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The tunic draped loosely over his chest, falling to just above his knees Aly, he stood as tall as Beor The southern tribes, and the Cursed Ones, commonly stood shorter than the people of the Deer clans Only the Horse people, with their bodies made half of huh a co, he indicated hiue and then another, and he laughed suddenly, very sweetly, and she looked into his eyes and smiled at him, but she was first to look away Fire flared in her cheeks; her heart burned in her He was not precisely handsome He looked very different than the men she knew His features were rather narrowed, his forehead a little flatter, his cheek was marked with the blemish, and his hair was almost as dark as that of the Cursed Ones, but as fine as spun flax

He spoke his nas barked as if to answer him

"Halahn," she said

"Alain," he agreed good-naturedly

"I am named Adica," she said "Ah-dee-cah"

Her name was easier for him to say than his had been for her When she smiled at him, this time he was the one who blushed and looked away

"What estured toward the heap of gar broken Underneath it rested a peg no longer than a finger that reseether joints at the corners of houses The peg had been fashioned by ic out of the sas

The rusty red of old blood stained the tiny nail Like the knife, it, too, had a soul, crabbed and devious and even a little whiny in the way of a spoiled child

He choked out a sound as he staggered backward and dropped to his knees Did he fear the nail’s soul, or had it felled hinance? She quickly concealed it in the pouch With an effort he got up, but only to retreat to the edge of the loouardian stones, shoulders bowed as under the weight of a powerful earrave next to the bronze sword and armor she had taken from the Cursed One Finally, she returned to his followed obediently behind her Now and again he spoke to the dogs in a gentle voice He halted beside the shelter to exas and branches, the hide walls, the pegs and leather thongs that held everything in place

"This is where I sleep," she said

He slance away Had the Holy One seen right into her heart? Impulsively, she leaned into him and touched her cheek to his He s His scant beard was as soft as petals

Startled, he leaped back His cheeks were so red and she was so overcome by her own rudeness, and the speed of her attraction to him, that she hurriedly clie and the fields, the river and the woodland and beyond these the distant ancient forest, home to beasts and spirits and every s barked She looked back to see the him after her He slapped at their e jaws, but he followed her, pausing halfway up to examine the slope of the rampart and exposed soil, and to study the layout of the hill and the span of earthworks that ringed it Then he halted beside her to survey the village below, ringed by the low stockade, the people working the fields, the lazy river, and a distant flock at the edge of the woodlands that would either be young Urta with her goats or Deyilo, who shepherded his family’s sheep

He spoke a rush of words, but she understood nothing except his excitee and started down, half sliding in the dirt in his haste She watched him at first, the way he raceful He wasn’t brawny like Beor, all power and no grace, the bull ra in the corral, yet neither had he Dorren’s reticentall the parts necessary to an adult’s labor He was young and whole, and she wanted hily for more about him, that scent of roses, that she couldn’t explain even to herself

Hastily, she followed, and he had the good alia that she was the Hallowed One of this tribe and therefore due respect No adult carelessly insulted a hallowed adult of any tribe