The inhabitants, too, offered little uniformity of design, ranging from frail to obese. This was hardly what the tery had expected. He had envisioned a pack of lean and wolfish outlaws — they would have to be feral sorts to hold their own against Kitru's seasoned troops. But there were women and children here and a number of them took leave of their working and playing to stare at him as he passed. These people hardly looked like outlaws.

And the silence was oppressive.

His four rescuers stopped and untied the drag from the mount, then lowered it gently until the tery lay flat on the ground. One of them called out the first and only word spoken during the entire episode.

"Adriel!"

A girl with reddish blond hair emerged from a nearby hut. She was young — seventeen summers, perhaps — slightly plump but not unpretty. Seeing the tery, she rushed over and dropped to his side. Gently she examined his wounds.

"He's cut up so bad," she said in a voice high and clear and full of sympathy. "How'd it happen?"

"Those are sword wounds," one of the other men said with some impatience. "That can only mean Kitru's men."

"Why'd you bring him back?"

The first man shrugged. "It was Tlad's idea."

"Tlad's?"

The tery detected a note of disbelief in her voice.

"Yes. He found the beast earlier and somehow convinced your father that we should help it. So your father sent us after it."

Adriel's brow furrowed. "Tlad did that? That doesn't sound like him."

The man shrugged again. "Who can figure Tlad anyway?" He indicated the hut. "Your father inside?"

"No." Adriel rose and pointed to a far corner of the camp. "He's over there somewhere, talking to Dennel, I think."

The men left in silence. The tery watched the girl duck back inside the hut.

Tlad? Was that the name of the man who had spoken to him and placed the cloth over his eyes? Tlad. He would remember that man.