The pillars of creation

"Rain is coming," she said. "It doesn't take a prophet to tell that."

He smiled. "Guess not." His eyes bore the prospect of what lay ahead with resigned acceptance. He swiped his hand back over his wet spikes of white hair, then pulled up his hood. "Well, take care of yourself, Jermsen Daggett. Give my best to your mother. She raised a lovely daughter."

Jermsen smiled and acknowledged his words with a single nod. She stood facing the damp wind as she watched him turn and start off across. the flat expanse of gravel. Craggy rock walls rose up all around, their snow-crusted shoulders disappearing into the low gray overcast that concealed the bulk of the mountains and the nearly endless range of high peaks.

It seemed so funny, so freakish, so futile that in all this vast country their paths should cross so briefly, at that instant in time, for such a tragic moment as one life ended, and then that they would both go off again into that infinite oblivion of life.

Jennsen's heart pounded in her ears as she listened to his footsteps crunching across the jagged gravel, watched his long strides carrying him away. With a sense of urgency, she debated what she should do. Was she always to turn away from people? To hide?

Was she always to forfeit even small snatches of what it was to live life because of a crime she did not commit? Dare she risk this?

She knew what her mother would say. But her mother loved her dearly, and so would not say it out of cruelty.

"Sebastian?" He looked back over his shoulder, waiting for her to speak. "If you don't have shelter, you may not live to see tomorrow. I wouldn't like it if I knew you were out here with a fever getting soaked to the skin."

He stood watching her, the drizzle drifting between them.

"I wouldn't like that, either. I'll mind your words and do my best to find some shelter."

Before he could turn away again, she lifted her hand, gesturing off in the other direction. She saw that her fingers were trembling. "You could come home with me."

"Would your mother mind?"

Her mother would be in a panic. Her mother would never allow a stranger, despite what help he had been, to sleep in the house. Her mother wouldn't sleep a wink all night with a stranger anywhere near. But if Sebastian stayed out with a fever he could die. Jennsen's mother would not wish that on this man. Her mother had a kind heart. That loving concern, not malice, was the reason she was so protective of Jennsen.

"The house is small, but there's room in the cave where we keep the animals. If you wouldn't mind, you could sleep there. It's not as bad as it sounds. I've slept there myself, on occasion, when the house felt too confining. I'd make you a fire near the entrance. You'd be warm and could get the rest you need."

He looked reluctant. Jennsen held up her stringer of fish.

"We could feed you," she said, sweetening the offer. "You would at least have a good meal along with a warrn rest. I think you need both. You helped me. Let me help you?"

His smile, one of gratitude, returned. "You're a kind woman, Jennsen. If your mother will allow it, I will accept your offer."

She lifted her cloak open, displaying the fine knife in its sheath, which she had tucked behind her belt. "We'll offer her the knife. She will value it.»

His smile, warm and suddenly lighthearted with amusement, was as pleasant a smile as Jennsen had ever seen.

"I don't think two knife-wielding women need lose any sleep over a stranger with a fever."

That was Jennsen's thought, but she didn't admit it. She hoped her mother would see it that way, too.

"It's settled then. Come along before the rain catches us out."

Sebastian trotted to catch up with her as she started out. She lifted the pack from his hand and shouldered it. With his own pack, and his new weapons, he had enough to carry in his weakened condition.

CHAPTER 4

"Wait here," Jennsen said in a low voice. "I'll go tell her that we have a guest."

Sebastian dropped heavily onto a low projection of rock that made a convenient seat. "You just tell her what I said, that I'll understand if she doesn't want a stranger spending the night at your place. I know it wouldn't be an unreasonable fear."

Jennsen considered him with a calm and somber demeanor.

"My mother and I have reason not to fear a visitor."

She was not alluding to common weapons, and by her tone he knew it. For the first time since she had met him, she saw a spark of uncertainty in Sebastian's steady blue eyes-a shadow of uneasiness not elicited by her expertise with a knife.

A hint of a smile came in turn to Jennsen's lips as she watched him considering what manner of dark danger she might represent. "Don't worry. Only those bringing trouble would have cause to fear being here."

He lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Then I'm as safe as a babe in his mother's arms."