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on Riyik. A shadow crossed his face, as if he feared that very thing, and had for some time.
    “How would it feel, trapped inside a stuffy tent, filled with men who sought only power and advantage? Never again to ride free on Thunder’s back? Never even to ride any horse across your grasslands, for as long as the king had need of you?”
    Riyik slapped away a wasp buzzing near his face. “I would hate it! But I would do as my king commanded—and count the days until I was free to ride away from the stench of politics.”
    Kalie met his gaze. “Now imagine this: that day will never come. Through some twist of fate, your king’s need of you stretched on and on, and the last day of your life came while you were still in that tent.”
    “Do you seek to curse me, woman?” Riyik spat in the grass between them and made a sign against evil with his right hand.
    Kalie said quietly, “I seek to show you what life is like for the women of this land. Those tents that you so easily avoid whenever you choose to stink of things far worse than politics. Perhaps you have noticed that few adults can stand upright inside most of them? Yet the women here live out their lives in them, without ever once knowing the freedom and joy you feel every time you’re on Thunder’s back.”
    “But women don’t want to ride horses! They’re safe inside those tents! It’s what they want!”
    “Do you know that? Or have you always just assumed it? And how safe did their tents turn out for the poor women you took from that band who attacked you?” Riyik looked away. “Tell me Riyik? Where are they now?”
    “They were too weak! They could never have kept up with the pace the chiefs had set!”
    “So after every man who wanted to had his turn with them, you slit their throats and left them to rot! And now you can’t understand why I don’t long for such a fate myself?”
    “Theirs was the fate of women who have weak men! It would never happen to you, Kalie! I will always protect you!”
    “Until you meet a glorious death in battle! Isn’t that what you warriors dream of? Then my fate is whatever the victor chooses! Do you think your women enjoy living with that knowledge, Riyik?” Her voice rose. “They live in terror of it!”
    “I…have never met anyone like you, Kalie. If you were any other woman, I would just buy you to keep you safe from Maalke and Altia, and dismiss your words as some kind of game. But you…Looking at you is like looking at a fellow warrior!”
    “I think you are a good man, Riyik. And you have no idea how much it cost me to say that. But I will never give myself willingly to any man who lives as you do. And you will not take a woman against her will. I do not see any future for us.”
    “You are a warrior!” he whispered. “A warrior who fights with no weapon but courage. I have never met your like.” He rose to his feet. “Come. You can sleep beside Brenia’s fire tonight.” He reached down to help Kalie to her feet, and then stopped, as if understanding what an action, so casual in his world, might mean to her. He straightened, offering his hand if she would take it, but nothing more.
    Kalie rose gracefully to her feet without accepting the hand and followed Riyik to where his sister was camped.

Chapter 4
     
    Once again, Kalie found herself awake in the dark. This time, however, she sensed no danger. All was as it should be, shortly before midnight during the trek to the summer pastures.
    It was the voices that had awakened her: a man and a woman speaking softly on the other side of the banked coals from where Kalie lay rolled in soft sheepskin of Brenia’s making. Brenia had been a gracious hostess, although she had not been inclined to talk as the two women lay down beside the two already sleeping boys. Kalie was grateful for the silence, not trusting herself to speak to anyone just then.
    Now she lay as if still asleep, straining to hear the whispered words that had awakened her.
    “It’s