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Miralda ignored her

'Are you hungry, Little Cat?'

Alison said she'd not eaten anything warm that day'

Miralda reached for a wooden bowl 'Then you ruel' She ladled a portion for Alison and filled the other bowls There was an air of soles Miralda looked from face to face and settled on Fury

'Brother, you are of the bear totem Our new sister is of the cat totem and Adrina does not have a tote neither bear, cat nor owl in this gruelonly brother rabbit'

It seemed to Alison an odd rule She could eat Peter Rabbit but not Felix the Cat She spooned up the gruel, pleased she had not clairedients As its waric she'd felt when she first arrived in her new realirl, her father, Balduur of Gorrandfather She and her brother, Pius, fled into the wild country to the west There they had lived ast the inal inhabitants of the land

'People in these parts call thees,' Miralda said 'Yet they are the custodians of ancient knowledge They know that all things are sacred They know about the sacred pathways between the realht, whether they be animal or plant, mountain or stream'

Suddenly, Adrina burst into life

'By the Great Poof's Arse Do you really think those painted savages can teach us anything?'

Miralda stared back over the flames

'You should learn to be huht the mountain people were little better than wild beasts Then, at the Battle of Baddon Marsh, your grandfather cut the head froed my life One day I was a rich princess with fine clothes and a bodyguard of handsoitive'

Adrina's dark eyes flashed

'Are you saying I've had an easy life?Have you ever stopped to think what it is like to live in Brother Pius' household?He ood and saintly o to bed at night I neede I shall ever open theain?'