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"You want to talk about it?"

"You want to be tossed into the sewage?"

"Shutting up now"

The next few moments were tense and silent, and e came to a jumble of femurs, I hopped back over to the other side of the water

"What are you doing?" he asked

"The silence is so thick over there I couldn’t breathe Figured the air ht be a little more clear on this side of the crap river"

He failed to hold in a chuckle and leaped toThe Brigands of Ruin are patriarchal, which means leadership is expected to pass from father to son Follow?"

"Got it"

"My Abyssinian h to bewitch my father and leave me behind, which means I have less status and don’t fit the pattern I have always been rather a disappoint bludweasel with champion bloodlines" I cleared my throat, and he smirked "Pardon the comparison In any case, e him for leadership, but everyone knoould be horrible at it The obvious choice would be for ebad were to happen to either of us So we’re all bound by ridiculous traditions, and no one can do what he wishes" He reached back to help me over a little avalanche of broken stone "But he is still a nasty little bludweasel"

"So run away"

Vale snorted "Everyone half hopes I will But that’s the thing As much as I don’t wish to be responsible for dozens of families and a hundred mares, I love etting on everyone’s nerves andthe slavers will just shootwill be over"

I turned and put a hand on his shoulder, stopping hi unsuited to your expected role"

He cocked his head, considering

"At least, that’s what uidance counselor told h school Wouldn’t it be better to just make the choice and leave and have it be over with?"

Vale looked down, face lit by the green glow "Not if I have to see my father’s heart break when I tell hied hie After a few footsteps, he went on, voice low and sad "When I was ten, I asked hio stay with my mother, learn more about her people and their ways, and he turned me over his knee and whipped and of Ruin had ever asked to leave the tribe before but also because it showed the people I would one day lead that I didn’t feel proper responsibility for their safekeeping That I would leaveupI could have done to him Emasculated by a weak son, disappointed in his firstborn, and then the poor man had tomuch like his mare "I don’t think either of us can withstand a repeat of that night No amount of freedom is worth that price Not that he could whip ine a tiny version of Vale going through the regular preteen rebellion I couldn’t help ss, after that?" I asked him

"Ah, yes The fallout You see, after that, I had to proveto save even more face on behalf of myself and my family It was sialloped away on their next raid, I took up ear and slipped away to capturea chunk ofa wobbly little filly behind h careful training and ritual before they bring home their first horse, and I skipped all that and just took what I wanted, tihed and rubbed the back of his head, the rasp of skin on stubble the only sound in the tunnel and one I already recognized even though I couldn’t see it "Best mares in the camp, and I’d pulled it off four years before tradition allowed"

"And then?"

"And then he beatthe law And compli at rand rebellion had just convinced the camp that I was the one who must lead them one day"

"Is there no other choice? No other role you could fulfill?"

He held up his fingers, counting thestock? Stewappeals"

"But what do you want to do? With your life?"

He exhaled raggedly, leaped over the water, and ricocheted off the far bank and back toa beat As if I didn’t even exist, he started er I scurried behind hi on bits of rock and bone

"Vale, what?"