It was a noisy place, large enough that the crowd was thick and volatile. Nori endured the laughter, shouts, clinking of gla.s.s, sc.r.a.ping of chairs on wooden floors, and the din of humanity for barely ten minutes before she fled. She made it back to the crowded kitchen, snagged a few meat sc.r.a.ps from a sympathetic cook, and slipped out with audible relief to the tree line.

Rishte was waiting impatiently. The yearling stayed in the shadows of the dark trees, unwilling to come close to the weathered inn, but growled at her to come with him. When she laid down the meat sc.r.a.ps, he edged forward, nipped each piece quickly, and darted back to eat in the shadows. He didn't meet her gaze till there was nothing left.

Come, now,he sent.

He turned, took a few steps, then looked back, waiting for her to follow. She had just risen when he startled, turned, and fled. Nori whirled.

B'Kosan and two otherchovas spilled out the back of the inn with the light from one of the side rooms.

The three outriders spotted her, waved, and staggered her way. She felt her lips curl back. She was alone against the tree line, and her hand crept toward her knife.

It was Wakje who arrested the motion. The thickset man appeared at the back door, glanced around casually, sat down on a nearby bench, and began to sharpen his knives. Nori found her lips twisting from snarl to humorless smile. B'Kosan must not have been as drunk as she thought, for he turned and staggered off with his partners.

They were barely gone when Payne poked his own head out the door. He murmured something to Wakje, then strode across the gra.s.s to Nori. "Fireside's going to start soon," he reminded her. "You need to be there to make your apology, and we need to trade for arrows."

Nori glanced back and noted the two Tamrani as they got their dnu. "Hunter said the elders hadn't bothered him about me."

"Well, h.e.l.ls, Nori-girl. They wouldn't bother you, either, if you stood up to them once in a while." He swung up in the saddle and grinned. "All you have to say is no."

"Mama never could." She reined in beside him. "Why do you think she avoided Ariye for so many years while we were growing up?"

He snorted. "You're not Mama-or so you keep saying."

She blinked.

He glanced behind them to make sure they were alone as they turned out onto the road. "You know the two men we followed and missed this morning?"

"Ye-es," she said warily, her thoughts still back on his other comment.

"The uncles and I were wondering if you wanted to use your wolf for a bit of human hunting after fireside if those two go out again?"

"Moons, Payne, you can track men, you can't hunt them with a wolf. I'd be blacklisted from ever getting rank."

He shrugged. "What do you need it for? Rishte will never care."

"Anyone I take contract with might."

"I doubt it. The elders would swallow a lepa whole if they thought it would help you take contract at all, and I'm beginning to suspect Brithanas would, too."

Nori flushed slightly and hoped the darkness hid it. "He said he had business with the elders. Has he left yet?"

"No, and it doesn't look like he will." Payne's voice grew bland. "He's asked for a guesting berth, as did the other Tamrani. They'll be with us all the way into Shockton." He chuckled. "Moons, you should have seen B'Kosan's face when he heard the news that Fentris the Fop would be staying. Thechovas just about choked. And maSera, that outrider with the long braid, when she heard Brithanas ask for the berth, she went and changed into her best blouse and boots, along with a dozen other women." He shot Nori a look. "You didn't let anything slip onDeepening Road did you, to encourage Brithanas to stay?

You know how you are when you're . . . anxious."

"When I'm scared out of my pants, you mean."

He teased ungently, "I would have said out of your shirt."

She flushed more darkly. She was wearing Hunter's blouse again. She wondered suddenly if that was why the Tamrani had smiled so often to himself earlier. Her voice was sharper than she meant as she answered, "I told him nothing about wanting to Journey or anything else."

"Maybe, but Brithanas has that look. He may be wanting a scout partner-" He broke off at her guilty expression. "He's already approached you," he accused. "He's already asked you to ride with him." His voice was suddenly hard. "You didn't commit to him, did you?"

"Of course not."

But her voice had been a bit too wistful. Payne cursed under his breath. "Moonworms, Nori-girl. The Lloroi would go along with a Tamrani request in a heartbeat if you even hinted that you were interested, and with the bond, you can't argue, not against the Lloroi. And every elder would back him, and not just because it's you they'd be getting on the council lists, but because you'll be a wolfwalker. You'll be welcome almost anywhere, especially with Brithanas. They always want to know what's going on in the Tamrani Houses."

"It's not as if I can Journey anyway, not if I'm to help find a cure for the plague."

"And who can you tell about that?"

She had no answer. He could Journey, but she couldn't. She could only tag along with him to hide her own work. "At least Rishte is still secret."

"For how long, with you snarling every hour? Ah, h.e.l.ls," he said sourly. "We can hide the wolf if we have to ride the backtrails to do it. That should keep the bond unknown for at least another ninan."

"Just keep me off the in-train duties as much as possible. I don't want some idiot like Mato saying I've promised to Test and take a Journey a.s.signment because I've ridden duty for his wagon."

Payne nodded strongly. He was the last person to want her pushed into Test right now. The next ninan, with its Test and rank and Journey a.s.signment, was supposed to be his, after all. "Don't worry," he told her firmly. "I give you my solemn, serious word, and you know how good that is-" She thwacked his shoulder, and he grinned. "-that it will be my goal in life to make sure you become the most unranked fighter in all of the first nine counties. After all," he added slyly, "how else can I force you to look up to me, unless I have the greater skills?"

"Rank, perhaps. Skill? Hah." She snorted. "Put the two of us on the same island with a knife, and I'll eat twice as well as you."

He swatted her away. "Only if you cheat." He lost his smile. "Talk to Brithanas, Nori. He's one of the bigger guns coming up in the counties. With his family behind him, he can pressure the Lloroi in ways we can't imagine. And now that he knows you're a wolfwalker, he'll know just how to snag you."

"Alright." She sighed. "I'll talk to him again."

"Tonight," he said firmly. "You don't want to wait till Wakje or Ki gets involved."

She nodded soberly.

XXIII.

The night has always had ears.

-Randonnen saying Fireside was typical, with the usual business and requests for trade, after-dark complaints, and a dispute overchovas a.s.signments that almost came to blows. The Solomon solution laid down by the Ell pleased neither man, but pride was in the way. Nori endured as usual. She was between Payne and Kettre, almost flinching each time someone jostled her. The smells of humanity clogged her nose, and her eyes seemed blind with movement: people shifting, getting up, edging past each row of legs. Colorful clothes like a visual whirlwind. The waves of murmurs that rose after each judgment or resolution. Her head seemed overfull.

Payne nudged her, and she tried to focus. A trader had discovered that his entire shipment of soft-leaf herbs was molding, and he accused the pack master of sabotaging his goods in favor of the cozar herbalists. Then the team master reported that half the lice wash had become tainted with a harsh bubble soap, as if someone had thought it would be fun to turn the insect wash bottles into endless bubble machines. Brean almost blew his temper over that, and more than one person glanced at Payne, not just at the other youths. Payne was equally angry. Soap in the lice wash wasn't a prank. The wash was absorbed into the dnu's skin to prevent lice from feeding on the beasts, and it would take the harsh soap with it right into the dnu's bloodstream. It could make the beasts sick for a ninan or more, delaying the caravan enough that they might not even make Shockton.

Then Nori flinched as an almost hysterical older woman rushed in from the message master and interrupted the meeting. Her grandfather had died, and the landholdings along a trade route that she'd inherited had somehow been sold instead of being pa.s.sed along to her. She had four days to reach the a.s.sayer's office on the Eilian border while her family went on to Shockton. She needed a driver to take over her wagon while she rented some riding dnu. The woman was wailing curses up one side and down the other as she arranged the dnu for herself and her son and then galloped away in the night.

Nori had been aware of Hunter the entire evening. He hadn't spoken, but it surprised her that he'd paid such close attention when the woman's request was made. Fentris, too, seemed suddenly interested. In fact, she realized, B'Kosan and one of his friends were also watching the Tamrani. Nori almost missed the call for her apology as she frowned across the circle.

Belatedly, she stood up and turned in place till she had seen and been seen by the whole circle. She'd given Brean an informal apology earlier, but a search required one to the caravan. When she faced the Ell again, she began, "I offer my thanks for your support when the search was called, and my apologies that it became necessary. I did not intend to cause such worry, nor to take away the eyes and skills of the chovas who would otherwise have guarded you. All debt is mine and mine alone.Jeferen keyo'andyen.

" She spoke the guest-debt phrase, bowed her head, and waited.

The old Ell nodded, pleased by the courtesy. Mostkeyo didn't bother using the cozar tongue even if they knew it. He studied her bowed head. Normally he'd have let Brean a.s.sign at least three full days of duty, but Black Wolf had already done seven debt ch.o.r.es. Considering that she'd tended their dnu freely since she'd joined the caravan, any guest debt she could acc.u.mulate had already been repaid. Theandyen ch.o.r.es had been merely for form. The Ell waited only the required twelve seconds before saying firmly, "

Hashtik jeni sur'niloni andyen e'abran, KeyoBlack Wolf. The stones have fallen, no debt remains. Be at peace."

From the circle of elders, Mato seemed to pounce at the words. "May I speak?" he asked quickly as Nori sat down in relief.

Payne looked over sharply, but Mato was already standing, barely waiting for the Hafell to acknowledge him. The elder gestured behind him. "This man, neDoshru, has need of a veterinary."

Payne's eyes narrowed at the hostler. With his lips barely moving, he whispered to Nori, "Stay alert, Nori-girl. That's one of Mato's cousins from his mate's side of the family. He runs three of the stables along this stretch, and he's after an animal healer."

"You checked him out today," she remembered.

"Aye, and I've used his dnu before. The man's always bragged about Mato and the other elders in the family." He listened as Elder Mato continued with his request. But Mato did not explain the relationship to neDoshru, and Payne was surprised. Family relationships were important to the cozar. Keeping an ident.i.ty unknown during a trade talk was considered a breach of contract.

But Mato merely added, "The local animal healer is in the outlying district. NeDoshru has asked if the duty healer will come to his stable instead and treat the mounts for blue mange. There are several animals in need of attention. An hour or so of work."

"How many dnu?" asked Brean.

"Ah." Mato looked at his cousin. "There might be a dozen or more."

"How many exactly?"

Mato looked irritated. He answered finally, "Forty-three have been brought to that particular stable for treatment."

Brean's voice sharpened. "Forty-three beasts is a full day's work or more. That's a clear county duty, not just "an hour or so."

Mato looked directly at Nori. "I'm sure we can negotiate the terms."

Ten or more hours, away from the caravan? Nori didn't need to catch Payne's warning nudge. She tried to keep her face expressionless, but she could feel the snarl on her lips. She was not the caravan duty healer. She was akeyo, a guest. Technically, to outsiders, she was only a skilledchovas. The original duty belonged to a man who had skipped out on the train in Sidisport-or been done away with, she thought darkly. Since then, Ell Tai had a.s.signed Vindra Twitch-Whickers to the position, but it was Nori who did most of the work. Here, if she responded to the call for a duty healer, she would put herself in the position of holding that position more formally. It was a small step from cozar to council duty. In this case, because the hostler was Mato's cousin, the elder could even claim she had done duty for an elder.

Kettre leaned toward Nori on the other side and whispered, "I saw that man ride in when I was putting up my dnu. His beasts have softhoof disease, not just mange."

Nori nodded almost imperceptibly. That would explain the need for another healer. Softhoof required constant attention.

From across fireside, Hunter was watching her curiously. She couldn't help raising her chin stubbornly at him as the Hafell glanced at her and waited a few seconds. When she didn't stand up, Brean turned back to the elder. "We have no duty vet with the skills you need, Elder Mato. NeDoshru should-"

"Excuse me, Hafell," Mato cut in.

Payne raised his eyebrows at the interruption. He wasn't surprised when the Ell directed a hard gaze at Mato.

The elder didn't seem to notice. "As of three months ago, Black Wolf is a fully ranked vet with three bars. She has extensive experience with both indigenous and oldEarth livestock. And rumor has it she began her training when she was twelve. She can calm crazed dnu with a word."

Brean's face was carefully expressionless. "This is not a gossip fence, Elder Mato. This is fireside.

Requests for cozar or guest skills are made based on rankings within the caravan, not on rumors heard in town. As I have stated, we have no duty vet. Do you request the use of guest skills?"

Mato opened his mouth to protest, but hung up on a frown. "Guest skills?"

Brean nodded shortly. "Noriana maDione is not cozar, but guest in this caravan. A request for her skills must be made to her, not to me."

"Black Wolf is no guest here," the older man said flatly. "She was raised cozar. She lives like a cozar.

You treat her like cozar, and even punish her like a cozar when she's wrong. h.e.l.ls, she just apologized to you in the cozar language. You use her just as any county elder would."

Brean's face stiffened. "Nevertheless, she is akeyo, a close guest, not cozar."

"And I've been told that she is as cozar as you."

"By whom?" Brean said sharply.