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At last Roger turned and gave the child to Jamie

"Who is your Lord and Savior?"

"Jesus Christ," he answered without hesitation, and the baby was handed on to me

"Do you trust in him?"

I looked down into the face of innocence, and answered for it "I do"

He took the cradleboard, gave it to the grand of juniper into the bowl of water, sprinkled water on the baby’s head

"I baptize you--" he began, and stopped, with a sudden panicked glance atthe sprig of juniper again

"I baptize you, Alexandra, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen"

After the small band of Christians had left, there were no ht us wood for the fire, and so nothing

"Do you think they’ll kill us?" Roger asked suddenly, after a period of silence His mouth twitched in an attempted smile "Kill me, I suppose I mean Presumably the two of you are safe"

He didn’t sound worried Looking at the deep shadows and lines in his face, I thought that he was simply too exhausted to be afraid anyh the tangle of my hair I dimly realized that I, too, was exhausted; I had been without sleep for more than thirty-six hours

"I started out to tell you I spent last night in Tewaktenyonh’s house The Council of Mothers ; they never would But at the end of the long hours of cerelish had told me as much as they wanted me to know, before they sentht it back to the village yesterday, and started to drink The wo dishonest, that they thought the bargain was alreadythem, just before they lit the fire to--to execute the priest A fight broke out, and so led to another" I rubbed a hand hard over h to speak

"A er "They think you killed hi with tiredness

"I don’t know I--probably What will they do about it?"

"Well, it took the time to decide, and it isn’t settled yet; they’ve sent word to the main Council, but the sachem hasn’t made a decision yet" I took a deep breath

"They won’t kill you, because the whisky was taken, and that was offered as the price of your life But since they’ve decided not to kill us in revenge for their dead, what they usually do instead is to adopt an enemy into the tribe, in replaceer out of his numbness

"Adopt me? They want to keep me?"

"One of us One of you I don’t suppose I’d be a suitable replacement, since I’m not a man" I tried to sone nuer’s head jerked up, startled

"You’ve said yourself; if the past canna be changed, then nothing will happen to ed, I will escape and come home"

He laid a hand on my arm before I could protest

"You and Ian will take MacKenzie back to Brianna" He looked at Roger, his face inscrutable "After all," he said quietly, "it’s the two of you she needs"

Roger started in at once to argue, but I butted in

"May the Lord deliver lared at the two of them "They haven’t decided yet That’s only what the Council of Mothers says So there’s no sense in arguing about it until we know for sure And speaking of knowing things for sure," I said, in hopes of distracting them, "where’s Ian?"

Jamie stared at me

"I don’t know," he said, and I saw his throat ripple as he sed "But I hope to God he’s safe in that girl’s bed"

No one cah none of us slept well I dozed fitfully, through sheer exhaustion, waking every time there was a sound outside, my dreams a vivid crazy-quilt of blood and fire and water

It wasMy heart leapt as I recognized one of them, and Jamie was on his feet before the door flap lifted

"Ian? Is that you?"

"Aye, Uncle It’s me"

His voice sounded odd; breathless and uncertain He stepped into the light froh I had been punched in the stomach

The hair had been plucked from the sides of his skull; as left stood up in a thick crest fro down his back One ear had been freshly pierced and sported a silver earring

His face had been tattooed Double crescent lines of small dark spots, most still scabbed with dried blood, ran across each cheekbone, to , Uncle," Ian said He looked pale, under the lines of tattooing, but stood erect "I said they one white to the lips