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What waited beyond Bulkezu’s little caher, caught on an aetherical breeze, she saw that Prince Bulkezu’s was only one ca many--more than she could count in the darkness The tents of the Quh the forest like uncounted pebbles

This wasn’t a raiding party at all It was the Qu wide around Handelburg He’d abandoned Bayan and his shattered army, left the west toward the heart of Wendar itself

The Quht Dread creatures stalked the Earth, patient and single-minded Beyond the trip lines and other protective wards, the shadows of elves waited, arrayed in hunting groups, their thwarted rage like the throb of a lute string in the air Would she never escape theliered them, or called attention to herself? Had they, like the hideous galla, learned her name?

A breath of cold air brushed her lips, like a kiss, and she ca with fear But she hadn’t ht wind had teased the entrance flap open Through the gap she saw outside into the open space between the tents It had been snowing again The tracks of the battle lay buried under a fresh blanket of snohite and pristine

The owl glided into view and came to rest on the unbroken snow It blinked once, and she knew then that it was looking right at her

She had seen this owl before This was the oho had appeared at the abandoned village, just two nights ago, before disaster had broken over them This was the owl Liath had spoken to at the palace of Werlida just as though it could understand her

She knehat it was This was the centaur woman’s owl, that Hanna had seen in her drea Silence settled like snow

Bulkezu laughed He sucked on his pipe before speaking in comprehensible Wendish "Nay, dreaded one, I will not harm the woman with the frost-white hair I fear your power too much But now she’s mine Get her back if you can"

XI

THE NOISE OF

THEIR WAKING

1

ON the first fine spring day, Adica walked down froorgeous weather had not helped her keep herher, and priround in pale yellows, blues, and violets She kept wondering where her husband was, and what he was doing

As usual, she had no trouble finding hihter, to walk down to the river where it see over so had come, and that of course meant men became infected with the Green Man’s mischief

Alain stood knee-deep in the river shallows, having challenged all co match She arrived in ti hi from the shock of the cold water A half-dozen othertheir fellows on

"Throw him in!"

"It’s more than he deserves! Hold him under!"

"Whoo! Ha! That water’s so cold it’ll be suets any pleasure out of me!"

"Well, then," called his wife froh this time of year I’ll have to please myself with them until you’re fit for use" She started a rowdy chorus of "My man can’t even walk up the path to his own house," and hing as he helped Kel out of the water He had stripped down to a sih to do so Even though Adica knew his body intimately by now, she still admired his lean hips and broad shoulders Usually she combed and braided his hair for him, but it had all corown in over the winter, thus proving to the last of the skeptics, such as they were, that he had not one drop of the Cursed Ones’ blood running in his veins

Weiwara moved over to stand beside her She held the elder twin, Blue-bud, in her arms Adica ached to hold the baby, beautiful and plump as it was, but dared not ask "You’d think you were le hi the baby to her other hip "Look, here coered out of the river and grabbed a skin cloak to wrap around himself just as Beor stalked up to the shore and stripped off his knee-length tunic