It took a while for the creatures to react. The berry bugs squirmed in their unaccustomed exposure, twisting and flexing in a vain attempt to crawl back into darker places. A few ants stopped and examined the new arrivals, exploring their bodies with front legs, smelling and tasting them, and when these ants hurried away and disappeared into cracks in the rocks, Ramus knew that it was going to work.

The soldier ants emerged. Larger than those he had seen before—some were as long as the top segment of his little finger— their abdomens were swollen and red with poison. They swarmed from the rock nests and across silver bridges, hanging from fine threads that Ramus could not see and dropping onto the berry bugs.

As the ants' poison commenced melting the bugs' insides, the berry bugs began to squirm more violently. Ramus reached down to pick them up, dropping several deeper between the rocks as he desperately tried to avoid being stung. Slow learner, he heard the Widow saying over his shoulder, and he grinned as he dropped the bugs into a small pouch on the side of his backpack.

When he returned to Lulah, she waved him down. He dropped to his stomach and crawled to the edge of the overhang, leaving his backpack behind.

“Movement,” Lulah said. “Opposite side of the valley.”

“Level with us?” he asked, fearful they would be seen.

“No, lower.”

“Is it them?”

“I think so. Look there. See that spread of trees in the shape of a raven's wing? They'll appear south of there any time now.”

They lay and watched together, squinting against the sun as it began its slow descent into the west. The travelers emerged from the cover of trees, the group snaking its way down the hillside and toward the valley floor.

Ramus could make out no details at all. He closed his eyes, and asked.

“Yes, it's them,” Lulah said.

Ramus nodded and sighed. “So now we follow. We'll leave it until they're camped, cooking and telling tales. Then I'll do what I have to, and you and I can leave.”

“It won't be that easy,” Lulah said. “They'll post a guard. And now that we're closer to the border, I suspect they'll have two on watch at all times.”

“I'll go quietly.”

“You can barely see in the daytime. At night you'll be caught. I'll go.”

Ramus looked at Lulah, trying to see any hint of deception in her expression. We need trust, he thought, but she had already stated that she trusted no one. That made him uncomfortable.

“I can create a diversion,” he said.

Lulah nodded. “That will help.”

“Thank you for coming with me.”

She nodded again. Opened her mouth as if to say more, but instead said nothing.