above, carrying an enormous log. This he carefully placed on top of the stone already covering the bolt-hole. It would take two or three of them, multiplied, to push that off.
Then he quietly descended the slope. When he reached the base, he caught the faint scent of wood smoke.
The best place to catch one of the Order was in the cave, all bottled up like flies. He stood for a long time looking for the watch they’d surely posted. But he saw nobody on watch.
Hunger approached, picking his way around the brush and trees, avoiding the spots where Zu Hogan had pointed out the cleverly concealed trip lines, and soon stood before the mouth of the cave. A man was burning a small fire inside, Hunger could smell it.
Something moved in the brush behind him. He turned, expecting the watch, but instead saw a small herd of deer moving through the trees off to the right.
Hunger looked about once more, then silently slipped into the cave.
The first chamber was where they kept livestock. It was wide, large enough to hold a dozen horses, but there were no horses, no goats, nothing but a large pile of hay by the stalls. He looked up the corridor that led to the second and third chambers. The far chamber was dark, but the flickering orange light of a fire spilled out of the door to the second chamber and played on the rock wall of the corridor.
Hunger went back to the entrance, took hold of the large squarish covering stone, and pushed it back into place, closing off any escape.
“Who’s there?” A voice from the second chamber.
Hunger walked through the first chamber and to the entrance of the second.
Ke, Zu Hogan’s son, stood above a small fire over which he roasted three rabbits. He held a knife in one hand, staff in the other. Hunger, as Larther, had been clouted by that staff more than once in weapon’s practice. Ke was powerful and fast. Deadly.
“Who are you?”
Hunger could not answer. He simply stepped into the small light.
Surprise flashed across Ke’s features, but he just as quickly recovered and with blinding speed threw his knife.
It buried itself in Hunger’s eye. He did not expect the pain that shot through him. He thought he was beyond pain. Yet this did not debilitate him. It was strong, but dull, and he shrugged it off.
Ke took advantage of his hesitation and darted past him toward the mouth of the cave.
Ke was fast, but not as fast as River. Hunger ran after him. He caught him at the entrance by the shoulder and whipped him around.
Hunger expected Ke to try to free himself, but Ke grabbed Hunger by the neck and crotch instead. He lifted Hunger and cast him against the wall of the cave.
Ke was always the one to try something surprising. And it had always worked. But not this time.
Ke pushed the stone covering the entrance.
Hunger lunged forward and latched on to Ke with both hands. Then he swept Ke’s feet out from under him, dropping Ke like a stone.
Hunger landed atop Ke and knocked out his breath.
There is no escape, thought Hunger. Not for you, brother. Not for me.
Ke struggled mightily, but Hunger bound him as he had his sister, then he tied him up with a rope. He laid Ke in the third chamber where they kept the beans and water, then went back to the mouth of the cave and shoved the rock aside to open it for the others.
He looked about, considering the best place to hide. Then he looked up. Hunger climbed up the wall to the high, sloped ceiling above the mouth of the cave, up into the inky dark. And there he clung, waiting like a spider for the others to enter his trap.
Talen followed the Creek Widow to the bottom of a narrow valley between two steep and stony hills. Dawn had not yet broken, but the sky had lightened, and he could see the valley well enough. He’d been up now for twenty-four hours and was exhausted. The woods broke on a clearing that began by the brook and ran halfway up one of the hills.
“Here it is,” she said.
“Here?” asked Talen. Such a clearing couldn’t provide much protection. He thought she’d said it was a cave. But he could see none. “What do we do, hide under the bushes?”
“Yes, Talen,” she said. “That’s what the great minds of our Order came up with. Hide under the