porch, and a slender young woman stepped out, eyeing them, but letting them come up on the porch before she spoke. "You're here to see Lege,"

she stated more than questioned. Gamon frowned, but the young woman

ignored him, meeting Dion's level gaze with her own. The plain, uncarved silver band of an intern circled her brow, and her dark blond hair swung freely as she gestured with bare courtesy for them to enter. "I'm Asuli maLian, intern to the late Healer Yrobbiquipel."

The young woman's voice was almost haughty, and Dion studied her for a

long moment. "Healer Dione," she replied finally.At her side, Hishn snarled so low in her throat that Asuli didn't hear. She challenges you, the gray wolf growled.

She is young, Dion returned.But Hishn gave the intern a baleful look. Dion's own lips began to curl, and she had to force her expression to steady. "I am here to see Lege," she reminded the intern softly.

The other woman barely nodded. "His concussion is critical," Asuli

returned. "He is declining. There is nothing more to be done except wait for him to die." She gestured for them to enter, but as Dion neared her, the younger woman drew herself up almost imperceptibly and tried to look down her nose. Dion, slightly taller, narrowed her eyes but said nothing.

When Asuli turned her expression on Gamon, the lean old man quelled her with a look so cold the young woman took an involuntary step back.

"Where is the patient?" Dion asked shortly.

"Through here," Asuli returned, striding past Dion to lead the wolfwalker

through the house. "But you won't be able to do any more than I. I followed Yrobbi's directions to the letter."

Dion stared at the intern's back. A spark of ire roused in her gut while

beside her, Gray Hishn's bristle was up. When Dion passed the intern to

enter the room, she stifled an impulse to snap at the other woman's expression.She is the thorn in the paw, Hishn sent. She is the bitter scent of the lepa. Slap her down now, or she will challenge you again.

"No," Dion said sharply. Asuli and Gamon looked at her. She shrugged, and Gamon, with a glance at the wolf, nodded. The intern watched Dion with narrowed eyes.

When Dion saw the still, gray form on the bed, she hesitated. She sat beside the man's body and took his pulse. But when she looked at the man's eyes, she had little hope. One pupil was blown-dilated twice as large as the other. There was no response to the light. She glanced down at the wolf and met the yellow gaze.

He is dead already, the wolf told her.There is death, and then there is final death, Dion returned. Ovousibas has made the difference between life and death before. Perhaps it can do so again.

Gamon saw the expression on her face. He turned to motion for Asuli to

leave the room, but the intern was standing with her hands on her hips.

"I'll stay," she said flatly, before he could open his mouth. "The man's my

patient, and I treated him carefully-there's nothing more to be done. If you think to do something different, I will judge that treatment."

Slowly, Dion turned her head. But the other woman didn't move.

Dion stared at Asuli for a long moment. Then, even more slowly, she stood.

The master healer's band she wore was worked with the ancient lapis lazuli, not the flashier holspet, but the intricate carvings on the simple circlet made

her rank plain. At Asuli's words, Gamon could almost swear that the silver of Dion's circlet itself glinted with the same anger that flashed in the wolfwalker's eyes.

Dion's voice was deceptively quiet. "Asuli," she said, "I recognize you as an intern. But as a master healer of Ramaj Ariye and Ramaj Randonnen and the outlying districts of both counties, I will judge the condition of this patient. And it is I, not you, who will judge your skills in handling this patient properly."

The young woman didn't back down. "If you think you can do something more, I have the right to stay and see what you claim I've done wrong." Gamon eyed the stiffening of both women's jaws. Dion's temper had been nearly dormant since Danton's death, but he'd bet on the speed of the sixth moon before he'd bet that her flash-fire rage had died with her son. If it was this intern who could break the emotion free from the wolfwalker's heart, Gamon would not interfere.

Dion's gaze was steady, but a tiny muscle jumped in her jaw. "I haven't said you did anything wrong, Asuli. I merely want to see if I can do something more. I ask you again, leave this room while I work. It's hard enough to do certain healing techniques without someone's hostile breath going down my neck."

Asuli was already shaking her head. "I have the right to see anything you do to my patient."

Hishn growled. "You do have the right." Dion's voice didn't quite mask the steel behind her words. "But if you stay, you will be silent; you will not move no matter what happens; you will not disturb me in any way."The younger woman opened her mouth in automatic protest, but Dion cut her off. "If you disturb me during this time-" The steel of her voice was obvious. "-you risk my life and the life of this man. And, as a master healer, if I deem your actions improper, or worse, deliberate, your rank will be stripped from you, and you will be exiled from ever joining the healers'

ranks or ever again abusing whatever skills you think you now have. Trial blocks are not just for raiders."

Asuli stared at her for a long moment, then finally nodded shortly.

Dion turned away from the other woman, sitting again beside the wounded

man. She barely had to touch him through the internal healing to feel the cold, clutching gray that had grown over his mind. Nerves hung lifelessly; blood flowed sluggishly where it flowed at all; pink coils of brain were compressed and crushed from swellings along the skull. The wolfwalker shivered when she opened her eyes to Gamon's empathetic face. "He is already dead," she said flatly. "He will never regain consciousness."

"I told you that already," Asuli said flatly. "I've already done everything for

him that could be done."

Gamon watched Dion bite back her temper. Thoughtfully, he eyed the intern.

"If there are others waiting to be seen, I will see them now," Dion said

curtly.

The few others who had serious injuries did not need Ovousibas to get them on the road to healing, though they might be ninans getting back to their work. Dion noted with wary surprise that Asuli, obviously seeing where the

wolfwalker's concerns lay, was screening the patients, admitting only those whose injuries might cause permanent damage. It was quietly done, and Dion would not have noticed it except that Hishn, outside, saw those who were turned from the door.

"How is it going?" Gamon asked in a low voice, passing Dion a bowl of

stew.

Dion followed his glance toward the intern. "She is competent, but that doesn't make up for lack of courtesy. I'm beginning to feel like throttling her myself."

Gamon grinned without humor and cracked his knuckles. "Let me know if you need any help."

Dion pushed away her empty bowl, and Asuli moved quickly to Dion's side.

"Is there anyone else to see?" Dion asked flatly.

"Just one man." The intern gathered Dion's tools and herbs automatically and led them out toward another hub. As they climbed the steps to the front door, the woman paused. "My fa-the man's elbow was cut so that the tissues and nerves were separated. He'll probably lose the arm."

Dion studied the other woman's face without speaking.

Slowly, Asuli stiffened. "I don't see what else you'll be able to do for him that I haven't already done."

Dion had to tighten her lips to hold back her words. But Gray Hishn,

following at a distance, snarled loudly enough that Gamon looked warily over his own shoulder.Easy, Hishn, Dion sent.

She walks as if she bites at your heels.I cannot strike her simply because of what she says.I can, the Gray One sent.The rush of lupine heat that flashed in Dion's mind almost made her stumble. No! she snapped back. This is a human thing, Gray One. Do not interfere.

The snarl that returned made Dion's own hackles rise.

The door to Asuli's home opened before they reached the porch, and the blond woman who gestured them inside was already talking. "Asuli," she rounded on the intern, "we needed you back hours ago. Wains is in a great deal of pain-"

"I've brought the healer," the younger woman cut in abruptly. She brushed

by her mother. "He's in here," she said over her shoulder to Dion.

Inside, the man at the table looked up. His right arm was in a sling, and his fingers were curled in a frozen fist. He started to get to his feet, but Dion motioned for him to stay seated.

"Healer Dione," he greeted her. He looked down at his hand. "We're

honored to have you."

"The honor is mine," she returned automatically. She nodded and gestured for him to take his arm out of the sling. "Was it a clean blow or a crushing blow?"

"Clean, Healer-like a sickle through wheat." His face was stolid. "Don't know that you can do much at this point. I can't feel a thing below the elbow." He nodded with his chin at his daughter. "Asuli said the nerves were cut, and I'd never use the arm again-a pretty present for the moons to

give a farmer."

Dion's voice remained steady, but there was a hint of steely gray in her

violet eyes. "The moons sometimes give back what they take away." She began to examine his arm.

"Not this time," he grunted. "Asuli said the use of it was gone for sure."