evading the dogs, he ate some fishes hanging from sticks, and a delicious hunk of fish-dog fat. Then he found an over-paw outside a Den and ate that, too. When the Light came, he trotted into the Forest, trod down some bracken to make a comfortable sleeping-patch, and had a nap.
The smell woke him instantly.
His claws tightened. His hackles rose. He knew that smell. It made him remember bad things. It made the tip of his tail hurt.
The scent trail was strong, and it led up-Wet. With a growl, Wolf leaped to his feet and raced after it.
"I told you," said the Sea-eagle hunter, tying up a bundle of roe buck antlers. "I saw a big man coming ashore. That's it."
"Where did he go?" said Torak. He was relentless. Renn, cradling a cup of hot birch-blood in her hands, wondered how much more the Sea-eagle would take. "I don't know! " snapped the hunter. "I was busy, I wanted to trade!"
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"I think he went upriver," said the hunter's mate. "Upriver," repeated Torak.
"That could mean anywhere," said Renn. But already Torak was heading for the Raven camp and the deer-hide canoes.
It was the second night after Bale's funeral rites, and after an exhausting crossing, they'd reached the trading meet on the coast. Fog shrouded the camps along the shore and the mouth of the Elk River. Willow, Sea-eagle, Kelp, Raven, Cormorant, Viper: all had come to barter horn and antler for seal hide and flint Sea eggs. FinKedinn had gone to return their borrowed skinboats to the Whale Clan, and the ravens were roosting in a pine tree. There was no sign of Wolf.
Renn ran to catch up with Torak, who was shouldering through the throng, earning irritable glances, which he ignored. "Torak, wait!" Glancing around to make sure they weren't overhead, she said in a low voice, "Have you thought that this could be a trap? The Soul-Eaters have set traps for you before."
"I don't care," said Torak.
"But think! Somewhere out there are Thiazzi and Eostra: the two remaining Soul-Eaters, and the most powerful of all."
"I don't care! He killed my kinsman. I'm going to kill him. And don't tell me to get some sleep and we'll start in the morning."
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"I wasn't going to," she replied, nettled. "I was going to say I'll fetch some supplies."
"No time. He's already got two days' lead."
"And it'll be more," she retorted, "if we have to keep stopping to hunt!"
When she reached the shelter she shared with Saeunn, the sight of its familiar, lumpy reindeer hides brought her to a halt. Less than a moon ago, she'd left it and run down to the skinboats, eager to have Fin-Kedinn and Torak to herself, and to see Bale again.
She shut her eyes. In disbelief, she had stared at his broken body. The blind blue gaze. The gray sludge on the rocks. Those are his thoughts, she'd told herself. His thoughts soaking into the lichen.
Night and day, she saw it. She didn't know if Torak did, too, because if he talked at all, it was about finding Thiazzi. He didn't seem to have anything left for grief. Fog trickled down her neck, and she shivered. She was tired and stiff from the crossing, and hollow with grief, and lonely. She hadn't known she could be so lonely among people she loved.
Around her, hunters appeared and disappeared in the murk. She thought of Thiazzi gloating over the fire-opal. A man who took pleasure in others' pain. Who lived only to rule.
The Raven Mage huddled in her corner beneath a musty elk pelt. Over the winter, she had shrunk in upon 36
herself till she reminded Renn of an empty waterskin. She rarely hobbled farther than the midden, and when the clan moved camp, they carried her on a litter. Renn wondered what kept that shriveled heart beating, and for how much longer. Already, Saeunn's breath carried a whiff of the Raven bone-grounds. Trying not to wake her, Renn gathered her gear and crammed supplies into auroch-gut bags. Baked hazelnuts, smoked horse meat, meal of pounded silverweed root; dried lingonberries for Wolf.
The elk pelt stirred. Renn's heart sank.
The speckled