Several of the men grinned. They turned away and leapt off the cliff. Tryss watched them, making sure all the harnesses were working well. Three days before, a badly made harness had seized up. Its owner had not been far from the ground but he had broken both legs in the fall. Since then Tryss had recommended that harnesses be inspected carefully every day by a member of each tribe proficient in their use and making.

“I spoke to Drilli again,” Sreil said.

Tryss’s heart skipped a beat. He turned to regard Sreil expectantly.

“And?”

“It wasn’t easy,” Sreil added. “Her father practically keeps her locked up in their bower all the time now. I think he suspects something. Mother wasn’t all that subtle about what we were up to that day we met with the Snake River tribe. I wouldn’t be surprised if—”

“Sreil! What did she say?”

The boy grinned. “You are tense today. Anyone would think you were about to get married.”

Tryss crossed his arms and glared at Sreil. Since Tryss had started training the Speaker’s son, he had been pleased to find he got along well with the boy. Nothing bothered Sreil. He found something funny in every situation. Sometimes his sense of humor was deliciously dark, at other times infuriating. Like now.

Sreil put up a hand as if to ward off a blow. “Stop that glaring. You’re scaring me.”

Tryss continued glaring.

“All right. She said ‘yes.’”

Two emotions swept through Tryss: relief and a giddy terror. Drilli wanted to marry him. She was willing to defy her father and leave her tribe to become his wife.

He was going to get married.

It’s not like we can’t change our minds in a few years, he told himself. If she decides she doesn’t like me after all.

Still, it meant the end of their childhood. They would be adults, expected to contribute to the tribe to the fullest. Not just the simple chores he did every day for his parents, but the work of gathering food, making bowers and fighting.

Which I’m already doing now anyway. Instead of going home to my parents I’ll go home to Drilli…and maybe a child too, in a year or so.

He smiled, picturing himself playing with his own little son or daughter. The thought was appealing. The things he could teach them…

I just have to survive this war first—and she has to survive having the children.

He turned his mind from that thought. He could not go through life always afraid the worst would happen. People overcame their troubles as they came to them. For now, all he needed to deal with—other than training warriors—was getting Drilli away from her father so a marriage ceremony could take place. For that he needed Sreil’s help.

“So who is going to do the ritual?” he asked. “Your mother?”