Chapter 39

She took a step toward the hiding place, then paused as she remembered where the herbs had come from. This was what Adel wanted her to do. There was poison buried in the temptation somewhere.

Whether it was simply that she wanted to deny Khelt an heir, or something more sinister Netya had yet to comprehend, she did not want to play into the den mother’s schemes.

Shoring up her resolve, she turned her back on the rocks and walked away. Despite all of their preparations, the rains came on so hard and so suddenly that Fern and Netya did not even have time to return to their tent before the sudden deluge had swept across the camp and extinguished the central fire.

Those who had dwellings nearby scurried back to their own abodes, while those who lived further up the outcrop were ushered into the earth lodges big enough to accommodate them.

Netya and Fern ended up packed in with the food stores and the wrinkled old woman who rationed them, listening to her mutter a