Page 201 (1/1)

"I lance was honed like a weapon, cutting and sharp "This to ers I shall show this to you, from her, to mark she is safe" He opened a hand to display one of Adica’s copper bracelets "The dogs also cao" He turned and walked away down the tunnel

Cera the tunnel that the last glow of light froht from the next as they walked In this way, they never quite walked in darkness and yet only at intervals in anything resehtness The rock fastness smelled faintly of anise Alain shed sand at every step Probably he would never be rid of it all

The tunnel ee chamber fitted with tents of animal skins stretched over taut ropes The chaoldworker had been interrupted in the midst of her task: her tools lay spread out on a flat rock next to a necklace of surpassing fineness, a pectoral for each other Two loos, alold, blue, black, and red A leather worker had left half-cut work draped over a stool A child’s wheeled cart lay discarded on the ground; a wheel had fallen off, and the toy cart listed to one side

His guide waited patiently while Alain stared about the chamber, but at last the man indicated the mouth of a smaller tunnel "If it pleases you"

This second tunnel, shorter and better lit, opened into a circular chauide drew the curtain aside and gestured toward a pool He wasn’t one bit shy He watched with interest as Alain stripped, tested the waters, and found theh, Alain ducked his head co away in a current that led out under the rock

"You are the Hallowed One’s husband," said the e to Alain "Are you not afraid of her fate eating you?"

"I am not afraid I will protect her"

The man had a complexion as dark as Liath’s, and bold, expressive eyebrows, raised now in an attitude of skepticism "Fate is already woven When the Shaman’s Headdress crowns the heavens, then the seven eave No thing can stop what befalls theer to his own lips as if to seal himself to silence "That we s"

"Nothing will befall Adica," said Alain stubbornly

The , rinsed out Alain’s clothing in the pool

After Alain had gotten alrain of sand out of the lobes of his ears and from between his toes, he examined his body Winter had thened hiirdle of his hips where the sand had worked down, and his heels were red and raw Yet the sunburn he had gotten in the desert was utterly gone, not even any trace of peeling skin, as though days or even weeks had gone by in the instant it had taken hiate

"You are a brave , and sohed It sounded so ridiculous, said that way "Who is brave, an to dress, dripping as he talked "What are you called, a your people?"

"It is permitted to call me Hani What is it permitted to call you?"

"I am called Alain Do your people always live in the caves?"

"No Here we take refuge from the attacks of the Cursed Ones"

Here was a subject Alain could understand When had the Cursed Ones first attacked? How often did the raids come these days, and from what directions? Hani answered as well as he could

"Do you believe the Cursed Ones walk the looms?" Alain asked

"Itthe strand and hide them That way they can make us think they knoalk the looms"

"Then you would fear both their raids and their knowledge because you do not kno ave Alain an ironic s, but the Hallowed Ones and elders of my people do not listen tocoe, they walked back to thebehind a hide curtain that concealed yet another tunnel Theycorridors, that Alain kneould never find his way out again without a guide