At that moment her resolution crystallized. With or without Damen, she had to leave this place.

Damen finished his list. After a brief, gloomy silence, the group broke up and returned to the teepees.

Twenty-five adults decided to commit to Erwal's plan. With their children, thirty-seven people would travel with her.

They gathered at the edge of the village. The split families and parting friends found little to say in the way of farewells. Erwal, with the assistance of Sura, made final adjustments to the harness around the neck of Sand, the one mummy-cow they were to take. To the harness was attached a broad pallet piled with furs, blankets and cow-tree buds. The rest of the expedition, spare clothes heaped on their bodies, looked on in subdued silence.

"I don't know what to say."

Erwal turned. Damen, thick arms folded, stood watching her. "Damen, don't even try."

He frowned. "Pride's an odd thing," he mused. "I should know. I've been proud, and stubborn. Pride can make it hard to admit you're wrong, no matter how misguided you come to realize--"

Erwal laughed, not unkindly. "I should swallow my pride, admit my mistake, should I?"

He looked hurt. "Erwal, you could die out there."

"But I believe we'd die here." She touched his arm, ruffling the mat of thick black hair which grew there. "This expedition needs you--"

"But I need you."

It was as if the Sun had broken through cloud. Struggling to keep her voice steady, Erwal said, "You've picked the damnedest time to say such a thing."

"I'm sorry."

Deliberately, with a sense of pain, she turned her head from him. "It's time to go."

"Where?"

"You know where. To the north. The way Teal described. A journey of a few days, following his markers and directions, to the Eight Rooms."

He snorted. "Following the babble of a mummy-cow and a madman?"

"Damen, don't spoil this." She studied him, desperate to hold on to these final traces of warmth. "I know what I'm doing."

"I know. I'm sorry, Erwal; we've been over all of this before, haven't we?"

"A hundred times." She smiled.

"...I wish you well."

She hugged him, feeling the rough fur of his shirt under her bare forearms. "And I you, love."

"I won't see you again."

"...Perhaps if I find what I'm looking for I'll be able to return for you."

He held her away, his face hard. "Sure you will."

With that, they parted.

With gentle encouragement the mummy-cow began its lumbering motion, the laden pallet scoring tracks into the hard ground. Erwal walked arm in arm with Sura. She turned back until the village was out of sight; for long after she was gone, she suspected, the dark bulk of Damen would be stationed at the edge of the village, hoping for her return.