is far from Ariye, is the time to try to take her."

Tehena gave him a thoughtful look. "She might be vulnerable, Gamon, but she isn't weak."

"She sure as hell isn't back to normal, either."

"That's what you expect? For her to be normal again after she killed her

own son?"

"She didn't kill her son," he snapped.

"Tell her that."

For a moment, the two glared at each other.

It was Gamon who broke the silence. "The last few days, we've been

moving too directly toward the coast. If the raiders are looking for healers, they're just too close around us. I want Dion in the bigger towns."

"She doesn't want to be in the larger towns."

"What's your point?"

Tehena stared at the older man. Then she actually laughed. The sound was harsh, but for all that, it was a laugh.

"That's six," Gamon said.

Tehena raised her thin eyebrows. "Six what?"

"Six times you've laughed since I met you. You're making a habit of that,

you know-laughing once every two years, whether you need it or not."

Slowly, the lanky woman lost her smile. Her voice was flat again when she said, "Maybe I don't have much to laugh about."

Gamon couldn't help the glance he shot over his shoulder. "We'll have less

to laugh about if we let her walk into a raider trap."

"We all have eyes, Gamon."

"Aye."

He said nothing more.

Tehena studied him for a moment, then dropped back to ride silently beside

Dion. But as the afternoon turned into dusk, Dion's own shoulders began to twitch. Unconsciously, she projected her concern to the wolf who loped steadily ahead of them in the dusty road.

Wolfwalker, Hishn returned. You feel predator eyes?I feel as if we're being followed, she returned.Leader? the gray wolf sent. Hishn's image of Aranur was clear in Dion's mind.I hear his voice, Dion acknowledged, but this is something else. Instantly, the gray wolf turned back, but Dion stopped her. "No, Gray One. I'd rather you stayed with us."

"Dion?" Kiyun asked.

She motioned with her chin. "Something or someone's following us."

"Raiders?"

"I don't know. It's familiar, and yet not familiar. Like hearing Aranur's

voice at a distance."

Kiyun nodded. "The trees are thick along this stretch, and there's a hillock up ahead. We can pull off and wait there to see who it is."

She nodded in turn. The prickling along her shoulders did not dissipate, and

Gray Hishn warily snarled at the trees into which they took their dnu.

Tehena and Dion dismounted, drawing and stringing their bows. Then, with the dusky sun already down among the coastal hills, they climbed the hillock and lay down in the brush to watch the road. Kiyun and Gamon waited below. Gray Hishn started up the hill with Dion, and the wolfwalker caught the gray wolf's scruff for a moment. The dusk eyesight of the wolf was sharper than hers would ever be, and she let herself fall into Hishn's mind.

Warm dust, the gray wolf sent. Movement on the road. The pound of the dnu's hooves were faint in Dion's ears, but loud in the ears of the wolf. Dion found herself relaxing, letting Hishn's eyes and ears work for her.

It was not long before the rider approached. It was a single figure, riding

fast. "Woman rider," Dion murmured to Tehena.

Tehena's pale eyes narrowed. "Quirt musk in a worlag's den," she swore softly.

Dion glanced at the lanky woman, then back at the rider. Suddenly, she

understood. "Even the moons wouldn't be that cruel," she muttered.

"Want to bet?" Tehena wormed back from the hillock but didn't unstring her bow. Dion gave her a sober look. She followed Tehena more slowly.

Kiyun, noting their actions, peered around the hill. Then he jammed the arrow back in his quiver and slung his bow over his shoulder. A moment later, he spurred his dnu out onto the road.

He came out of the hill-hidden forest like a heavy worlag.

Asuli screamed. The intern's dnu reared its two front legs uncertainly, nearly dumping her in the road. Kiyun, leaning out of the saddle, grabbed the reins from Asuli's hand. He hauled the six-legged beast around, his face

cold. "Just where, by all nine moons, do you think you're going?"

The young woman stared at him, recognizing him finally as he spoke.

Kiyun bit the words out. "You'd better have a damn good reason, woman,

for risking raiders to ride alone on this road."

Asuli tried to jerk away, and her dnu half reared again. Her curse this time, as she fell out of the saddle, was vicious. She hit the road like a sack of coal, hard on her buttocks and back. She gasped. It was a full second before she scrambled back to her feet. Automatically, she reached for her dnu, but the riding beast skittered away from her flapping cloak. She chased Kiyun back, grabbing unsuccessfully at the saddle horn, then at the reins he held.

"Let go of my dnu, you worm-boned, lepa-faced dung beetle," she snarled.

"I have the same rights to this road that you do."

Kiyun again backed her dnu out of reach. "Where's your escort? If you're

so incompetent as to fall out of the saddle at the first start of your dnu, what makes you think you can use the road to which you claim to have travel rights?"

"You mock-eared bat. Give me back my dnu!"

She made another grab for the beast, but Kiyun danced the two dnu out of reach of her hands again. He realized suddenly that she was wearing a traveling cloak, not a lightweight, summer work cloak. Startled, he glanced at her saddle. The bags lashed to the saddle were full and heavy, judging by

the way they barely shifted with the beast's movements. "Just what are you up to, Asuli?"

She made a lunge and caught the reins. Angrily, she held on until the beast,

frightened, chittered and threatened to stomp on her feet. "Damn you," she

snarled. "Let go of my mount. I'm a licensed intern. I have the right to study with whomever I wish."

"The right to study... " Kiyun stared at her.

She took the opportunity to rip the reins from his hand and jerk her dnu away. She was mounted in an instant. "The Healer Dione is obligated to teach me," she spat at the burly man. "Get out of my way. You've no right to stop me from riding to find her."

From the trees, Dion sucked in a breath. Tehena took one look at her face

and found her own hand on her knife.

"No right, perhaps," Kiyun said flatly to the intern, "but plenty of rationality. From what I saw of you back in your village, you couldn't make good with the wolfwalker even if you were dying. Turn around and go back before you run into real trouble."

Asuli merely looked at him.

"Go back," he repeated.