"We should have... expected it," he whispered. "Stupid of me... pregnant sow... it was bound to... react like that." His breath seemed to be slowing; in a strange way, she thought as she studied him, he seemed to be growing more comfortable. More peaceful.

She said softly, "You're not going to die yet, damn you."

He did not reply.

She turned to Philas. "Look, we'll have to try to bind up his wounds. Cut some strips from the hide of that sow. Perhaps we can strap this damaged arm across his body. And we could tie his legs together, use his spear as a splint."

Philas stared at her for a long moment, then went to do as Dura had ordered.

Farr asked, "What can I do?"

Dura looked around, abstracted. "Go and retrieve that net. We're going to have to make a cradle, somehow, so we can haul him back home..."

"All right."

When Philas returned, the women tried to straighten Adda's legs in preparation for binding them to the makeshift splint. When she touched his flesh, Dura saw Adda's face spasm, his mouth open wide in a soundless cry. Unable to proceed, she pulled her hands away from his ruined flesh and stared at Philas helplessly.

Then, behind her, Farr screamed.

Dura whirled, her hands reaching for Adda's spear.

Farr was still working on the tangled net — or had been; now he was backing away from it, his eyecups wide with shock. With the briefest of glances, Dura assured herself that the boy had not been harmed. Then, as she hurried to his side, she looked past him to discover what was threatening him...

She slowed to a halt in the Air, her mouth dangling, forgetting even her brother in her amazement.

A box, floating in the Air, approached them. It was a cube about a mansheight on a side made of carefully cut plates of wood. Ropes led to a team of six young Air-pigs which was patiently hauling the box through the forest. And, through a clear panel set into the front of the box, a man's face peered out at her.

He was frowning.

The box drifted to a halt. Dura raised Adda's spear.

4

TOBA MIXXAX HAULED on his reins. The leather ropes sighed through the sealant membranes set in the face of the car, and he could see through the clearwood window — and feel in the rapid slackening of tension in the reins — how eagerly the team of Air-pigs accepted the break.

He stared at the four strangers.

...And how strange they were. Two women, a kid and a busted-up old man — all naked, one of the women waving a crude-looking wooden spear at him.