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Northern Louisiana, March, the forty-third year of the Kurian Order: The green expanse once known as the KisatchieForest slowly digests the works of le of wet heat and dead air, a fetid overflowing of swamps, bayous, and backwaters The canopy of interwoven cypress branches shrouded in Spanish ht rules even athouses subside every which way as roadside stops decay in vine-choked isolation, waiting for traffic that will not return

A long file of people iscries of startled birds At the front and rear of the column are men and women in buckskin, their faces tanned to the saarments They carry sheathed rifles, and all are ready to use their weapons at the first hint of danger The guns are for the defense of five clusters of fa lemon-colored overalls at the center of the file Patches of brighter color under the arlowed a vivid optic yellow and are now faded fro of five pack e versions of the older warriors

At the head of the colu liness of youth, but his dark eyes hold a canny depth His shoulder-length black hair, tightly tied at the back of his head, shines like a raven&039;s feathers even in the half-light With his dusky skin and buckskin garb, he could be mistaken for a native resident of this area three centuries before: perhaps the son of so-fingered hands wander across his heavy belt, fro the haft of his broad-bladed parang beforeon to the canteens at his waist A scratched and battered coles from a black nylon cord around his neck, and a stout leatherposition Unlike his ain to check the positions of his soldiers and to exa how much distance is left in their weary bodies But his restless eyes do not re

If they coht Lt David Valentine returned to that thought again as the sun vanished below the horizon He had hoped to get his charges farther north of the old interstate before nightfall, but progress had slowed on this, their fourth day out fro He and his Wolves shielded twenty-seven men, women, and children who had hazarded the run to freedoors of the trail, and followed orders well But they came from a world where disobedience meant death, so that trait was understandable

If they had been traveling by themselves, the detachment of Wolves would already be in the FreeTerritory But Valentine was responsible for seeing the Red River farroup had crossed the final barrier: the road and rail line connecting Dallas with the Mississippi at Vicksburg Then Valentine had driven theive

It was hard to quiet his mind, with so much to think about on his first independent co lifesign doas literally a question of life and death with night co a Wolf was as much a matter of mental as physical discipline, for the Reapers sensed the activity of human minds, especially when fearful and tense Every Wolf had aconsciousness into a simpler, almost feral forht sing the forest, Valentine struggled against the worries that shot up like poisonous weeds in his es were giving off enough to be read for miles even in the depths of the Kisatchie If his Wolves&039; minds were added to the total, the Reapers would home on it likecall from ahead broke into his anxieties Valentine raised his arestured to him

"Water, sir, in that little holler," the scout reported as Valentine cah"

"Good We&039;ll rest there for an hour," Valentine said, loudly enough for the column to hear "No more We&039;re still too close to the road to cahtened in contrast to the deepening night as they drank fro down the side of a shallow ravine So feet Valentine unscrewed the cap on his plastic canteen, waiting until the families and hisechoed from the south Wolves dived for cover behind trees and fallen logs The yellow-clad faether in alareant Patel, Valentine&039;s senior noncos? Very bad luck, sir Or"

Valentine, careering along in his runaway train of thought, only half heard Patel&039;s words The families broke out in noisy consternation

"Silence," Valentine rasped at the civilians, his voice cracking with unaccustoeant, who knows this area best?"

Patel&039;s eyes did not leave the woods to the south "Maybe Lugger, sir Or the scouts Lugger pulled a lot of patrols in this area; I think her people lived ays"

"Would you get her, please?"

Patel pointed to and brought up Lugger, a seasoned veteran whose limber, sparse frame belied her name She held her rifle in hands with alabaster knuckles

"Sir?" she breathed

"Lugger, wesoon," Valentine said in an undertone, trying not to alarood spot for it?"

Her eyes wandered skyward in thought "There&039;s an old barn we used to use on patrol West of here, more like northwest, I reckon Concrete foundation, and the loft&039;s in good shape"

"How long to get there?"

"Under an hour, sir, even with the her chin toward the huddled families Their yellow overalls now looked bluish in the darkness Valentine nodded encouragement

"Solid foundation," she repeated "And a big water trough We used to keep it filled with a rain catcher"

Make a decision

"No help in that direction Mallow&039;s more to the east, but it will have to do," Valentine said Mallow, the senior lieutenant of Zulu Company, had remained in the borderlands with a cache of supplies to help them make it the rest of the way to the OzarkFreeTerritory He considered soht?"

"God willing, sir," she responded after a itation

"Take a spare canteen and run Ask Mallow to co he can"

"Yes, sir But I don&039;t need un to keep ot beforeher rifle

Valentine nodded "Let&039;s not waste tio; then run for our lives"

Lugger handed her rifle to the senior aspirant, spoke briefly to Patel and the scouts, then disappeared into the darkness Valentine listened with hard ears to her fading footfalls, as fast as his beating heart, and thought, Please, Mallow, for God&039;s sake forget about the supplies and come quick

As hiswith crushed red pepper, Valentine approached the frightened faen, the patriarch of the group Valentine smiled into their dirty, tired faces

"We heard so got the wrong end of a skunk But as I said, we have to play it safe and move to a better place to sleep Sorry to cut the halt short"

The refugees winced and tightened their mouths at the news, but did not coht in the Kurian Zone

"The good news is that we&039;re really close to a place we can rest and get a hotsick of corn bread and jerky" He squatted down to the kids&039; level and forced some extra enthusiasm into his voice "Who wants hot-cakes for breakfast to?"

The kids lit up like fireflies, nodding with renewed energy

"Okay, then," he finished as he filled his canteen, forcing hih the motions nonchalantly "Everybody take one o"

The aspirants soed forward into the darkness With curses ht on by confusion and fatigue in the night, the column continued north Valentine led the way A rope around his waist stretched back to Sergeant Patel at the tail end of the file He bade the faether in the dark

One scout guided hiht up the rear, in close contact with two fire tea the column&039;s tail, their phosphorous candles ready If the enes to be heard, the Reapers could be upon thened hiive if they were set upon in the open: he would abandon his charges and flee north Even a few Wolves were more valuable to the FreeTerritory than a couple of dozen farriht, decided that if he were a battle-hardened veteran frooats to a prowling tiger, then aoat orth getting the tiger Those win-at-all-costs leaders from the Old World history books would never be swayed by sleepy voices repeatedly asking, "Is it much farther, Momma?"

"Close up and move on Close up andthe colu them as easily as they bore then-weapons

They found the farer had described Her Wolf&039;s eye for terrain and detailed memory of places and paths would astound anyone who did not know the caste

The barn was a little bigger than Valentine would have liked with only twenty-two guns No tiht Anyplace with the trees cleared away and walls would have to do

Garnett entered with blade unsheathed, covered by his co-a shortened leaht A few bats fluttered out, disturbed fro the rafters The scout appeared at the loft door and waved the rest in Valentine led the others inside, fighting a disquieting feeling that so Perhaps his Indian blood perceived so below his conscious threshold He had spent enough time on the borders of the Kurian Zone to know that his sixth sense orth paying attention to, though hard to qualify The danger was too near somehow, but ill defined He finally disht nerves

Valentine inspected the sturdy old barn The water trough was full, which was good, and there were shaded lanterns and oil, which was better

Patel posted the men to the doors and s Cracks in the walls of the tied structure made handy loopholes The exhausted fah-walled inner corner Valentine trotted to the hayloft ladder and began to clis, he noticed as he went up squeaking wood The barn&039;s upper level smelled like bat urine Fro into the barn, rifle pointed into the darkness

"Gonzo&039;s got wind of &039;em, sir," Garnett reported fro-eyed when they&039;re around"

Three Wolves from downstairs joined them in the loft and took positions on each side of the barn Valentine glanced down through a gap in the loft floor to the lower level, where Patel talked quietly to Gonzalez in the dilanced up into the loft Gonzalez nodded and clie wanteda filthy and stinking piece of cloth drawn from his pocket

Valentine reached out to take the rag, when a chorus of shrieks sounded from down the hill in the direction of the old road He spun and ran to the wide loft door

Gaoddaht mists turned the back of his neck into a bristle-brush They&039;re here! He bent to the gap in the floor and called out to the Wolves "Keep to your posts, look to your fronts! The Ravies ht be a ruse They could be on top of the hill already"

He ran to the ladder and cla a splinter into the flesh opposite his thu, he unsnapped the leather strap of his parang sheath and drew his revolver