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while the Bahedin jubilantly crossed the finish line. There was a shocked pause as the crowd stared in amazement, then the Bahedin wildly cheered their hero, and a few Khulinin ran forward to get the fallen horses and riders our of the way of the remaining racers.
    Two men helped Ishtak and Kelene limp through the crowd to the shade of a tree.
    Two others brought Rafnir and his chestnut.
    "Are you all right?" one man asked Kelene. At her nod the men left her alone to check on Rafnir's injuries. Kelene sank slowly to the ground by her gelding's front feet and stared in shocked disbelief at the dirt. She was filthy, disheveled, and she hurt in every bone in her body. But none of her aches and bruises could compare to the pain of defeat. For the second year in a row she had lost the Induran in an accident.
    She looked up and saw Sayyed, Tam, and her parents hurrying toward her.
    Kelene pulled herself to her feet and faced her mother, but the ache in her heart proved too much for her self-control. Tears trickled down her cheeks. Gabria opened her arms, and Kelene did not turn away. She felt herself gathered into her mother's embrace and held close while she cried out her pain and disappointment.
    "Is he hurt, Mother?" Kelene murmured after a while. "He fell so hard."
    Gabria knew full well who Kelene meant. The girl wouldn't care a fig for Rafnir's well-being. She glanced inquiringly at Tam, who was talking in quiet tones to Ishtak.
    Rafnir's mother understood the question, too, and gently squeezed Kelene's arm.
    "He is bruised and hurting and very, very tired. He is lucky nothing is broken," she said with a soft smile. "Rub his legs with liniment and rest him. He will be bucking again in a few days."

    "Thank you," Kelene said to both women. She stiffened to her full height, threw back her head, and stepped away from Gabria. The tears were gone now. She had no more time for sadness; Ishtak needed her help. She forced her feelings back under control, unaware that as she did so, her face assumed a blank, almost cold expression.
    She went back to her horse and gathered his reins.
    Behind Kelene, Gabria sighed to herself and let her arms drop. She knew that expression of Kelene's all too well. She had seen it more and more the past few years-
    --a blank set of the face that was as frustrating and unyielding as a stone wall.
    Kelene had withdrawn again to her own thoughts, shutting out the moment of closeness with her mother.
    Gabria almost reached out to stop her daughter and draw her back, but she didn't.
    She knew the gesture would not be appreciated and wondered sadly if it ever would.
    Once Kelene had been a loving, open, warm-hearted child who adored her parents and family. Now an eighteen-year-old, unmarried woman with a crippled foot, she was almost a stranger to them all.
    Gabria bit her lip as she watched Kelene limp away, leading the gray gelding.
    She was not sure she could bear the thought of losing the Kelene she had known to this distant cool person. She wanted somehow to break through the blank mask and find the love and happiness that still remained inside. If only she knew how.

    * * * * *
    Later that evening when the cooking fires were burning in the Khulinin camp and the sun was sinking into an orange haze toward the horizon, Sayyed came to join Lord Athlone and his son Savaron under the awning of the chieftain's big tent. They sat on low stools, enjoying the peace of dusk and talking comfortably as old friends. Goblets of cool wine sat on a tray by their feet. Athlone's three dogs lay close by and chewed on the last scraps of the evening meal. The men could hear Gabria, Lymira, and Coren inside the tent laughing and talking as they got ready for the evening's dancing and music competitions to be held in the council grove. Kelene was nowhere to be seen.
    The three men were almost finished with their wine when someone hailed them from the nearby path.
    "Lord Athlone, good evening! I was hoping to find you still