"Skywise!"
Puckernuts! The stargazer thought. She loved her brother, yes, but lately she had begun to
appreciate other, more mature company. The age difference between them had never seemed so great.
She was a maiden now, he was still a child.
"Hey! Did you forget me?"
"Heh heh… no, Cutter! How could I forget my own shadow!"
She bent down to explain:
"But Pike and I have a long way to go, and Starjumper's rump is sore. He can't take extra
riders."
Skywise placed her arm on Cutter's shoulders:
"Now, don't tell anyone… especially Bearclaw! This is a secret hunt! I'm after the most
delicious prey there is!"
"Don't worry, Skywise! I won't tell! You'll see!" Cutter called as he ran back towards the
holt.
"Delicious prey…?" Pike asked, grinning. "Wait 'til you see my lure!"
Skywise had found the place by change, when she had been tracking a buck her arrow had wounded some nights ago. She'd caught the buck eventually, but what she had scented on the way was even better than the kill.
Pike's mouth hung open when he saw –
"A field of dreamberries!"
"Farther from the holt than we've ever gone, but worth the risk, eh?"
"As if you had to ask!"
Pike tumbled headlong into the bushes. Skywise giggled and followed, landing in his arms.
They fed ripe berries to each other and kissed between the mouthfuls.
"Well, the prey is down, my sweet huntress. What now?"
"As if you had to ask."
They began to undress each other.
A moment later Skywise straightened her back, sitting up from the bushes.
"Mmmm… oh… oh, lovemate…!"
Joining was such pleasure, she would never tire of it. If it took dreamberries to get her
lovemate in the mood, well then dreamberries he would have.
She opened her eyes, and it took a moment to realize what she was seeing.
Pike! There's a human!
We'd better run! He answered, fumbling with his belt.
Wait! Let's take a closer look!
Bearclaw won't like this! Pike objected, but followed his lovemate.
Bearclaw thinks we're fishing in Goodtree's Glen!
The human was doing something with some stones arranged in a circle on the ground.
Skywise! Around his neck – the ornament Eyes High once wore in her hair!
That did it. Something snapped inside Skywise and she cried out:
"Killer!"
Sword flashing, the daughter of Eyes High rode Starjumper to revenge her mother's blood. She was
too angry to be afraid, too angry to remember Bearclaw's rule about lifebearers not risking
themselves in battle. Pike followed, spear in hand, but Skywise already had her blade at the
throat of the human. She demanded to know how the human had got the ornament. The answer was
something she would never have expected:
You…! I know you!
The human told an incredible story of how he had tried to help Eyes High, and how his brother had
died for that. Skywise did not know what to think of it. She cut the string that bound the
ornament around the human's neck, and left him trembling on the ground, hardly able to believe
the white-haired demoness had not cut his throat open.
Lovemate! Pike sent after Skywise, but she ignored him. Alone, she stood under the
starlit sky, grasping in his hand the leather decoration that had been her mother's. And she
mourned her parents all over again.