That was where trouble gathered. Those were the people with most to fear. Was it possible, if a mobbing started, that all the vermin in the world could sate themselves with a handful of villages and spare the rest? Marak, Marak, his voices chided him, but mildly now. He was sure Luz now had some idea where he was, and that he had turned back toward his duty: she seemed content with that. Whether Luz had also told Norit what gift he had with him he very much doubted; and whether Luz approved of his collecting Lelie along the way, he had no idea.

But he was glad of the voices as a guide, as an indication that Hati was well and Norit was well. He had no idea about his sister, but he had trusted Hati and Norit to take care of her, and if they were well, then that was cared for.

“I’m coming back,” he muttered aloud, to Luz, if she heard him. “I’m all right.”

They dismounted, unsaddled, and rested a while, at noon, as Kais Kurta pitched its tents. And in that rest he took the child from the woman and tucked her up next to him.

“Is it a child you know?” the lord of Kais Kurta asked him, sitting near him. “Or one you found?”

“My wife’s,” he said, and touched a small hand… incredible to him that a hand could be so small, and his sun-dark and marked with the killing-marks, one for every finger. She played with his fingers like Patya when she was a year old. She made him remember.

“We had enough war,” Andisak said with a sigh. There came a broad shadow in the wind, as the industrious young men put up a side flap of their tent, to give them shelter a while from the constant buffeting. Before them, the next village was camped, and the sun sat at a sullen yellow noon.

But now the wind grew chill as it did at times when a larger storm was coming. Haste, the weather said. Make all possible speed. The ground shook, shivered like a besha with an itch.

“So had I,” Marak confessed, “had enough war. Enough of a lot of things.”

“Is this the whole truth?” Andisak asked. “Is there a safe place?”

“I’ve been there,” he said. “I’ve seen the river, the water. Everyone is fed. Everyone has shelter. The ones who went with me stayed there, all but Tofi and his freedmen.”

“I saw you,” Andisak said, “on the ridge. It was a relief to hear someone we know say so.”

“It’s all true, omi. I wouldn’t bring this many innocents into the desert on a lie.”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Andisak said, and nodded slowly. ”And the tribes aren’t fools. They’re up there at the front of all this. To the umi of the Rhonan: welcome.“