"My guilt-my debts are not yours, Tehena. You have no right to judge

them."

"No? You chained me to you with your moonwormed generosity, Dion.

You might as well have leashed me to your county with steel cable. You think I can break free of you now?"

Dion's face shuttered. "I refuse that weight. I refuse to be responsible for

you."

"You made yourself responsible for me the day you took my bread and slop and made me beg for my food."

"That was a long time ago."

The other woman nodded. "Yes. I hated you, then, you know. I hated your

strength, your determination. I hated your hope. You made me feel small and mean and dirty. And you terrified me."

"Then why did you follow me? Why come with me to Ariye?"

"Because you were a focus for me-you were the direction I lacked."

"And you still try to make me that now."

Tehena tilted her head in acknowledgment.

Dion's face tightened. "You can't live your life through mine, Tehena. You

have to find your own way. Of all the things you have learned in Ariye, surely you know now that you can do that here."

The lanky woman shrugged. "Some people weren't meant for freedom."

"Worlag piss," Dion snarled. "If you're afraid of freedom, say it. Don't hide behind false obligation."

"Speak for yourself, Wolfwalker."

Dion stared at her. The shadows seemed suddenly brittle. A light went on in the inn as another pair of riders opened the door and went in. Tehena's

gaunt face was suddenly cast into light and dark planes. Her eyes, dark and embittered by day, were unfathomable by night.

Then Tehena shook her head. "Ah, moonworms, Dion. Freedom's

something tangible to you, but it's just a word to me. Bottom line is, I

wouldn't know what to do with myself if I was on my own."

For a moment, the wolfwalker didn't move. Then she laid her hand on the other woman's arm. They were silent for a long time in the shadows.

When Dion returned to the inn, Tehena remained behind. The lanky woman's gaze followed Gamon as he closed the common's gate behind the dnu and started back across the courtyard. But he hesitated when he saw her alone. "Tasting the last of the land air?" he asked as he joined her. "We'll reach the coast road tomorrow, you know."

She shrugged. Absently, her fingers stroked her forearm.

Gamon let his gaze seek the inn. "How is she?"

"She sent the wolf away."

"Sent the-sent Hishn away? Why?"

"Didn't say. But I'd say that Aranur's getting close, and she doesn't want

him to find her just yet."

Gamon's eyes narrowed. "He might have let her go when he had to face her

need so squarely, but he'd not have been able to live with that for long. I figured him for her trail within three or four days."

"It wouldn't have been an easy trail to follow."

"No," he agreed. "Unless he had a Gray One to help."

"What do you mean?"

"Hishn's mate-Gray Yoshi."

Tehena shook her head. "Aranur's never run with a wolf. What makes you

think he could do so now?"

"Aranur and Dion have been mated a long time. He can hear Hishn as well now as a first-year wolfwalker, and if he wanted to Call a wolf to help him, it's likely that one would Answer."

"All right, I'll buy that. But Yoshi? That's the one wolf who shouldn't

help."

"Have you ever seen a mated male wolf separated from his female? They mate for life, you know. There's a longing in each one that pulls it to the other, no matter how far away they are. Hishn's a strong-willed female, and she's got some hold on that gray-eared male. Yoshi might allow Hishn to run with Dion a few months, but not for much longer than that. And it's growing late into summer. He'll lose the chance to mate before long. I figure, right now, Yoshi's urge for Hishn is so strong that he'd run the nine counties to reach that gray mutt." Gamon eyed the dark road as though expecting the wolf to appear any moment. "And with Aranur to push him,"

he added, more to himself, "who knows when they'll arrive."

Tehena chewed irritably at her thin lip. "You think the raiders know that Aranur is out after Dion? Dion may be worth taking alive, but Aranur-he is worth killing."

The older man shrugged. "Aranur is careful. He knows how to keep out of sight-how not to be himself if he needs to."

"Dion doesn't."

"Aye." He glanced at the inn. "That's part of the problem, isn't it?"

Dawn was overcast again, but the heat was already gathering. By the time they reached the coastal road, the thin clouds had burned off, and they were

sticky and hot. Asuli kept her mouth shut so that Kiyun gave her wary

glances more than once, but the young woman remained silent.

The valley fields had given way to the low hills of the coast, and the villages were built more on clay and glass industries than on farming. The plains had given way almost abruptly into forest again. Mosses seemed scraggly, but the undergrowth grew more thickly where the thinner canopy let in the light. The stone road felt pressed in by the seaside.

Dion, riding up front beside Kiyun, watched the forest with wary eyes.

Even without Hishn, she felt the predators more than saw them. The senses of the other Gray Ones were thick in the back of her mind. She stretched across the distance to feel the gray wolf she knew.

Wolfwalker! the faint voice echoed back. Release yourself! Come with us.Dion looked down at her hands. They were already clenched in the saddle horn. She forced her fingers to relax. Then she shoved her mind away from Hishn's and focused on the wolves nearby. It was their senses, not Hishn's, that expanded her sense of smell and broadened her eyesight to catch each motion that occurred around them. Within half an hour she could taste the acrid scent in her nostrils as she found the predators' trail. As the wind stiffened into midmorning, the odor didn't dissipate, but strengthened instead. Dion knew the scent well. "Worlags," she breathed.

Kiyun caught her sudden tension. "Dion?"

"Worlags," she repeated. "They're close."

Kiyun signaled Gamon, and instantly the grizzled man reached down and

loosened the arrows in his quiver. Tehena followed suit. Within seconds, their bows were strung and their arrows ready.

"How many?" Kiyun asked quietly.

Dion shook her head slightly. "Can't tell." But she stretched her senses into the pack, and the Gray Ones in the east Answered.

Wolfwalker!Gray Ones, she returned.We hear your voice. We see through your eyes. You are part of the pack, Wolfwalker.

She sent them the impression she had of the beetle-beasts, and the wolves shot back a jumble of scents and sights. They had crossed the beetle-beasts'

trail the day before. Some of the acrid scents had been strong, but some had been weak as rabbit piss. Dion relaxed imperceptibly. A family pack, she told herself. There would be only a few adults.

But back beside Tehena, Asuli watched their automatic preparations with a strange expression on her face. The intern swallowed visibly. "I don't know how to use a weapon," she told Tehena, keeping her voice carefully steady.

The lanky woman barely spared her a glance. "Then keep out of my way."