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Why wasn’t the sun rising beyond the stones? He saw it, swollen and hazy, riding low over the indistinct palisade in a blaze of vivid red-gold S the distant trees

Nauseated, he lay back, and after ain his head, he heard the clash of battle "What happened?"

"You were hit in the head by a stone"

It was a struggle to recall what had happened "They’ve broken through on the east slope, by the sacred threshold!" He got up to his feet before she could stop hi himself on one of the hounds before he could fall It was hard to tell which one; he couldn’t quite focus

"Adica?" He turned, and saw her

She had bound on her gold antlers and bronze waistband, the regalia of a Holy One, a woman of power He could still hear the battle, but the sun now set in the west

"How long?" he demanded hoarsely Where once had lain the birch shelter where they had slept, andon the dusk breeze

"All day," she said "We’ve held them off all day"

At what cost?

He saw, then, that what he had first thought was the setting sun was in truth the village in fla or fallen in The palisade had been breached in a dozen spots; in some places fire had eaten it away Bodies filled the ditches, pinned on stakes or siers, but what re the tuh Yet as desperately as they fought, the White Deer people fought limpse of Sos’ka down by the cleft Streaked with blood, she vanished in a hail of spears The other hound ghosted in just as he sagged forward, and he caught hi shoulder

"Are they all dead? Did I lie here all day, while they died?"

Behind hihters broke out of the village in the afternoon to try to reach this place When the attack came, Weiwara led the children and old people into the forest I rant them invisibility I hope some made it It will be safer for them there"