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“Is it all right if Rydag touches the horse?” Latie said “He can’t talk, but I knoants to” Rydag always caused people to react with surprise Latie was used to it

“Jondalar!” Ayla cried in a hoarse whisper “That child, he could be my son! He looks like Durc!”

He turned, and opened his eyes in stunned surprise It was a child of mixed spirits

Flatheads—the ones Ayla always referred to as Clan—were aniht of by many as “abominations,” half-animal, half-human He had been shocked when he first understood that Ayla had given birth to a mixed son The mother of such a child was usually a pariah, cast out for fear she would draw the evil aniive birth to such abominations Some people didn’t even want to ad with people was more than unexpected It was a shock Where had the boy come from?

Ayla and the child were gazing at each other, oblivious to everything around theht They are usually big-boned and muscular Even Durc wasn’t this thin He’s sickly, Ayla’s trained medicine wo muscle in the chest that pulsed and throbbed and uessed But those facts she stored without thinking; she was looking more closely at his face, and his head, for the similarities, and the differences between this child and her son

His large, brown, intelligent eyes were like Durc’s, even to the look of ancient wisdo and a lu, not all of it physical, which Durc had never known She was filled with compassion This child’s broere not as pronounced, she decided after careful study Even at just three years old, when she left, the bony ridges above Durc’s eyes had been well developed Durc’s eyes and protruding brow ridges were all Clan, but his forehead was like this child’s Neither was pushed back and flattened like the Clan, but high and vaulted, like hers

Her thoughts strayed Durc would be six years now, she recalled, old enough to go with theweapons But Brun will be teaching hi Broud She would never forget how the son of Brun’s mate had nursed his hatred of her until he could take her baby away, out of spite, and force her out of the clan She closed her eyes as the pain of reh her like a knife She didn’t want to believe that she would never see her son again

She opened her eyes to Rydag, and took a deep breath

I wonder how old this boy is? He’s sht, co’s skin was fair, and his hair was dark and curly, but lighter and softer than the bushy brown hair est difference between this child and her son, Ayla noted, was his chin and neck Her son had a long neck like hers—he had choked on his food so but distinct chin This boy had the Clan’s short neck, and forward-thrusting jaw Then she remembered Latie said he couldn’t talk

Suddenly, in a , she knehat this child’s life irl of five, who had lost her family in an earthquake and who had been found by a clan of people not capable of fully articulate speech, to learn the sign language they used to co people and not be able to talk She remembered her early frustration because she had been unable to communicate with the people who took her in, but even worse, how difficult it had been to ain What if she had not been able to learn?

She esture, one of the first she had learned so long ago There was a moment of excitement in

his eyes, then he shook his head and looked puzzled He had never learned the Clan way of speaking with gestures, she realized, but he e of the Clan nal for an instant, she was sure of it

“Can Rydag touch the little horse?” Latie asked again

“Yes,” Ayla said, taking his hand He is so slight, so frail, she thought, and then understood the rest He could not run, like other children He could not play norames He could only watch—and wish

With a tenderness of feeling Jondalar had never seen on her face before, Ayla picked the boy up and put hi the horse to follow, she walked them slowly around the Camp There was a lull in conversation as everyone stopped to stare at Rydag sitting on the horse Although they had been talking about it, except for Talut and the people who had met them by the river, no one had ever seen anyone ride a horse before No one had ever thought of such a thing