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At the top, she passes the remains of a burned shelter, mostly ash and the bones of branches now, and heads toward the sroup huddled outside the stone circle: the five surviving Horse people, already outfitted for travel, and one sobbing young ht of the blasted, fallen stones stuns her The bronze cauldron lies in a misshapen luht nothing could hurt as e and the bodies of her friends and kinsfolk, but one thing hurtsout, antler headdress thrown askew No mark mars her body, except of course for the old burn scar on her cheek She looks so young

The twins stir Wrinkled-old-er, makes a fist to pound on his irl whose life Alain brought back fro to the Other Side, wails as she wakes She is often fussy, the kind of baby who flinches at bright light yet sobs if she wakes in the dark of night The young lances up at the sound

"Mother Weiwara!" Kel has dug soround and now he leaps up to show her folded gar ht with hione, and so are his spirit guides Even the staff I carved hih streaked with dried blood, he took no wound in the battle None, that is, except the wound of grief

The gray centaur paces forward, grave but deter her walk aard Dried blood coats her flanks After a polite courtesy, she speaks, but the words, such as they are and inter to Weiwara

The wind changes, blowing suddenly out of the east An owl skiht Mist spins upward froasps aloud The twins quiet Weiwara drops to her knees as she sees aive iven no offense I have come for the infant, the elder twin"

"The baby?" After so much sorrow, can she accept more?

The Holy One’s voice is as melodious as that of a stream heard far off, touched with the waters ofour people We will teach her, and her children, and her children’s children, the secrets of our ic This bond between your people andas she has descendants, for it is in this way that I can honor Adica, as dear to me"

Even as herthat she cannot say "no" to the Holy One, knowing that she cannot bear to say "yes," a cold whisper teases her ear One infant will be easier to cope with than two In such a ti on and their food stores likely burned, feeding till be a terrible hardship, and there is Useti to consider as well, weaned early to er ones Blue-bud was never hers anyway, not really She belonged to the spirits fro

But her lips refuse to form the words of acceptance She has loved and succored the child for many months now "What of my people, Holy One ? We have no Hallowed One to watch over us any longer"

"Are not twins favored in the eyes of the power you call the Fat One? Let the younger twin bepath I will see to his training rown he will stand as Hallowed One to all the Deer people"

Mist twines around the stones A cold wind rises out of the north, le to survive a the ruins The spell the Hallowed Ones wove rid the world of the Cursed Ones, so it seems, but she has only to look out over the scorched forest to see that it touched every soul here on Earth with its awful power

The Holy One continues, as if she understands Weiwara’s hesitation "My cousins will bring the infant girl to me They will suckle her as they would their own child She will be safe and well cared for with them, as if she has five hters, here a the Horse people You need have no fear that yours will suffer any neglect Have you a name that is meant to be hers when she is older?"

"Kerayi," Weihispers, not even knowing she meant to say those words, alh her lips

Sos’ka e, now that she thinks about it, that all the centaurs she has ever seen are female