Page 68 (1/1)

Unlike his kinsift of patience, and he fell back to walk beside Alain to teach him neords: the names of trees, the parts of the body, the different tools and the type of stone they were made of Beor strode at the front with various colance back toward Alain But unlike an arrow, a glance could not prick unless you let it Beor e, but he could never do any other hare feasted that evening on fish, venison, and a potage of barley mush flavored with herbs and leaves from the forest, sweetened by berries Urtan ate with his family, his wife Abidi and his children Urta and a toddler who didn’t see Alain to eat with the unmarried men, all of them except Beor little more than youths Adica ate by herself, off to one side, without coo over to her, Kel grabbed hi that it wasn’t perhtly and looked away The burn scar along her cheek looked rather like a congealed spider’s web, running froht ear down around the curve of the jawline to fade al, so cleanly healed that it merely looked an declai a war story, he went on at length Was he boasting? Kel and Tosti started to yawn, and Adica rose suddenly in the e Alain wanted to follow her, but he wasn’t sure if such a thing was permitted At last, Beor finished his tale It was tiiven him a place to sleep beside them but at the opposite end of the h to welcome sleep, but when he rolled himself up in the furs allotted hiroped and found the offending pebbles, but they weren’t stones at all but some kind of necklace It hadn’t been there earlier

At dahen he woke, he hurried outside to get enough light to see: so out sleepily behind hiift, and called out to the others, and they teased Alain cheerfully, all but Beor, who stalked off

Down by the village gates, Adica was already up, perforateway, perhaps a charlanced up He couldn’t see her face clearly, but her stance spoke to hihtened her back self-consciously, the curve of her breasts under her bodice, the swaying of her string skirt as she walked froe It was difficult not to be distracted by theskirt

Kel and Tosti laughed outright and clapped hiifts and woe, even in the afterlife

He had co that er had to honor the vows pledged between hier served the Lady of Battles With a sesture h

That day they hoisted the poles they’d cut the day before into place in the new palisade Once, Beor neglected to brace while Alain was filling in dirt around a newly upright pole, and the resultant tumble caused two poles to co from one of the older men

Alain went doith Kel and Tosti to the river afterward to wash "Come!" shouted Kel just before he dove under the water "Good!" he added, when he caood"

Alain was distracted by the sight of the tue, the river cut so close below the earthworks that the raht out of the water except for a thin strand of pebbly beach from which the le, but soht above nevertheless, a wink like gold The twisting angle of the earthworks reminded him of the battle where he had fallen He heard Thiadbold’s cries as if a ghost whispered in his ear The past haunted hio, he had wandered off the height in a daze, following Adica He hadn’t really looked

Stung by curiosity and foreboding, he began to cliood-huot over the first earthwork and headed for the next, with real apprehension But no one followed hi and he heard the hoot of an owl, although the sun hadn’t yet set Where it sank in the west, clouds gathered, diffusing its light The stones gleamed He ran, with the hounds beside him, sure he would see his comrades, the Lions, fallen beside their Qu,away under wind and sun