Page 129 of Sun Warrior

Sora moved her smooth shoulders restlessly. “I don’t know. I thought he was going to be my mate, and now…” Her voice trailed off sadly.

“You can’t forgive him for what he did?”

“I can forgive him. I already have. But I see him differently now. He’s not that young, sweet guy who worked so hard at courting me that it was almost embarrassing.” Sora paused and smiled slyly. “Well, no. I wasn’t embarrassed. I liked him working that hard. But now he’s the guy who attacked and almost raped me.”

“He was sick when he did that,” Mari said as the two Moon Women walked along the stream, waving occasionally to the groups of women who were already busy repairing the Earth Mother tapestry as they listened to Nik, O’Bryan, and Davis describe what they needed for the traveling cocoons or were harvesting vegetables and herbs from the birthing burrow’s garden. Mari noticed that even Lydia and Sarah were moving slowly among the herbs, pulling tender basil leaves.

“My mind knows that. My heart and body don’t seem to. Mari, I don’t think I could stand to ever be with him again—not as lovers.” Sora sounded miserable.

“Well, that just means there’s someone else who’s meant for you. And for him, too.”

“What if he doesn’t come back? Are we going to look for him?”

Mari considered her answer carefully before speaking. “Jaxom knows where we are. He should return on Third Night to be Washed. If he doesn’t…”

“If he doesn’t he’s chosen to live like a monster.”

“Sora, it was the Skin Stealer sickness that made him a monster. You know our Clansmen can be violent during Night Fever, but they don’t suddenly turn into rapists and killers. Most of their aggressionis turned on themselves, just like our women turn within themselves with depression if they have no Moon Woman. I was thinking that if he doesn’t show up he found other Clansmen who were sick, and it was too late to get them to listen to him.”

“And they killed him,” Sora finished for her.

“Or reinfected him,” Mari added.

“Either way, going to look for him doesn’t make sense.”

“No. But you know what does make sense? Teaching our friend how to introduce herself to the moon.” Mari jerked her chin to the right of the stream they’d been following. Danita was there, sitting on a mossy rock, chin in her hand, staring up at the sky as if it held the answers to all of life’s mysteries.

“You’re right. Would you hold Chloe for me?” Sora pulled the sleeping ball of pup from the front of her tunic and handed the yawning, complaining creature to Mari.

“I had no idea she was down the front of your shirt,” Mari said, cradling the baby close to her, shushing Chloe as she started to whine in earnest.

“She’s always next to me. Well, unless she’s eating.” Sora kissed Chloe on her little black nose. “Be good for Mari. I’ll be right back.” She started to walk toward Danita and then paused. “Hey, where’s Rigel?”

“He and Laru went with Davis and Cammy. Seems Rigel wants to learn how to hunt, which surprised Davis, especially when Laru joined in. Apparently Shepherds don’t usuallylowerthemselves to being Hunters.” Mari rolled her eyes.

“Those are Tribe rules. This is a Pack. It’s different,” Sora said.

“You mean different like a Terrier choosing an Earth Walker as her Companion?” Mari grinned at her friend.

“Exactly!” Sora blew another kiss at Chloe before she went to Danita and began teaching her how to spell out her name for the moon.

Mari looked around and found a comfy-looking spot under a young maple tree. She brushed leaves from the bed of moss beneath it; then with a sigh she sat, leaning against the bark as she rearranged Chloe. The pup was fat and warm, and her breath had a wonderfully distinctivescent Mari already thought of as “puppy breath,” and it wasn’t long before she had Chloe arranged on her lap, fast asleep again.

Mari tipped her head back, gazing up at the afternoon sky that was the exact shade of diluted blueberry dye. “Looks like it’s going to rain again,” she murmured to the sleeping pup, mostly just to hear her own voice. “That’s good for the harvest…” she began, and then trailed off, realizing for the first time in her life she wouldn’t be here, in Clan Weaver lands, to harvest summer crops.

The realization had her feeling sad and excited at once. “What’s going to become of us, little Chloe? I know we have to leave, but sometimes I feel like I’m leading my people, my Pack, to a path on a moonless night that might end at the edge of a cliff that we might all be hurling ourselves over.” Mari sighed. “Know what I mean, little girl?”

“She might not, but I do.”

“Great Goddess! Antreas, you scared the breath out of me!” Mari snuggled Chloe close, as the pup had been startled, too, and was whining fretfully. “S-s-sh, it’s just Antreas.”

“Put her next to Bast. She’ll quiet down and sleep.” Antreas pointed at his Lynx, who had somehow soundlessly found a spot not more than a couple of feet away from Mari and was grooming herself meticulously.

“Really? She won’t, uh, bite Chloe or anything, will she? Sora will be over here in a heartbeat if anything happens to her pup.”

“Well, I could repeat myself, but why don’t you just ask Bast?”

Mari looked at the big feline, who paused in her grooming and met her gaze.