he asked, his voice high and strange. Everyone gasped. Heckram stopped breathing.

'Elsa-sa-sa-sa!' The najd's voice went higher with every syllable. 'The calves are still! The mothers cry for them to rise and follow, but their long legs are folded, the muzzles clogged with their birth sacs. Elsa-saa-saa-saa-saa-saa-saa!'

His voice went on and on, his rattles echoing the sibilant cry. As suddenly as the flames had leaped up they fell, and returned to burning with their familiar cracklings.

The najd's head drooped onto his chest in a silence as sudden as death.

'Elsa! He saw Elsa!' Kari's shrill cry cracked the silence. Acor and Ristor leaned to mutter at Capiam. Ketla sank slowly to the floor, the back of her hand blocking her gaping mouth. Every hair on Heckram's body was a-prickle with dread. He swallowed bitterness in a throat gone dry and felt an icy chill up his back. It took him a moment to realize it had an earthly source. The unfastened door-hide flapped in a new wind from the north. Heckram pegged it down. Straightening, he noticed another interesting thing.

Joboam was missing.

'Najd! What did you see in the flames?' Capiam demanded.

Carp lifted his head smoothly. 'See? Why, nothing. Nothing at all. A happy and contented folk like yours, what do they care what an old man sees in a fire? Just smoke and ash, wood and flame, that's all a fire is. Heckram, I am weary. Will you grant this old beggar a place in your tent for one night?'

His answer was drowned by Capiam's raised voice. 'The herdlord gladly offers you shelter this night, Carp. But certainly it will be for more than just one night?'

'No, no. Just for a night or two, for an old man to rest from his travels. Then I shall take my apprentice and move on. I will stay at Heckram's hut. It's a very large hut, for one man alone. A shame he has no wife to share it. Have you never thought of taking a woman, Heckram?' The old man asked innocently.