"And just what does that mean?"

He shrugged. "Dion may have ran from Aranur, but you run from men in general."

Tehena actually laughed. "You're worried that I haven't been with a man?"

"That's seven," he returned. "And you've had the opportunities."

She scowled at him. "With drunks, braggarts, and sods."

"What do you expect? Hang out with the drunks, and they're the only ones

who will proposition you. Get yourself into some decent society, and you'll

meet someone better."

"Oh, sure, Gamon. I'll just take my past and tuck it in the closet while I go visiting."

"We don't judge you by your past, Tehena."

"There's a good one," she retorted. 'Tell me another one, Gampa."

He ignored it. "We judge you," he continued, "by what you've done since

you came to Ariye."

"And what have I done?"

He looked at her set face. "You've ridden on the venges with Aranur and

Dion. You've helped train the strategists she recommended. You nursed

Dion when she was hurt. You've been her friend. Moonworms, woman,

you've helped her through more than her share of grief."

Tehena's voice was flat and hard. "It all comes down to Dion, doesn't it?

There are plenty of swords and strategists in Ariye, but only one Ember Dione. As long as she needs me, as long as she protects me from my past, I'm accepted in your county. That stableman-he practically gave us these dnu simply because we ride with the wolfwalker. No one would do something like that for me. Face it, Gamon, I have no value by myself-I'm nothing without Dion."

Gamon's voice was hard. "No one but you defines your life that way."

"No?"

"You're... efficient on your own, woman. You're straightforward. You're

loyal to Dion. You're-"

"A drug-addicted, prostituted, baby-murdering, jail rat?"

Gamon closed his mouth.

"Hard to hide the truth when I wore it on my arms."

"Most men don't even know where you came from."

"Enough of them do to see me as less than a raider."

"A man who wants intimacy won't see you that way."

"Right. And I have such a body to attract them, too."

"Make friends, Tehena. That's all it takes. You've never offered Kum-jan

to anyone in Ariye."

"What about you?"

Gamon turned to look at her, thinking she was joking. But the grin died on

his face; her expression was deadly serious.

"What about you," she repeated.

He stopped. He stared at her hard, lean face. He saw the way she rubbed her

forearms, and for a moment his memory flashed back. A lone rider whose flesh was littered with the scars of drugs and violence... That bitter voice taunting him as she waited for Aranur's judgment while her past stared all of them in the face. Gamon shook his head. "No, Tehena," he said softly.

"Not that between us."

She watched him as his body language visibly withdrew from her. Then she

turned and walked to her bedroll, lay down, and closed her eyes.

She rose at dawn and took the water bags to the stream. She cracked the ice that had formed on the tops of the bags, rinsed them out, and filled them.

Then she sat back on her heels and stared at the river. She was not surprised to turn her head and see a wolf eyeing her from the forest-the Gray Ones were always thick around Dion.

Tehena watched the wolf from the corner of her eyes. Then slowly, she straightened. The wolf didn't move. "Well, Gamon," she muttered under her breath. "Between you and Dion, I've nothing left to lose."

She turned slightly so that she faced the wolf. "Gray One," she said, her hard voice as soft as she could make it. "Hear me." The wolf shifted subtly.

Deliberately, she turned the rest of the way around.

The wolf almost faded back into the brush, but Tehena looked straight into its eyes. There was a shock in her mind of another voice-of a ringing, echoing sound. The snarl that rose in her head made her shudder, and she had to fight to keep from clenching her forearms where old scars from wolf

teeth had long since healed. There were suddenly two Gray Ones there.

"I Call you, wolf," she said hurriedly. "I Call you as the Ancients did."

The wolves snarled again.

Tehena's heart began to speed. She felt a chill on her forehead and knew

that she was suddenly sweating. Death from a blade was fast and clean;

from the wolves...The yellow eyes glinted; the white teeth gleamed. She could feel their wariness, their instinctive desire to run. She knew that there were others nearby. Human, a lupine voice returned.

"You honor me," she said automatically.

The wolf did not answer her greeting. Instead, it was suddenly closer. The

image-words were thick with emotion that choked Tehena's breath. By what right do you Call us?The snarls that struck her from the side were in her ears, not her mind. The Gray Ones seemed to move forward, and Tehena felt her heart clutch her ribs. She stayed her ground, knowing that to move was to become a deer, an eerin, to be run down and slashed to death. "By the... Right of the Wolfwalkers," she managed. "For Ember Dione."

For the wolfwalker, he returned.

"I need her. I need her to be alive-to be... To be my... " She couldn't quite force the words.She is your packleader, the wolf cut in.It had been a statement, not a question, but Tehena nodded jerkily. "She is lost, and you have to bring her back. You must Call her and give her

purpose. You have to make her want to live."

The gray voice was hard, and the wolf seemed suddenly closer. Why do you not Call her yourself, human?"I cannot."Cannot or will not? The yellow eyes gleamed, but they were neither friendly nor warm. Instead, that gaze pierced her chest.

Tehena's voice was ragged. Her words were dragged out by those eyes.

"I've made too many... mistakes in my life. I can't... can't risk making another. You have to do this for me."

You wish for us to take responsibility for you, as your pack-leader did for you before. You wish for us to help her, so that she can lead you again.

She didn't answer. She knew they could see into her mind. "You can gather the packs," she said instead. "There's time enough. We could be here another ninan."

You ask this for your sake, not hers ?

Tehena felt her heart shrink within her. "I might as well die without her. I'll die for her, if that's what you want."So you Call us and offer us blood in return. But it is your blood you offer, not hunt blood or kill.

There were suddenly too many wolves, and Tehena felt the sweat drip down her cheeks. Her voice trembled. "By the Right of the Wolfwalkers," she repeated. "By the... light of the moons and the Laws of... of Landing, I ask you to reach Dione. You have to make her live."

The yellow eyes seemed to devour her soul. You are no wolfwalker to Call to us.

The gray tide swelled; the wolves leaped forward. Tehena threw her arms up, then bit her scream into her own flesh, stifling her terror, as the gleaming teeth slashed down.

XVIII.