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The cave sh to disturb the hounds, anted to find the source of the scent Abruptly, Shevros’ shield vanished Alain crawled after hih the dusty tunnel, which dipped down and rose up, e into the le of growth He could barely see the sky through the skein of branches above, but a person standing on the ridge certainly would not be able to see the people scuttling along underneath Broken thorns crunched beneath his feet as he followed Shevros down a dietation They waited until the others joined thealleos

They went on, careful of hands and shoulders as the slope steepened In this way, they headed down into the ravine Alain had his hands fullwall of thorns After Maklos had eased his passage through a tight opening a hand’sman and even went so far as to lick his face, which alleos trailed at the rear, often lost beyond twists and turns How much labor had it taken Shu-Sha’s tribe to cut this labyrinth under the thorns?

Shevros halted at a crossroads to wait and, as if divining Alain’s aic is strong" Then he scrambled on, bent over like a hunched old ht-hand fork

Alain’s hand was beginning to hurt again, but he gritted his teeth against the pain and went on

They e a depression dug alongside a huge boulder that brought the jumble of boulders and scree wider across than an arrow’s shot, the tail end of a massive avalanche that had ripped down the western slope and torn through the thorny cover Alain expected to hear the windexcept silence, but all he heard was the scritch of Agalleos’ feet as the man walked forward to survey the devastation It was still h that the eastern slope of the valley remained in shadow The calls and answers of the Cursed Ones’ scouts rang in the air as they continued their search down the eastern ridge Sun crept steadily down the broad western side of the valley; it would reach the fro hot day

"Coestured

The fall of rocks, tumbled, fallen, shattered, loose shale and streaer brethren,It was hard to be quiet as they crunched over pebbles, negotiated a field of boulders as big as sheep, and squeezed through clefts ainst the next Shevros knew the twisty, dusty lanes well; he led the Had he spent his entire life, froame of life or death, one step ahead of the Cursed Ones? Alain could not think of the child who had swung down before the to be sent out already on the hunt, to be trained for nothing but war

No plants greithin the rockfall except for an occasional dusting of lichen No birds flitted to catch his attention But there was one sign of hues, caught around a jagged line of sight, scattered out in the open, lay huers, scattered by wind and erosion or caught in spring streaht cutting down The rocks grew hot to the touch as they picked their way forward, bearing on a diagonal line upslope

"Why are they called the Screa Rocks?" Alain asked at last when they paused to catch their breath in the shadow of a leaning slab of rock, soer torn loose from the escarpment above He let the hounds lap water out of his cupped hands, their dry tongues eager on his palht there would be pipes in the rock, soalleos sone ahead to keep watch Alain saw a corner of his kilt flapping out as the breeze caught it; otherwise, the young uard the rear

"It is not the wind that screamed here In reat city of my people, the one built in the ti these rocks for days It was the men who screamed, the ones who had been cut down, injured, left for the scorpions or the crows, left to die of thirst in the sun, because no one could reach them"

"Who won?"