touch the wolfwalker.

The intern's lips compressed. "You don't want me to see the wound because it's already infected, is that it?"

"Think what you want."

"I think you want to die, Healer, but you haven't the guts to kill yourself

quickly; you'll let the jellbugs do it for you. It will just be a matter of time."

"It's always a matter of time, Asuli-time to live or die. Time is nothing more than a measure of moments between memories."

Asuli stared at her. There was something in Dion's eyes that caught her

attention. "You're doing it, aren't you?" she said slowly. "What you did before-in Prandton? Only you're doing it to yourself now. That's why you think you can't get jellbugs."

"I'm no longer a healer for you to harass. Go find some other amusement."

"Teach me."

"You can't see through your own eyes, Asuli. How can you think to see

through mine?"

"Or through the eyes of the wolves?"

"The Gray Ones require wolfwalkers with love and empathy, not hatred and

aggression."

The intern's face shuttered. Abruptly, she stood up and walked back to her saddle, where she dropped to watch Dion from across the clearing. She could feel her frustration jelling into hard determination. She breathed the words almost silently as she spoke to the air between them. "You might not like me near you, Dione, but no one else ever has either. Your disdain will

not be enough to get me off your back. I'll have my internship, Dione. I'll

take it from you if I have to save you myself to get what I want."

As if she somehow heard the words, the wolfwalker eyed the other woman, then turned her back and slept.

The Gray Ones came for Dion at dawn, and she woke as they slunk up to the camp. Kiyun, on guard, watched them come. They edged around him warily but waited while he handed the wolfwalker one of the ash-baked tubers. Her hands trembled when she took the cooked root. Kiyun hesitated.

He could feel the terrible rage that was consuming her from the inside out.

"Dion," he breathed. He touched her hand. She suffered the touch, but barely. When he met her eyes, he felt a chill. Abruptly, he stepped back.

When Dion slipped silently out of camp, Asuli sat up. The intern eyed Kiyun thoughtfully. "Why don't you go with her?" she asked.

"She needs to be alone. I'll not take that last thing from her."

"She's alone whether she's with us or not."

Kiyun didn't answer.

Asuli got up irritably and put her gear together. "We're barely a day from the Colton villages. When will we buy her another dnu? Or will she simply walk all the way back to Ariye?"

Kiyun looked down at the fire and stirred the ashes to see if there was a

spark. His voice was soft. "She may not go back to Ariye."

"She's Ariyen-at least ever since she mated with Aranur. Where else would she go?"

"She could stay here. Her heart is still Randonnen."

"She has obligations. She can't just quit her duties. The council wouldn't let

her."

Tehena, awakened when Asuli spoke, got up and packed her bedroll.

"When Dion speaks, the elders listen. When Dion doesn't speak, the elders still listen. She's not part of the council; she's the voice of the wolves and the wilderness. She's bound by her sense of duty, nothing else. She can walk away when she wants to."

"As she is doing now."

Tehena shrugged. "She has that right."

"She had no right to abandon the people who rely on her. That's selfishness,

not self-preservation."

The other woman spat to the side.

Asuli eyed her, then packed her gear in silence.

They reached the Colton villages by late afternoon. It wasn't a large town,

but rather a series of small hubs separated by fields and streams that cut through the small farming valley. There was a commons house, but half of it was a stable, and the other half was being used as storage for bales of fabrics that were being packed for transport to other towns.

NeCrihu, the stableman, was as tall as Kiyun and broader, if that was possible. Wiping his hands on a lice rag, he met them in the stable courtyard. He didn't offer to grip arms with them, but it was not an insult.

Instead, he looked them over without speaking, his dark brown gaze lingering on Dion's face and the glint of yellow that clung to her eyes. His steady eyes noted the line of lesser tan on her forehead where she had worn the healer's circlet, then a warcap. He didn't smile at the way Tehena

shifted almost protectively in front of the wolfwalker; instead, stuffing the

lice rag in his pocket, he said calmly, "You're looking for dnu?"

"Two trail dnu with staying power," Tehena said tersely. "That one, there -" She indicated the beast hitched to the currying post. "-is fine. And one more for carrying supplies."

"You're taking the ridge route to Changsong? Or the north marsh route through the valley?"

Tehena glanced at Dion. "Ridge route," she said.

He followed her gaze, but he was already shaking his head. "I've no dnu to sell you."

"Why?" Tehena's eyes narrowed. "You think we're raiders?"

The dnuman shook his head. "You, perhaps. Not them."

Tehena didn't smile.

"I'll not sell to you," neCrihu repeated. "But I'll loan you the beasts till you

get to Changsong." He walked to the barn. Taking a message ring from a bin, he wrapped a couple knots in the already prepared stick, cut it with the carving knife hanging by the door, and handed the stick to Gamon. "Give this to neCollen, in Changsong. He'll sell you something there to ride, and send these back to me."

"How much?" Tehena asked.

He shook his head. "I'll not take gold from you."

"You'd loan them to us, not rent them?"

NeCrihu glanced meaningfully at Dion. His voice was soft. "Ember Dione

is one of ours."

"And that's enough?"

"Here, yes."

Tehena's lips tightened, but Kiyun touched her arm. Abruptly, she nodded.

Evening found them out of the valley and back into the mountains. There,

the north forests were thick and the old roads rough as the back of a worlag.

The next night found them up on a ridge. Clouds gathered one day, then burned away; gathered again the next. A single wagon caravan passed them on the road; the wagoneers stopped, and Gamon and Kiyun spoke with them at length. Then the forest was silent again.