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Her rippedthat fierce tug on my thumb, I could not let them take you away I simply told them no"

"They were angry"

"Yes But I was firm And, of course, my father was still alive He was old then, four syllables, and he had been the leader of the people, the chief guardian, for a long tireatly respected leader too had he not died on the long hunt He had already been chosen to be a guardian"

"Say ed

Her ht "Christopher," she said "You know that"

"I like to hear it, though I like to hear you say it"

"Do you want o on?"

Kira nodded "You were firm You insisted," she reminded her mother

"Still, they made me promise that you would not become a burden"

"I haven't, have I?"

"Of course not Your strong hands and wise headYou are a sturdy and reliable helper in the weaving shed; all the wo is of no iainst your cleverness The stories you tell to the tykes, the pictures you create ords — and with thread! The threading you do! It is unlike any threading the people have ever seen Far beyond anything I could do!" Her h You et that you are still a girl, and often willful, and just this h you had promised"

"I won't forget toainst herinto a ht "I promise"

But now there was no one to help her She had no family left, and she was not a particularly useful person in the village For everyday work, Kira helped in the weaving shed, picking up the scraps and leavings, but her twisted leg diminished her value as a laborer and even, in the future, as a mate

Yes, the women liked the fanciful stories that she told to as that she s were diversions; they were not work

The sky, with the sun no longer overhead but sending shado into the Field of Leaving froe, told her that it was long pastCarefully she gathered the skins on which she had slept these four nights guarding her e Her water container was empty and she had no more food

Slowly, using her stick, she li on to a sht still be welcome there

Tykes played at the edge of the clearing, scaround Pine needles stuck to their naked bodies and in their hair She snized each little one There was the yellow-haired son of her o And the girl whose twin had died; she was younger than the yellow-haired one, just toddling, but she giggled and shrieked with the others, playing catch-, the toddlers slapped and kicked at each other, grabbing toy-sticks, flailing with their s her childhood co for the real scramble of adult life Unable to participate because of her flawed leg, she had watched from the sidelines with envy

An older child, a dirty-faced boy of eight or nine years, still too young for puberty and the two-syllable name that he would receive, looked over at her fro the twigs into bundles for firestarting Kira smiled It was Matt, who had always been her friend She liked Matt He lived in the swaer But he ran freely through the village with his disorderly friends, his dog always at his heels Often he stopped, as now, to do some chore or sreeting to the boy The dog's bent tail, round, and the boy grinned in reply

"So you be back from the Field," he said "What's it like there? Scared, was you? Did creatures coht?"

Kira shook her head and ser, one-syllable tykes were not allowed in the Field, so it was natural that Matt would be curious and a little in awe "No creatures," she reassured him "I had fire, and it kept them away"

"So Katrina be gone now from her body?" he asked in his dialect People from the Fen were oddly different Always identifiable by their strange speech and crude manners, they were looked down upon by most people But not by Kira She was very fond of Matt

She nodded "My ed "I watched it leave her body It was like mist It drifted away"

Matt cas He squinted at her ruefully and wrinkled his nose "Your cott is horrid burnt," he told her

Kira nodded She knew that her hoh secretly she had hoped she wasin it? My fra frame?"

Matt frowned "I tried to save things but it's mostly all burnt Just your cott, Kira Not like when there's a big sickness This time it just be your mum"