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take the goat back to that rivulet to drink. She must be nearly dry.”
    “And what about you?”
    “I drank when we crossed it. You and I can go without more water until nightfall, and so can Mistress Nanny, once she has drunk her fill. Keep your ears open. You can let her graze a little, but you must both be back here before full day.”
    “And if the Ai-Ushen wolves find me?” asked the younger woman as she unlaced the branches that had trapped the goat’s horns.
    “Why, you’re naught but a girl from a farmstead nearby who lost yourself seeking this strayed goat and spent the night in the fields. They will be looking for a woman with a baby, and in your present state, if you pull your hair down to hide the crescent moon on your forehead, I assure you that no one will take you for a priestess of Avalon!” With her brown hair and blue eyes, burrs in her shawl, and the hem of her sleeping shift ragged and mud stained, Ellet was a typical, if rather grimy, daughter of this land. “Try to sound stupid and don’t lose your nerve, and I think they will leave you alone.”
    “I’ll pretend it’s Master Belkacem, quizzing us on the lineage of the High Priestesses,” the girl said dryly. “Name lists always turn my brains to wool.”
    Anderle leaned back against the trunk of the ash tree, as the girl and the goat picked their way lightly down the side of the mound. This sense of safety was an illusion, but at least she was sitting still. She had not known how completely their dash across the countryside had exhausted her. Just at this moment she did not think she could have moved if the entire Ai-Ushen war band had appeared below.
     
     
     
    THEY REMAINED ON THE mound throughout the day, sleeping fitfully while the goat, whom they had named Ara, continued to trim the undergrowth beneath the ash trees. She proved a bountiful producer of milk, providing enough to feed Mikantor and the two priestesses as well. With that, berries from among the brambles and some cresses Ellet had brought back from the stream, they felt strong enough to continue, leading the goat, once darkness fell.
    The second night’s journey was uneventful, and they found another mound on which to shelter when daylight came. They had seen no pursuers, and by the third morning Anderle was beginning to believe they had evaded their enemies. Their wanderings had forced them north of their best route, but if taking a roundabout way home cost them time, it gained them safety.
    Old Kiri would have a seizure to see me now , thought Anderle, marching along with her skirts kirtled up beneath her swaying belly and her hair knotted and wound around a thorn. Until this journey had proved her endurance, she had not realized that she herself had doubted it. But she could see the gaunt hollows in Ellet’s cheeks and knew her own must be the same. A diet of berries and goat’s milk was not sufficient for such an extended use of energy.
    “If I remember right, just over that hill is the settlement from which Chrifa came.”
    “Wasn’t she the tall girl who told such good stories? She was just finishing her training when I arrived, and then she went off to serve at Carn Ava.”
    “She did, and I think her people would be willing to help a priestess who had become separated from her escort.”
    “Just one priestess?” Ellet looked at her warily.
    Anderle nodded. “I believe that we are safe, but there’s no need to take foolish chances. I will stay in that wood by the old tomb with Mikantor and Ara while you go and ask for some bread and cheese in the name of Avalon.”
    “And if they try to keep me there?”
    “They will hardly dare object if you declare you must go out to the wood to make an offering!”
    The mound was old enough to have lost the earth that covered one end. The denuded stones that had framed the first tomb looked pink in the morning light. A dark opening beyond them suggested another chamber farther within. After a greeting to those