But what he said next confused her. He regarded her with those cool green eyes and said quietly, "You love your brother very much."

She c.o.c.ked her head warily. "Aye," she said finally.

"How much would you give up to keep him safe?"

She frowned. She didn't see where he was going at all. She said sharply, "I'd give up you in a heartbeat, Tamrani."

He chuckled without humor. "Very telling." He didn't explain that the flash of fear in her eyes said she'd already considered the question. She was worried about something that was coming to a head, he could feel it. He hadn't pushed her on the ride today. He'd thought her natural curiosity would keep her intrigued with his presence. Instead, she'd barely spoken to him. She'd spent her time with her brother, watching the men and women around them as if anyone could be a threat. Hunter was beginning to think that, if he wanted to get Nori to ride with him, he'd have to court Payne, too.

She eyed him carefully. "I might be willing to answer your questions if you told me why you are here, and why you are heading for council."

Hunter studied her for a moment. Then his voice lost all teasing and became firm and businesslike. "I've come north to ask your council for an Ariyen scout, but I'm beginning to think that a wolfwalker would suit me better." He didn't hide his seriousness. She had no idea what was at stake. The changes he and Fentris had seen were only the surface of a sea that was beginning to roil. If it was just a Purging of power, then only a few dozen, maybe a hundred would die. If it was a House War, then the entire city would erupt. Venges would hunt down families, and families would try to flee. It would spread to the southern Ariyen towns, then north on up the county. Whole villages could be slaughtered as the venge riders turned to raiding. He added quietly, "It's a duty that will affect Ramaj Ariye, and possibly all three of the middle counties."

Nori regarded him expressionlessly. So Payne was right again. It was Condari Brithanas wanting the Daughter of Dione. She didn't think for a moment that a scout request was the sole reason he rode to council, not with her uncle as Lloroi. Rishte began to growl in her mind, and she forced her voice to be steady. "I have other duties, Condari."

"Con or Hunter, Black Wolf. And I believe I can convince your elders."

"That's probably true, but I don't answer to the elders."

"You do answer to the Lloroi."

"You think to convince my uncle to go against my parents, when they're among his most important county allies?"

He smiled without humor. He'd sat his share of city councils since he was a boy. County intrigues were like cutting a child's puzzle. "Let's just say that I have some knowlege of how a council works and what he needs to keep it in his control."

Nori's violet eyes narrowed. Payne hadn't had the half of it right. "You're welcome to pet.i.tion him, of course."

"For any scout except you?" He reached out and let his fingers trail along her arm.

She forced herself to stay motionless. But Rishte's growl was louder now, and her lips stretched in a faintly feral grin. "You're pursuing, Condari, but I'm not running. I'll turn on you if you close."

He gazed up at the stars. "I believe I'm tired of city lilies."

She stepped away and broke the contact. "Don't you understand? I don't want-" Her voice broke off as Rishte snarled sharply.

Hunter watched her tense. "What is it?" he asked sharply.

She shook her head. The wolf was closer, but she couldn't hear anything more than his growl. He'd seemed to send her a man-scent, but that would be Hunter. His scent would have carried on the slight evening breeze. Nori could feel her ears try to flick at the sounds of the park and the nighttime forest on the other side of the shrubs. Rishte didn't help. He was on the heights, pulling at her to come away. He was irritated and hungry, and the breeze blew west toward the wolf, taunting him with the odors of food and the noise of her humanity.

She didn't blame him for the call. After Mato, Rezuku, B'Kosan, and the watcher at the wagon, she was ready to bolt herself. And the wolf needed her running beside him. He rubbed roughly in her mind and growled at the man-scent, making her even more on edge, like a sword, unsure where to strike or parry.

"Nori?"

Wolfwalker.

Rishte howled the warning sharply. Hunter caught the flare of danger in her eyes, and his hand went to his long knife just as hers did. Her nostrils flared. She breathed shallowly, tasting the air. That hadn't been Hunter's scent in Rishte's nose. It was someone else. More than one someone else. Even with the faintness of the new bond, she could tell that now.

Her voice was almost inaudible as she warned. "There is someone coming down the verge."

"Payne?" he guessed irritably.

She shook her head.

"One of your uncles, then."

She held up her hand to stop him as she listened. She heard nothing, just the grey din sharpening in her mind and a pair of pelan settling down in the trees. "They're moving closer," she decided. "Not heading away."

"It's probably another couple of cozar, coming back from their evening exercise."

"No cozar would go so far from the wagons, not at night, not outside a group."

"You did."

"I'm not cozar, and you wanted to walk."

"I did." He smiled wolfishly.

She muttered something vaguely obscene. "It's two people," she added a moment later.

He studied her expression. This time, his voice was quiet. "You think they are a danger."

She tried not to snarl. She had her scout book in her jerkin, she wasn't carrying a bow, and she was out alone on the lonely verge with Hunter for company. If last night's watcher hadn't convinced her she was being targeted, this would do it twice over. She let her gaze rest just left of the path so her peripheral sight could seek movement. "Two men," she told him. "Not on dnu. On foot."

Hunter caught her arm. "This way, then." He started to pull her toward the road and the safety of the moonlight.

She slipped free with a twist. Her voice instinctively dropped to a whisper. "It's too bright over there.

Too open. No cover." She gestured toward the trees and shrubs that hid the barrier bushes.

"Your way is into the shadows," he objected. "And you have no idea if they're friends or enemies."

She didn't bother to answer that. "Will you come?" she said impatiently.

He raised his eyebrows. Then he followed without a word as she stepped off the path and slipped between two tea shrubs.

A few minutes later, they were flat on the ground, their bodies close in a long pocket of roots with a low shrub to the side to distract the eye. They could see most of the path for forty meters, but the road was nearly hidden. Nori shifted off a root so that the knot of it pressed into her calf, not her knee. Hunter wriggled into a better position himself. It brought his thighs close to hers. He leaned and murmured, "This is where I wanted you, though I'm not sure how we got here so quickly."

"Moonwormed eater of dog breath," she retorted in a nearly inaudible whisper.

He grinned. "You swear like a cozar," he breathed back.

Nori rolled her eyes and tried to reach out to the yearling. It was a fairly useless gesture. Rishte was still too far away to be more than a blurred grey in her mind. At that distance, all she could read was that the yearling sensed her wariness on top of his own sense of danger. The grey shifted slightly: a different eagerness, sudden stillness, flared nostrils, p.r.i.c.ked ears. The hunt. Her hunt? She almost c.o.c.ked her head to listen to the impressions that swirled in the lupine fog. She could smell the sleeping scents of a flock of woodmice, the raw sap of a tree that had been scratched by a forest cat. She started to shake her head to clear it so she could smell the air around herself, not the wolf, but caught herself in time to stay still. Hunter noticed nothing. In fact, she scowled, the man had just put his chin down on his arms and now pressed close to her side. She nudged him with her hip, but he didn't move. d.a.m.n Tamrani, she thought irritably. This wasn't even subtle.

Hunter, his face turned away, hid a smile.

The Tamrani's warmth kept her from shivering, and his long body was relaxed into watching, not tense as an inexperienced scout. It was almost . . . pleasant, she realized, as if she should feel safe, rather than wary from having him beside her. He certainly seemed content to lie there for as long as it took to wait.

They were silent for several minutes. The nightbugs began chirping again, and the tether vines settled down and refurled their delicate tendrils. Hunter started to ask if Nori had been wrong when a flock of tree sprits rushed up through the trees. He stilled further.

She used two fingers to barely motion to the left. A moment later, two men angled across the trees at the top of the small rise. They were perhaps forty meters away, and although they were armed, they were walking casually. Nori felt her cheeks heat.

"Very dangerous looking, indeed," Hunter murmured in her ear.

She recognized one of the outriders, and stiffened. "Thechovas on the right, he disappeared from the wagons this morning-" She broke off. The other man turned and looked in their direction. It was the raider who had attacked Elder Connaught.

Hunter frowned. The wolfwalker's face had gone still and intent as a lepa. He could see the caravan guard more clearly now, and he shifted deeper into the shadow, a move that brought him even closer against her side. Her lips moved as if to curse him, but like him, she now made no noise.

The moons were bright enough that the shadows were a crisp black, not dull for easier seeing. Hunter's fingers pressed her forearm, but she'd already seen the two men turn to move closer.

Nori breathed slowly through her mouth into her sleeve so that there was almost no sound. Only the beat of her heart and the sense of Hunter's pulse through his hot skin filled her ears. The grey din in her mind was so much a part of her thoughts that she didn't even hear it. No-thought, she chanted in her mind.

No-thought. Nothing here. She kept her eyes downcast so they didn't gleam. She was small, nothing, of no consequence. A hint of shadow in darker night. Just a tiny creature, minding its business, settling down for the night.

In her mind, Rishte didn't understand at first. Then he realized she thought herself prey, not predator. He snarled, and Nori stiffened slightly. She hissed at the wolf in her mind.No-thought, she sent harshly.

No-sight, no-sound.

Rishte growled back. He began to understand. Think like prey, be prey, draw them in, then leap and slash at the flanks, the knees, the heels. The sudden shaft of eagerness was like a slap, and Nori had to fight not to shake her head.

They would have remained unnoticed if it hadn't been for the pelan. The two men had actually pa.s.sed their patch of shadow, ten or twelve meters away. They were moving away down the path when the four birds fluttered down toward the bushes. Both Harumen went still to avoid spooking the birds.

The lead pelan dropped, looking for a roost. It got its feet all the way around a branch near Nori's head when it realized what lay nearby. It exploded back up like a feathered bomb. Nori's heart stopped. The other three pelan hissed and scattered up, then winged back over the trees like wildly shot arrows. The two men whipped around. Their bows came up. "There," Murton snapped.

Rishte felt Nori's sudden fear like a kick. The grey voice clawed into her mind.Danger. Flash to your feet. Run, escape.

The other raider released his bolt a bare second after Murton's.

Nori started to roll to her feet, but Hunter slammed his arm down like a beam of iron. She barely heard him curse over the whip-by of the bolt.

Trapped. Run. Run!

She snarled, her teeth bared at Hunter. The Tamrani jerked back, then shoved her down again, sprawling across her to cover her. Murton drew another bolt quick as smoke, and shot slightly left, covering what he knew was there but couldn't quite see in the shadows. "Now," Hunter snapped, and released her. She fought free as he rolled the other way.

Wolfwalker- "There, dammit," one of them cursed. The third arrow slashed by her face, so close that the waxy leaf it cut in half also cut her skin.

Lupine fury burst into her mind. She drew her throwing knife and poised half turned, half crouched against the shadow.

Hunter lunged back to shove her out of the way as she made herself a target. Murton couldn't not see him move. Thechovas let fly just as Nori did. She didn't miss, but neither did Murton. Her blade sank into Murton's forearm as the man released, but his arrow ripped the top of Hunter's shoulder. The Tamrani cried out and jerked back. Then Hunter reached out one long, muscled arm and threw Nori down like a sack. She hit hard enough to bruise her back. As she fell, she drew his second knife from the tooled sheath on his belt. She twisted. The blade flew after the second man like a thought. Murton dropped his bow and turned to run like a hare. The blade splintered through his quiver.

"Go," the second man shouted. "Go!" The two men sprinted away.

Nori was nearly blinded by wolfish fury. She lunged to her knees when she was brought up short. The fingers that closed on her arm were made of steel. She wrenched free, but Hunter managed to catch her jerkin instead. "Dammit," she cursed him, caught his wrist, and forced his fingers open. "They'll get away."

He managed to grab two of her fingers. "Are you insane?" he snapped back, twisting her knuckles so that she had to turn with him. "Stay down. They don't want you now."

"Enough to loose four bolts-" She didn't even think as she wrist-locked his hand so that he was forced to let go.

"Four bolts at me, you idiot." He jerked her down by her belt. "Let them go."

"So they can shoot us again down the road?" Her broken bow, her scout book, Payne's rope, and the war bolts in the wagon . . . The attack on the road was just a warm-up. They weren't even bothering to be subtle anymore. She shoved back up, rolling her arm neatly free, only to find that he simply grabbed at her braid. She struck his elbow, hard enough to loosen his grip. "Let go, or I'll skewer you like a shish kebab and roast you when I return."

"You'll go nowhere without me."

"You're bleeding, you bollusk-brained dimwit. You won't make it ten meters, and they might go after Payne."

He dug his fingers into her elbow to yank her back. She countered, shoved him back. "Moonwormed fool," he cursed. "They aren't after your brother or you. And they're running hard. You'd never catch them. You can hear them on the road."

"Murton's one of them. He's right there." She yanked free. "Just there. He's. .h.i.t the hilltop." Hunter grabbed the edge of her jerkin, then her braid again. She rolled his wrist so that he had to let go, but he grabbed her belt instead. "Dammit, Hunter. Let me go. They're getting their dnu. I can still catch them both with Rishte."

"There's a third man, Black Wolf. There has to be. He'll be the one with the dnu."

"I don't care," she cried out. "They could go after Payne."

"They'll be down the road before you can shout."

She jerked free. "Then I'll get my own dnu. I have to make sure. They must not come back-"

He grabbed at her one more time. "All you'll do is panic the camp and make it harder to catch them later. I know what they want. I'll find them myself when they try to hit me again."

She stopped struggling for an instant. She stared down at the wounded Tamrani. "What do you mean, when they try to hit you? They were after Payne and me." Her hand itched for her scout book.

"You're wrong. They were after me, not you." He pressed his free hand hard against his shoulder, then jerked clumsily at a belt pouch.

"Oh, let me," she snapped. She opened the pouch irritably and yanked out the roll of bandages. "You're the one who's mistaken. They were shooting at us, at Payne and me. Just like yesterday." She jammed the pad into his hands. As he released her, she took a quick stride away.

Hunter reached out one long arm and yanked her back. "Listen carefully, you little idiot. They're Harumen out of Sidisport, and if you think I'm going to let you go running after men like that in the dark, you're crazy."

"You're blind, not just b.l.o.o.d.y. I know who they are. I saw the second one attackConnaught last night-" She broke off. His face had twisted as if the pain was increasing. She closed her eyes for a moment to regain control. Then she stopped fighting his grip. Even now, she heard the sense of running dnu in the back of her mind. She'd be the idiot he called her if she took off after them now. If Uncle Wakje found out, he'd thump her up one side of Ramaj Ariye, then back down through Randonnen.

After her lack of control that afternoon, he'd be justified. But she was furious. She could feel the attackers running. She could feel her legs tense to chase. Rishte growled eagerly in her mind, and she wanted to growl with him. Instead, she jerked the bandage pad back from Hunter's hand as he clumsily tried to fold it one-handed. It took her several seconds to realize that, beneath the lupine eagerness, something else lurked in her mind: fear. Now that she identified it, she could feel it breaking into her bones.

Was it that she knew who they were, or was it the scout book that had brought them down on her? Or was it the dead ring-runners she'd seen in the meadow? Or her sense of plague? It was the ring-runners who made it more than suspicious. She was swamped with the images of the bodies, and with it came the sense of the seep. Old death, burning death . . . Rishte howled, and she cursed silently.

She tried to clear her head, tried to think like her brother. She had to get back, get the scout book, get it off her person, hide it someplace better. Time must be important if they were willing to try for her twice in two days. The trigger point had been the night run, with the dead ring-runners and the raiders. Everything had started after that, after she'd gotten back to the road, when she'd finally returned to Payne. It had to be the ring-runners, not the seep, she told herself. It couldn't be the plague. No raiders could know of that place near the cliff. The wagon track had been years old, and that area had become posted long ago for worlags in spring. On top of that, the seep would be dry through summer and fall, the times when hunters went through there. But the chill that settled deep in her bones had more to do with plague.

"Could they know?" She wasn't aware she had whispered out loud.

Hunter sucked in a breath as she pressed the bandage ungently onto the wound. "Know what?" he snapped. "That you're a wolfwalker? That's hardly grounds for murder."

She snapped back to the moment. "You think they want you dead just for leaving the city?"

"They want what I brought out of it-"

"Oh, aye." She rounded on him. "A hide so thick you can't get a thought through your head. They're trying to kill me, not you."

"This is the most ridiculous argument I've ever had. Do you actuallywant to be right?"

"Look-"