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"Adica!" he cried hoarsely, struggling against the jaws of Rage and Sorrow as he fought forward to throw himself down beside her crumpled body

She was already dead

White fire exploded fro open the stone loom, and sed hi the haft of Cat Mask’s spear below the point Just as he jerked back, startled, she found the memory of fire within the wood and called flame With a shout of pain and surprise, he dropped the spear and ju spear in her hand, thrust out to challenge thehtning

"I a her backed away nervously as the haft of the spear burned into nothing yet left her skin unscathed She caught the obsidian spear point as it fell and pricked her er Blood welled up

"Child! Do nothing rash!" Eldest Uncle’s shout carove behind her

She dared not turn to see hi her down Masks closed their expressions to her; she saw proud hawks, fierce panthers, snarling bears, and biting lizards Cloaks covered their shoulders, and while most of these short cloaks oven of linen, a few had the look of skin, cured and cut Some of the warriors displayed bare torsos but ils: a feather, a reed, a knife, a skull All wore tattoos along their ar fro, diamonds or dots faded to blue

Cat Mask drew a flint knife and lunged toward her

She squeezed her finger and let blood fall

Where it struck the ground, ten serpents boiled up out of the earth, hissing and coiling Cat Mask leaped back Another drop of blood spattered, and a third and a fourth Flowers swayed alarh theht-banded snake slid right over her foot, and she sprang up in dis the flowers

She unfurled her wings of fla off her

That was enough for Cat Mask’s war band To a man, they broke and ran for the river

She stuck her finger in her e of the pine wood, beside Eldest Uncle and a young-looking woman The two Ashioi threw up hands to protect their faces fro theht into her soul where they had, after all, resided all along

"So," said Eldest Uncle, looking her up and doith a char a young woman’s body "You walked the spheres You have found your answers, and your power"

"I have discovered the truth," she ad as she remelance toward thedrunkenly as the tangle of serpents raised by her blood worked their way outward through the dense growth All her clothing lay out there, surrounded by snakes

"So," said the wo beside Eldest Uncle as she, too, measured Liath, "I am not surprised at the attraction"

"Who is this?" asked Liath, looking her over, although truly it was difficult to stand confidently when she wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing The other woedly at knee length She had a powerful torso, with broad shoulders and full breasts A double stripe of red paint ran from the back of either hand all the way up her ararreen feather stuck jauntily out of the topknot she had reen eyes Her eyes, the cast of her face, seehter, the child of er in his expression as he glanced at his companion He did not seem pleased to introduce her "The-One-Who-Is-Iers boiled below the surface as father and daughter looked at each other and, as with one thought, away The wo over her arm spilled open

"That’s s, on Resuelto Ai, God! It was you, standing at the river’s edge and wearing rabbed the cloth, shook it open and, without asking permission, slid into it Properly clothed, she could speak without eet it?"