carved into her pulkor. Not damage.'
Tillu chewed at her lower lip. 'I do not think we should do this thing,' she said softly, and as anger flared on Kari's face she added, 'If Owl had wanted you so marked on your flesh, he would have marked you himself. Is this not so?'
For an instant, Kari looked uncertain. Tillu pressed on, glad for once that Kerlew had nattered on so much about Carp's teaching. She wanted her words to sound convincing.
'Owl has marked your spirit as his. That is all he requires. You need not mark your face to deny Pirtsi. Or so I understood during the time I spent with the herdfolk, when Elsa ...'
'Elsa died.' Kari finished in an awed whisper.
'I understood then that the women of your folk can choose their mates. You have a reindeer of your own, do you not? Are not the things you make yours to keep or trade as you wish?' At each of the girl's nods, Tillu's spirits lifted. 'Then say that Pirtsi isn't what you want. Cannot you do that?''
Kari had begun to writhe. Her fingers clawed at her arms as she hugged herself. 'I should be able to do that. But no one listens. I say I won't have him. They pay no attention. Everyone is so certain that we will be joined at the Cataclysm. It is as if I cried out that the sun would shine at night. They would think it some childish game. They cannot understand that I do not want him; that I cannot let him touch me.'
'Why?' Tillu spoke very, very softly.
Kari's eyes grew larger and larger in her face. She touched the tip of her tongue to the center of her upper lip. She trembled on the edge of speaking. Then, the tension left her abruptly, her shoulders slumped, and she said, 'Because I belong to Owl now, and he tells me not to. Why won't you mark me?'
'Because I do not believe Owl wants me to,' Tillu excused herself smoothly. 'Who am I to make Owl's mark for him? If he wishes you marked, he will do it himself.'
Kari once more lifted her hands, sank taloned fingers against her breasts. 'And if I do it myself?' she asked.
'Then I would try to see that you did not become infected. A healer is what I am, Kari. I cannot change that. Let me offer you another idea. Wait. There is much time between spring and high summer. Tell everyone that you will not have Pirtsi. Say it again and again. They will come to believe you. Tell Pirtsi himself. Tell him you will not be a good wife to him.'
'And if they do not believe me, when the day comes, I will show them that I am Owl's. By the Cataclysm.'
Tillu sighed. 'If you must.'
The girl sipped at her tea, suddenly calmed. 'I will wait.' Her eyes roved about the tent interior. 'You should be spreading your hides and bedding in the sun to air, before you pack it for the trip. Where are your pack saddles?'
Tillu shrugged. 'I have never traveled with an animal to carry my things. I have always dragged my possessions behind me. This migration will be a new experience for Kerlew and me.' Tillu spoke the words carefully, tried to sound sure that her son would travel with her. The old shaman had said he would take Kerlew from her. Kerlew himself had said that he was near a man now, and had chosen to go with Carp. But perhaps he would change his mind. Perhaps he would stay with his mother and be her son a while yet, would not slip into the strange ways of the peculiar old man and his nasty magics. With an effort she dragged her attention back to what Kari was saying.
'You know nothing of reindeer then? You do not know how to harness and load them?'
Tillu shrugged her shoulders, looked closely at the girl who now spoke so maturely and asked such practical questions. 'There are two animals hobbled behind my tent. The herdlord provided them for me. I suppose he will send Joboam to help me when the time comes.' Tillu could not keep the dismay from her voice.
'That one?' Kari gave a hard laugh. 'I was glad when he wouldn't have me. I knew why. He made many fines excuses to my father, saying I was so young, so small yet. As if that ...' She paused and stared into her mug for a breath or two. 'I didn't know my father would find Pirtsi instead,' she finished suddenly. She cocked her head, gave Tillu a shrewd look. '1 could show you. Now, today. Then, when the time came, you wouldn't need help. You could send a message that you didn't need Joboam.' Kari smiled a small smile. 'And 1 could tell my father that I had already taught you, that he need not spare so important a man as Joboam for such a simple task.' There was frank pleasure in the girl's voice as she spoke of spiting Joboam's plans.
Tillu lifted her eyes from her own slow appraisal of the flames. She was beginning to have suspicions of Joboam that made her dislike him even more. She was also beginning to have a different opinion of Kari. The girl was shrewd. As oddly as she might behave, she had wits. And how old was she? Sixteen? 'When I was her age, I had Kerlew in my arms,' Tillu thought to herself. 'And I thought my life belonged to him as surely as Kari believes hers belongs to Owl. We are not so different.' Kari smiled her tight-lipped smile again, a smile of conspiracy that Tillu returned.
CHAPTER THREE
Reindeer. the herd came first, flowing through the trees like water flowing through a bed of reeds. The males led, most with antlers missing or stubby in velvet. Their shedding coats were patchy but they stepped proudly, eyes alert, moving down the hillside and past her with slow grace. At first the sheer number of the animals cresting the hill and pouring down into her little valley had frightened Tillu. It was her first glimpse of the wealth of the herdfolk. Up until now, she had lived apart from them in her own dell, tending to their hurts but not sharing their lives. Now she was to be swept into it as surely as the moving herd of beasts swept past her. She trembled at their numbers. But the flood of beasts paid her and Kerlew and the two laden harkar no mind.
She gripped the damp rein tighter. Either one of the laden animals could have dragged her off her feet. The second beast was tethered to the first one's harness, as Kari had taught her. If they decided to follow the herd, there would be nothing she could do about it. She glanced at them, felt sweat break out anew. They carried the new tent Capiam had sent, and all her supplies. If they bolted, she would lose all her herbs and household implements, everything. But the two animals stood placidly, regarding the passing reindeer with calm brown eyes.
She had spent the last two days packing her possessions and learning to manage the animals. Kari had been a good teacher, matter-of-fact and tolerant of Tillu's nervousness. But Tillu was still not comfortable. It was one thing to watch wild reindeer from a distance, or crouch over a dead one to butcher. It was another thing entirely to stand close to a living animal, to hold a strap fastened to it. The harke whose lead she held shifted its weight. Its large, deeply cloven hooves spread atop the ground. It sneezed, spraying her with warm drops and then shook its head to free the long whiskers on its muzzle from the clinging moisture. Tillu forced herself to stand still as the new antlers, encased in pulpy velvet, swept close to her. When they were grown they would be solid hard brown bone. A brow antler would extend forward and downward over its muzzle to protect the animal's face; the rest of the antlers would be swept back. She had already known that both females and males grew and shed antlers.
But Kari had given her the casual knowledge of one whose life had always interlocked with the herd.
The vajor were coming now, mistrustful of everything as they shepherded their gangly calves along. The calves were an unlikely assembly of knobby joints and long bones, of pinkish muzzles and wide, awe-stricken eyes. One calf halted, to regard Tillu with amazement. 'Stand still, Kerlew,' she breathed to her son as the mother watched them with hard eyes. She snorted to her calf, and then nudged it along. They merged back into the flow of grayish-brown animals and Tillu breathed again. She glanced up at the crest of the hill, and felt her trepidation rise. Why did she feel more threatened by the people than she did by the passing animals?
'See, Kerlew, there is Capiam the herdlord, leading the others. Soon we shall join them.' Kari had delivered her message that she needed no help to prepare for the journey. Tillu wondered if it had caused any upset in the village. She had seen nothing of Joboam or Heckram since Carp's arrival.
'If Capiam is the leader,' Kerlew asked, his piping voice carrying clearly, 'why didn't he come first, leading that big reindeer? A different man is leading the herd.'
