"I'd rather have them alive."

Gamon was silent for a moment. "You can't change the past, Dion, and you

can't bring Danton out of the grave, but you still have two sons. Tomi may not be your blood son, but he loves you like a mother. And Olarun will eventually return to you in his heart. He just needs time and comfort."

"It's comfort I can't give him, Gamon."

"Aye. He and you-you're the same. You need someone to comfort you, Dion, so that you can again comfort your sons."

Her lips twisted. "You think I need some kind of a mother?"

"If you do, that's one thing I can't get for you. You'll have to settle for your father and brother."

"I've said no, Gamon."

"And you mean it," he added, so flatly that the words meant the opposite of what he said.

She closed her eyes for a moment. "I don't want to ride those trails again.

There are graves in Randonnen, too."

"You were not so uneager when I met you."

"That was a long time ago," she retorted.

"Not to me. I remember it clearly. You and your twin-you were so alike, so different back then. So protective of each other, and yet so independent.

And that damned wolf, hovering and snarling like a mother guarding her pup after Aranur knocked you out. I had known it would have to be a different kind of woman who hooked my nephew's heart, but I'd never thought he'd be so anxious for a mate that he'd tackle a woman from her dnu."

A ghost of a smile touched Dion's lips, though the expression did not reach

her eyes. "My jaw hurt for a ninan afterwards."

"What did you expect-fists of feather? He was a weapons master, even then."

"Even then," she agreed.

Gamon studied her face. "He needs you, Dion. Both he and Olarun. You know that just as you know your wolf. It's been a ninan. You've run far enough. If you won't go to your own family, go back to your mate and your sons."

"I can't-"

"Why not?" Gamon cut her off sharply. "You need Aranur and Tomi and Olarun as much as they need you. That, you can't deny."

But Dion was already shaking her head. "I can't go back," she repeated.

"What holds you to this trail?" he demanded. "Your search to find yourself

again, as you so quaintly put it to Aranur? Your need to escape the blame you heap upon yourself? You can't tell me it's Hishn-the only reason that mutt is dogging your heels out here is that you're pulling her as surely as if you put a rope on her neck and tied her to your dnu. She'd be back with her own pack now, running with her own mate, if you were at home. You may have brought the wolves back to Ariye, but it's not as though there are so many anywhere that you can sacrifice any wolf's litters. And Hishn-she's one of the few wolves who gives birth to more than one pup at a time.

Compared to Ancient years, most Gray Ones' litters are barely token births.

Hishn is the rare wolf who gives forth live-not dead-wolf cubs. Are you going to sacrifice your own Gray One's children because you can't face your mate?"

Dion couldn't answer him.

"And how long, Dion, before the raiders find out that you're riding these

trails without Aranur? We crossed raider tracks this morning. If they find out you're here, they could try again, here, to kill you."

Slowly, Dion looked up. "You and Tehena and Kiyun- you've been

talking about this behind my back?"

"You've seen the signs as clearly as we have."

"I won't go back."

"Yet," Gamon added almost grimly.

Dion's violet eyes glinted. "I'm no pawn of yours, Gamon, to be pushed

here and there by mere words."

But the older man's gray eyes had their own steely tone. His voice did not back down. "I can push harder, Dion, if you need such motivation."

Something in her cracked. "Why do this to me?" she cried out. "Why say

these things when you know I can't hear them yet?"

"You've had enough time, Wolfwalker." He used the title deliberately.

"You need to start facing yourself again."

"And you've appointed yourself my spirit guide?"

"Someone's got to, and it might as well be me. I'm not just a friend, Dion,

I'm family. I'm your uncle-through love if not blood-so I can say these things-and more, if necessary-to get you back where you belong." He caught the twist of her lips. "You think that's humorous?"

She shook her head. "It's not that. It's that yesterday Kiyun went on about the same thing. 'I'm not family, ' he told me, 'I'm a friend, so I can say these things to you.' "

Gamon grinned sourly. "And Tehena, how did she put it?"

"She didn't put anything. She just asked where I wanted to go."

"Moonwormed woman. She'd follow you though all nine hells and back if

you asked it of her."

Dion fingered a twig beside her, snapping it off absently. When she realized what she was doing, she threw the stick on the ground. Hishn stretched out

and took the twig in her teeth, shredding it into fragments. Dion watched the wolf, letting Hishn's sense of taste bring the bitter flavor of bark and sap to her own tongue. Her voice was quiet when she finally said, "I need more time, Gamon. I want to see land other than that in Ariye. I want to see rivers and valleys where the fog isn't heavy with pain and death and loss. I want to see the ocean again. I want, Gamon, to go someplace where there aren't so many ghosts."

The older man didn't speak for a moment. Then he touched her arm.

"Please," she whispered, not even knowing what she was asking.

He pulled her to him, hugging her roughly. The hilt of his sword caught on

her hip, and the archer's patch on her forearm snagged on his tunic. Gamon shook his head as they untangled each other. Dion looked up into his grizzled face. "You Ariyen men-you never can learn to hug."

"And you Randonnen women are always too stubborn to reason with."

"It's a gift," she told him wryly.

"It's a pain in the neck, Dion."

"Gamon-"

"I know, I know. I'm just along for the ride, after all, seeing as how you

aren't much for conversation these days." He glanced up the trail to see Kiyun and Tehena riding down.

Feeling Dion's frustration, Hishn growled beside him.

He ignored the wolf. Deliberately, he said, "Remember Red Harbor, thirteen years ago?"

Dion's face shadowed. "How could I not?"

"Do you also remember what Aranur told Tyrel after the boy's sister died?"

"I do."