The Bracken Woods [m] marrow sliver

cen exhaled. "i have told you. we must follow the caribou until you give birth. our children arrive when their own take first breath." and red leaf had better move the stars above and the earth beneath to reward cen for his stewardship of her foolish sharadoii ways.

he pulled her closer, but now glanced up at the frozen sky between the weave of the shivering branches. "any of the Others we meet might be one of these flesh-eaters. i will look behind their eyes into the place that the spirit lives. you must not. a flesh-eater can still your breath with a single look."

cen wove a story together, gathering black tendrils and spinning a web meant only for red leaf, yet as he spoke, his own heart thudded with growing fear.

"the sharadoii make themselves weak, resting so often. hardly leaving their valley. we lanzadoii are harder. we are made to walk as the caribou do."

softly he kissed red leaf's face. "you are no longer sharadoii. and so you will walk."