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She looked fearfully out of the s Sparse stands of wind-stuntedand pine near the river cast long shadows of early evening The child stared at the grass-covered stretch of land and the sparkling water beyond for a long tie to move beyond the entrance She licked cracked lips with a parched tongue as she scanned the terrain Only the ept grass one The lioness, anxious for her young and uneasy about the unfae creature so near their cave, decided to find a new nursery

The child crept out of the hole and stood up Her head throbbed and spots danced dizzily before her eyes Waves of pain engulfed her with every step and her wounds began to ooze a sickly yellow green down her swollen leg

She wasn’t sure if she could reach the water, but her thirst was overpowering She fell to her knees and crawled the last few feet, then stretched out flat on her storeedy mouthfuls of cold water When her thirst was finally slaked, she tried to stand again, but she had reached the limit of her endurance Spots swa went dark as she sluround

A carrion bird circling lazily overhead spied the un form and swooped lower for a closer look

Read on for an excerpt from

The Valley of Horses

Book Two in the Earth’s Children® Series

by Jean M Auel

She was dead What did itrain flayed her skin raw The young wo her wolverine hood closer Violent gusts whipped her bearskin wrap against her legs

Were those trees ahead? She thought she reetation on the horizon earlier, and wished she had paid ood as that of the rest of the Clan She still thought of herself as Clan, though she never had been, and now she was dead

She bowed her head and leaned into the wind The stor down from the north, and she was desperate for shelter But she was a long way froone through a full cycle of phases since she left, but she still had no idea where she was going

North, to the ht Iza died, she had told her to leave, told her Broud would find a way to hurt her when he becaht Broud had hurt her, worse than she ever iined

He had no good reason to take Durc away froood reason to curse ry He’s the one who brought on the earthquake At least she knehat to expect this time But it happened so fast that even the clan had taken a while to accept it, to close her out of their sight But they couldn’t stop Durc froh she was dead to the rest of the clan

Broud had cursed her on ier When Brun had cursed her, the first time, he had prepared theiven her a chance

She raised her head to another icy blast, and noticed it ilight It would be dark soon, and her feet were nus despite the insulating sedge grass she had stuffed in them She was relieved to see a dwarfed and twisted pine