arrows pointing at him. “You’re going to pay for this, goat-lover.”
Da took a step toward him. The man raised his arm in defense, but Da was too quick. One, two punches to the face, and the man’s nose folded to the side. Blood ran down in a thick stream. Then a kick to the groin.
The man doubled over in pain and fell to the ground.
Da grabbed him by the hair and wrenched his head back.
“Am I going to see you again?” asked Da.
The man sucked in great breaths. “No, Zun,” he managed at last. This time there was no mockery in the tone. “No.”
“Because if I do,” said Da, “I’m just going to assume you’re one of those men who hasn’t got the sense to know when to leave well enough alone. And there’s only one way to deal with those types. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Good,” said Da. “You’re a big man, a fine asset; I’m sure your Fir-Noy commanders would hate to lose one with your good sense. And just in case you change your mind, I’m going to alert the Shoka warlord that there’s someone lost on his lands.”
Then Da released him and looked at the other hunters. “I think I’ll start counting at one.”
These weren’t cowards, but Talen could see they knew they’d been beaten.
The big man got to his feet, holding his nose, the blood matting his unkempt beard, but he didn’t say a word. He limped off toward the stream. Two others helped the man Nettle had brained.
Talen and his family followed a comfortable distance behind the men, stopping at the crest of the stream bank. Talen kept his bow up but did not dare to keep his arrow fully drawn lest he accidentally loose it and strike one of them. Da may have beaten the leader, but the presence of these men still frightened him. What would happen next frightened him even more. They’d been sent by the Fir-Noy at Stag Home. You couldn’t shame part of an order and not expect the rest to rise up against you. Who knew what string of events this had initiatied?
The hunters splashed through the water. On the other side, one of them turned. It appeared he was going to say something, but before he’d fully turned, Ke’s bow hummed and Talen watched an arrow miss the man by only a foot and bury itself in a tree behind him.
The man jumped back and cursed.
“Don’t badger them,” said Da.
But Ke had another arrow nocked. “I won’t. I’ll just maim a few.”
“Ke,” Da warned.
The hunters hurried to the woods. Just before they disappeared around a bend, one of them turned and gestured a curse at them. Then he too turned and slipped into the trees.
“Those men will be back,” said Talen. “And they’ll bring the rest of their cohort with them.”
“There’s no cohort,” said Da. “This wasn’t a military mission. If it had been, we would have seen many more. And it would have been led properly. These were opportunists.”
“Someone ought to follow them anyway,” said Ke. “Just to be sure.”
Da nodded. “But you use that bow only as a last resort. We blew the fire out of them. I don’t want you stoking it up again.”
“They won’t even know I’m there,” said Ke. Then he loped after the men.
“River,” said Da. “I need you to scout the hills around the farm. I don’t want any more surprises.”
“Yes,” she said.
Da turned to Talen and Nettle. “And you two: go see to that dog.”
THE MOTHER
H
unger stood upon the cliff. Hundreds of feet below him a river surged. He knew its name—the Lion. He knew many names now, all of them taken from the villager named Barg. And more would grow in him over the next few days as he finished digesting the soul of this man. But he wanted no more.
At first, each name had been a delight and thrill. Each had added to a building ecstasy, but then it all changed horribly. The image of the girl he’d killed in the village of Plum—the sons, the pretty wife—they rose in him again. Those images swelled a tide of grief, and he floundered in it like one drowning because it was not the girl, the sons, the wife, but his girl, his sons, his lovely, precious wife.
Somehow, in some wicked way, he was the villager Barg, twisted beyond all reckoning.
It made no sense. But new words tumbled into him every hour. New ideas. In some inexplicable way he’d