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Evvy looked at the pots She wasn’t quite sure what to say, or do "Where did she find the Then he told Evvy, "There is a place on the Ice Naga -- what you call the Snow Serpent River -- to the west, like the … fort … that fell down, only with more -- You do not like it when I call your people meat creatures What do you call them?"

"Humans," Evvy said "Or people"

"People can be anyone," Luvo argued "Diban Kangmo and her kin are people, as are the ice lions, the cave snakes, the nagas, the deep runners, we s?"

Evvy nodded

"The place like a fort where athered just now It is a place that reaches for the sky in spirit, and the humans who live there all of the ti tubes and metal plates"

"It’s a temple, maybe," Evvy said "I heard Parahan say that the first stop on the Snow Serpent Road was the Temple of the Thunder Horses"

"That is where she found your food"

"Did the hu if she was the only one to screaiant peak spider

Luvo sounded amused "No one sees the spirit people of this realm if those people do not desire it They prefer quiet lives Stop asking questions, Evumo, Evvy crawled over to the pots All of the it down It soothed her dry and raw throat She then turned her attention to the food, scooping up the barley-flour balls called tsa them into her mouth These had butter and s out Today they tasted better than anything she had eaten in her life, even her beloved fried eggplant Another pot contained spicy rice curry with lamb She alternated handfuls of that with the tsampa until she could eat no more Only when she couldn’t even look in the other pots to see as there because she was so full did she lurch to her feet and go to the great stretch of water near her resting place

"I’ to wash" Since she was fairly sure he wouldn’t knohat dirty was, she explained, "I’ and sweat I don’t nor them off layer by layer It didn’t occur to her to be shy A talking rock and a giant spider were hardly the sorts toher skin "I wish I had clean things" It was hard to tell in the green light fro spots everywhere, but she was nearly certain there was blood on soiven that she had taken the garments from the dead

The water was very cold After all of the cold-water baths we took as we traveled, I should be used to this, she thought gloomily, but I’m not

The memory of her cats, seated to watch on countless stream banks as she and Rosethorn yelped in cold waters, struck her like a knife stab She sat on the bottom of the cave lake and silently let her tears flow

At last she began to drag her fingers through her knotted hair Once it was straight again and fairly clean, she lurched up onto dry land

Her dirty clothes were gone Beside her reen-tinted colors

"There is an enclosed place," Luvo said as she approached "It is like the ‘temple’ place for the Thunder Horses, but it is for my mountain and those of s for the huht lamps and bow up and down as you do, only , too"

Evvy gave hiht smile "The huods They think you three are the husbands of the Sun Queen"

"Ridiculous!" Luvo said "The sun is not even part of this world!"

Evvy knelt cluh the pile Soon she wore audy silk robes lined with fur Soht away several pairs of breeches that fit once she had rolled them up, and two pairs of fur-lined boots She could wear one pair Once she was clothed, she drank soain

The western army, made up of over five hundred tribesmen, priests and priestesses, and sha carts, arrived around noon as Briar was brewing ht word of the new arrivals, but Briar was busy keeping the greatest strength of his potions fro off Once, when he took a rest, he walked up onto the wall to a view of ht alone made hie stone tiger if it would let hie child returned later to let Briar and the other healers know that a er had arrived from the east Briar was not interested He could not feel Rosethorn’s approach With Evvy’s death, he doubted the east held any good news for hih he was done for the day, Briar refused it He o somewhere private to eat But Souda marched into the workshop as he finished his cleanup and seized hi," she said firuments" She did not release him until they were inside the tent that she and Parahan seemed to use as an audience chamber Guards had set dishes on the carpet Cushions were strewn all around the into his mouth with a piece of flatbread