Abruptly, she spurred her dnu straight at him. Kiyun's dnu, off-guard,

skittered sideways.

"You daughter of a lepa-" he cursed.

But she was past him. She ran her dnu straight around the hillock and right

into Gamon's beast. The older man's beast, startled, shouldered hers, and the two dnu slammed together. The intern went flying. For the second time, Asuli landed in the dust, her too-large cloak tangled in both brush and limbs. This time she lay still several seconds.

Hishn eyed the woman as she would an eel, and Dion found her own lips curling. "Easy," she murmured, though she didn't know if she calmed the

wolf more for herself or for Hishn.

Asuli got slowly to her feet. She refused to rub her ribs or buttocks, but she bit out her words as if they hurt as much as her bruises. "So. You were all just sitting here, watching that man harass me."

Kiyun looked down at her from his saddle. "You'd have preferred an arrow to an insult? No one has business traveling alone-not with raiders about."

"I have the right to ride however and wherever I wish."

Dion asked quietly, "Why?"

Asuli didn't pretend to misunderstand. "I have the right to apply for internship, Dione. I choose to do so with you."

Tehena and Hishn moved forward as if one. "Excuse me?" said the lanky

woman. "What idiot's babble is this?"

Asuli ignored Tehena and addressed herself only to the wolfwalker. "You have no intern with you, so I have the right to apply to study with you. You are obligated to give me a trial period before you can say no to me-"

Gamon stared at her. "The Healer Dione has over a dozen interns," he corrected. "All of whom work hard and treat their patients-and their teachers-with respect. She has no need of someone like you."

"She wears the healer's band. She is bound by the healer laws. One of those laws says that she must take on any student that asks to study with her if she has no students with her. She is obligated to me-"

"Not true."

"Ask her." Asuli's voice was flat. "Ask her if she is or not."

Gamon gave her a long look. "Is this true?" He turned to Dion. "Can you be

obligated to take this... this... on when you already have so many back

home?"

"Those rules were set to make sure that healers trained interns," Dion said flatly. "They were meant for those few healers who didn't want to be bothered with sharing their knowledge, not for those of us who have a dozen in training already."

"You have no such interns with you," Asuli shot back.

"I do not work right now as a healer," Dion returned forcefully.

"Oh no? What about Prandton?"

Dion looked mutely at the intern. Finally, she said, "I would only be

cheating you if I took you on now. You'd learn little in a ninan before you returned home, and I plan no research, no in-depth work. You'd get as much from any healer as you would from me. There's no reason for you to travel with us when you could stay safely in a town."

The intern eyed Dion knowingly. "You're as selfish as you say I am," the other woman said slowly. 'The only way you could cheat me is if you don't take me on. After what you did in Prandton, you owe me explanations. "

She gestured at her saddlebags. "I don't request pay, and I've brought my own gear and supplies. I add no burden to your party."

Gamon looked at Dion. The question in his eyes was clear.

Asuli caught his glance. "She has to take me on."

"The weapons master," Kiyun said quietly, dangerously, "is speaking to the

wolfwalker, not you."

"You could dispute this," Tehena said in a low voice.

"I could," Dion agreed, "but it wouldn't matter. I took her patients away from her. I healed them, thereby challenging her treatments of them. She has the right to request training with me so that she can learn what I felt she was lacking. And according to the old laws, unless I already have students with me, I must accept any intern who wishes to train with me."

"For how long?"

"The old laws may put us in untenable situations sometimes, but they don't lock us into them forever. I must accept her for a period of one ninan-"

Asuli had been listening, and she cut in then. "At the very least, you have to

accept me for one ninan."

Dion merely looked at her. "There is not enough weight on my shoulders, but I must carry you as well?"

The intern did not flinch. Instead, her lips firmed, and she set her jaw.

Tehena scowled. "Dion, you don't have to let her back you into a corner

like this. Those laws were intended to protect, not punish, people like you."

Dion didn't take her eyes from the intern. "Yes," she admitted, "but the intern is right. I am obligated."

Tehena spat to the side. Her voice was cold and hard, and the look she gave

the young woman was as venomous as a mud-sucker. "We're stuck with her?"

Dion shrugged.

"I'd as soon sleep with a lepa," Tehena muttered.

Two bright red spots burned in Asuli's cheeks.

Gamon eyed her as he would a roofbleeder. "You, Asuli, claim to take

internship rights with Dion?"

She nodded.

"Then you obey Dion in all matters of healing. You obey me in matters of

everything else."

"Gamon-"

"Weapons Master," the older man snapped. "You will address me with the

respect of which you are so obviously ignorant, or you will not travel with us, internship rights or not."

"The old laws-"

"Older laws than the ones you claim state that your rights do not usurp the rights of others. You put Dion in a hint of danger, and I'll boot you back on the road. The old laws bind you as well as Dione."

Asuli regarded him for a long moment. Finally, she nodded.

Hishn eyed the intern with baleful yellow eyes, and Dion followed the gray wolf's gaze. A ninan only, Hishn. Then she will be gone.Nine days can be nine centuries in the memories of the wolves.

Dion didn't answer. But the low howl that she projected was caught up by the wolf in her lupine mind. Hishn rubbed her head against the wolfwalker, then disappeared into the forest.

The ride was silent after that. Asuli did not bother to make conversation; she merely eyed Dion now and then as if studying her. They barely made it to Caeton before night was full upon them. It was a dark night, with the moons still hidden behind the overcast sky. There was no sense of impending rain; rather, the heat was heavy with humidity, and the salt air, so close now, was sticky on their skins.

Dion's shoulders still twitched, but she said nothing to the others as they

stopped at one of the inns. Instead, she hung back in the stable as the others trooped toward the main house.Wolfwalker? Hishn asked, standing at her side."It's nothing," she said softly.It is Leader, Hishn returned. Gray Yoshi runs with him on the road."I know."Hishn growled, deep in her throat, and the soft sound grated on Dion's ears.