I adjusted my stance. "True, we couldn't expect it, but it shouldn't have happened. The child should have been safe inside the house, surrounded by the tribe." She had endangered the baby by bringing her here. Apparently she needed to be reminded of that.

"I was so close. . " she murmured. "To presenting her to the goddess," she finished as if in explanation. Her jaw tense, she picked up the bowl and walked to the edge of the trees with it. Her back to me, she mumbled a few words, then spilled the contents of the bowl onto the ground.

She seemed to miss that she was the reason the child had been stolen, that she had brought her here. So what if the baby had been "presented" before the sons grabbed her? She still would have been taken. I bit down on the inside of my cheek. "Did you see where the bird went?"

She shook her head; anger, loss, and disappointment warred in her eyes. "I had my. . I followed him as long as I could, but he was too big, too fast. It was impossible to keep up."

"What direction did he go?" I made no pretense of politeness. It was obvious we both thought the other had failed.

She pointed to the north. "Toward the town."

Our camp was twenty miles from the nearest small town. "He could have been headed to Deep River, or the highway, or Canada." I smashed the end of my staff into the ground. There was no telling.

Thea twisted her lips to the side and a shadow passed over her face. "What about the other one? What was it?" she asked. "It looked like a wolverine. Do you have wolverines here?"

I shook my head. "Not that I know of, but that doesn't matter. The sons can shift into whatever animal their givnomai is."