"Here?" He asked, oddly hesitant.
" 'Nothing there I've not seen before,' " I quoted to him.
He rolled his eye, and stripped off his tunic to reveal pale skin beneath. It struck me as odd,since all the other warriors, Keir included, were browned by the sun. Marcus was pure white,except were the healed burns mottled his skin. He was whipcord thin, the muscles taut. Therewere scars too, more than Keir had on his body. The scars of one who has seen many battles.
Marcus reached for his trous and I dropped my eyes. I stared into my kavage instead and triednot to think about anything. But all I could see were those tiny cold toes in the palm of myhand. It was hard to believe that she'd survived. I closed my eyes, and yawned again, my jawcracking.
"Soup will have to wait." Marcus pulled the kavage from my hand, and settled me down ontothe pallet. I was so tired, so weary that it felt like the softest bed to my aching body. Marcuspulled up the bedding over me, tucking me in carefully.
I blinked up at him and protested even as my body sagged into the warmth of the bedding. "Ishould check the fever's foe. And on Rafe, to see how he fares."
"Rest, Warprize. I've been cooking many a year. I can watch a few pots. I'll send for word onRafe."
I blinked at him, my eyes gritty. "But you're tired too."
"I'll sleep as soon as Isdra returns."
He moved a stump so that he could see the pots through the flap. I blinked a bit and yawnedagain. "Marcus?"
He turned almost all the way around so that he could see me.
"What does it mean? When you say 'Beyond the snows'?"
He looked at me for a long moment, then turned back to look at the pots. I thought he wasn'tgoing to speak, but then he folded his arms over his chest. "We of the Plains believe that ourdead travel with us, ride along beside us, unseen and unknown, but knowing and seeing. Not…
not their bodies, you understand? Their—" He used a word I didn't understand.
"Their spirits? Souls?" I asked. I used the Xyian words.
Marcus hesitated, then nodded. "Until the longest night, in the winter. You know this night?"
"Solstice." I snuggled deeper into the blankets. "The shortest day, the longest night."
"Just so. On that night, we mourn our dead, who are released to journey to the stars."
I thought about that for a while. For us, the Solstice marked the Grand Wedding of the God andGoddess, the Lord of the Sun and Lady of the Moon and Stars. A long night of bright laughterand celebration. Our people were so different, in so many ways.
I yawned again, my ears popping with the effort. Marcus shifted on his seat, and the lightcaught his left side, where the ear had been burned away. "Marcus?"
He looked at me again, frowning. "Not yet asleep?"
"You're not offensive, you know."
For a moment, he was so sad, then he gave me a slight smile. "In your eyes, Lara. Sleep now."
I nodded, and closed my eyes. "Please, Marcus, please tell me that in the morning, this will beover. That everything will be all right?"
There was a very long pause, and the despair rose in my throat. Then his voice came, quiet andlow. "All I know for certain is that the sun will rise, Warprize. I can offer no more, and no less."
Oddly enough, it was a comfort. I drew a breath and sought the peace of sleep.
I awoke at dawn when Gils showed up, looking tired and needing a fresh supply of fever's foe.
Yawning, I put my hair up and sent Prest for kavage and food for all of us. "When did you lasteat?"
Gils blinked at me, and yawned. "I's not sure, Warprize." He dropped his satchel at his feet.
I pushed him down on my pallet. "Well, you are going to at least eat now. Tell me how thingsare going. And how does Rafe?"
