“Should have tied your hair up,” he snapped.

Relief gave way to hurt that he would criticize her in front of such an audience.

“Well, if it ain’t the little Traveler boy,” said Lukeeth, sloe-eyed and slightly taller than Storne.

“Does your father know you walked out on your tutor again?” replied Lehr with such mildness that Rinnie’s jaw wanted to drop, especially after the nasty way he’d blamed this on her. Lehr had Mother’s quick temper and over the last couple of years, “boy” had become an epithet.

“My tutor wouldn’t dare tell him,” Lukeeth laughed. “Then I’d tell Father what the silly ass keeps in his water flask and he’d be out like the last one. That your little sister? Another Traveler’s brat, just like you.”

“Pretty thing,” said Olbeck casually.

Rinnie began to get really worried. Lehr was tough; her father had taught him a few tricks, and her as well for that matter. But Olbeck was almost a foot taller than Storne—who was as big as Lehr—and he didn’t have that soft look that most of the village boys had. She couldn’t read his tone, but it sent the other boys off into laughter that sounded more predatory than happy.

“I’d heard you’d taken to running with scavengers, Storne,” chided Lehr before turning to the ringleader. “Olbeck, I thought you’d decided to stay out of the woods after you ran into Jes that time last fall.”

A flush rose in Olbeck’s face. Lukeeth snickered but subsided when Olbeck glanced at him.

“Predators, not scavengers,” said Olbeck. “You’re just disappointed that Storne decided he’d rather hunt with the wolves than graze with sheep like you, Traveler’s brat,” he sneered. “As for your brother—if I’d realized he was crazy I’d have just slit his throat that day, a mercy killing, like I’d do to any other poor beast.”

Until Olbeck’s words reminded her, Rinnie’d almost forgotten that Storne and Lehr had once been best friends. But something had happened several years ago, Lehr wouldn’t say what, and he’d even quit going with Papa to the mill.

“I’ll tell Jes you’d like to meet him again,” said Lehr pleasantly. “I’ll relay your exact words to him. I’m sure he’ll be impressed—since you’ve never so much as gutted a cow. Rinnie, why don’t you go home and let us talk a bit.”

“No, Rinnie,” said Olbeck. He smiled at her, “I think you’d better just stay there. The two of us can have a conversation after we’ve finished… conversing with your brother.”

Lehr turned to her and whispered, “Run, Rinnie, now. Don’t stop until you get home.”

Knowing that without her there, the other boys wouldn’t be as interested in fighting, she fled back up the hill as fast as she could without looking back, the small knife cold in her fist. Home wasn’t so far away. If she could get within hearing distance she could call Gura. Even a grown man would think twice before taking on the big dog.

She heard the dull thud of fist on flesh before she topped the ravine. But she couldn’t worry about the fight now because at least one of them had gotten past Lehr and was trailing her up the side of the ridge. She could hear him crashing through the brush like an ox.

When she reached the trail and her footing was more certain she glanced back and saw that it was Olbeck who’d taken up the chase, and she stretched out to run as fast as she ever had.

With Olbeck following her, Lehr had a chance. Storne was the only one of the boys who had enough muscle to give Lehr a real fight. Her brother was tough as an old wolf; he’d use the rough terrain to his advantage.

The trail’s upward slope robbed her legs of speed and her chest of breath, but she didn’t dare slow down. Her eyes were focused firmly on the ground in front of her. When someone reached out and snagged her off her feet she thought it was Olbeck.

She kicked him once, before she realized it was Jes and stilled, gasping for breath. He set her down gently, the expression on his face different than she’d ever seen it. She didn’t have time to understand what the difference was before he stepped in front of her and turned his attention to Olbeck.

“Thought I told you stay out of my woods,” said Jes, only it didn’t sound like Jes at all. Menace clung to his voice and promise. The familiar singsong softness was gone as if it had never been.

“These aren’t your woods,” said Olbeck, who’d stopped a few lengths down the trail, though he didn’t sound intimidated. “My father is steward for the Sept. If these are anyone’s woods, they are mine.”

Safe behind Jes, she couldn’t see the expression on his face, but Olbeck blanched.

“Run, boy,” purred Jes. “See if you can outrun your nightmares.”

Rinnie tried to step around Jes’s shoulder, but he stepped sideways, keeping her behind him. Showing the whites of his eyes like a spooked horse, Olbeck turned and ran.

“There’re still two fighting Lehr,” Rinnie rasped and then threw up.

It was messy and nasty, as she had to gasp for air between convulsions. Jes gathered her hair out of the way and waited for her to finish.

“Ran too fast,” he said. “Lehr’s down that way?”

She spat to clear the taste out of her mouth. “Yes. Toward the fishing hole you showed him in the creek,” she said. “It’s Storne and Lukeeth.”

Jes looked at her, and the oddness was still there—a sharpness she wasn’t used to seeing. “All right, now?”

“Yes,” she said.

He nodded and took off at a jog. It took her a moment to recover her breath. As soon as she knew she wasn’t going to be sick again, she scrambled to her feet and headed down after Jes. Somehow with Jes there she wasn’t afraid of the village-boys anymore. She wouldn’t have thought that Jes, of all people, could make her feel safe.

Going down the trail was less demanding than her run up it had been. She made it to the place where Lehr had originally left the trail just as Jes was finishing a controlled slide to the bottom.

Rinnie looked down, half-afraid of what she’d see. But Lehr was safe. He held Storne in some sort of mysterious wrestling hold, and Lukeeth was lying unconscious nearby with blood running from his nose.

“Is Rinnie all right, Jes?” said Lehr.

“Fine,” answered Rinnie for herself. “Jes scared Olbeck. From the expression I saw on Olbeck’s face I bet he won’t leave his house for a week.”

“Good,” grunted Lehr as he held on while Storne struggled with renewed energy. He waited until the other boy was still. “You drink too much,” Lehr said calmly, “and you think too little. Just because Olbeck’s father is the steward doesn’t make him invulnerable or someone you should listen to—you’re smarter than that. And to try and”—he paused and looked at Rinnie for an instant before changing what he was going to say. “You heard Olbeck. He likes to ‘have conversations’ with children now? My sister is ten years old, Storne. You are better than that.”

It was strange hearing Lehr lecture someone else besides her or Jes. She could see that Storne felt that quiet voice cut through his skin, too.

Lehr stepped back and let Storne up. The miller’s son brushed off his clothes and, with a wary look at Jes, turned to leave.

“Aren’t you forgetting Lukeeth? If you leave him here he might never find his way out of the forest,” Lehr said.

Storne hefted the other boy across his shoulders without a word, and started up the hill.

“You take care of your friends, I remember that,” said Lehr softly. “But the question is, would they have taken care of you? Olbeck left you to us.”

Storne spun around, almost overbalancing. “At least they can keep their tongues from wagging too freely. Unlike some I know.”

“You idiots were going to get yourselves killed,” said Lehr explosively, as if it was something he’d kept bottled for too long. “Swimming at night is a fool’s game—and there are things in the river—”

“Things.” Storne spat on the ground. “So you went whining to your father who ran to tell mine. Let me tell you something, Traveler’s brat. You don’t know half what you think you do. You’d better just stay out of my way.”