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sure?"
    She nodded.
    It seemed as though his joy was temporary
if not tentative, as though he felt relief, but it was combined with wariness.
    "And were these crones marked?"
    She had to be careful; too much information
and he would know she suspected something, too little and he would know she was
lying. "There were some markings on the men, Father, but they meant
nothing to me."
    He wasn't mollified. "What kind of
markings were they?"
    He was baiting her, she knew. She wasn't
sure why. She sensed he knew exactly how the tattaus looked, that they were
very close to her own, but she wasn't sure if he understood just how similar
they were. She guessed, and made a stab he'd gotten reports but had not
actually seen the tattaus. She hoped as she spoke that he couldn't hear the
tremble in her voice.
    "They were symbols of animals. All
across the chest and the backs of the hands." He'd know she was lying if
he went to look at the bodies, and she prayed to the Deities he wouldn't. She
wasn't sure why she had lied so blatantly when she could be checked up on so
easily.
    He eyed her critically. "And the
crones?"
    "The crones had no markings."
    "None?"
    She shook her head.
    Yuri turned to Drahl. "You told me
--"
    Drahl shrugged as it became obvious to
Alaysha that while he'd had been the one sent to do the scouting, he'd sent
someone else and so now he couldn't speculate. Thank The Deities for his
laziness.
    "Markings are markings," he said
and nodded at Alaysha. "How would she know what to look for?" The
black look he gave her would have shriveled an apple.
    "She tells me what she sees."
    "Perhaps it is not the crones she
saw."
    "Perhaps not, but then the number
would be wrong." Her father was beginning to lose patience, she could
tell; his white brows were furrowed and meeting together over the blue-pink of
his eyes. Drahl on the other hand, seemed oblivious.
    "The count was correct." He
argued. He hoisted himself back onto his mount and spent considerable time
wrapping the end of the rein over his fleshy wrist. Alaysha thought he would
grow fat when he stopped riding and scouting.
    Yuri's eyes narrowed. "Then you have
the wrong tribe."
    "The crones must have escaped."
    "If it's so and it is the correct
tribe minus the old women, then the number would be sixteen. If it's the right
tribe as you say, and the crones are the right ones, then the number would be
nineteen. Either you are right or you are wrong."
    It was all terribly confusing. Alaysha cut
in. "The crones did not escape."
    "But they have no markings."
    "They were the only old women in the
village."
    Yuri dismounted and grabbed the pouch
again, then spilled the seeds across the caked dirt. Pick them out," he
ordered.
    Alaysha knew which were the crones. Each
seed had its shape even if that shape was no longer what it had been when it
was fully fluid, or if each seed lacked the color it wore in life. A witch does
not send her power through tear ducts and pores and not know each fluid membrane
it touches. By her very nature, she had a long, long memory, the better to
travel the fluid lines of each host and drain the living fluid away. She knew
each seed, yes. Intimately.
    She sorted out seeds that in life she knew
had been bright blue and milky white. Each crone with a mixed set. These not
quite so desiccated as the others.
    "These," she said, putting them
aside from the others.
    Yuri inspected them. "And all are
buried beneath the mud?"
    She nodded.
    "And none were marked?"
    It was her turn to examine the seeds, but
only so she could avoid his eye. "Yes," she said, and found the lie
came easier each time she spoke it.
    He toed the dirt, flipping dry soil over
the seeds. Then he said to Drahl, "It's not the right tribe. Keep
looking."
    "But the number is right."
    Yuri didn't raise his voice, but the threat
was clear in the undertones. "The number is wrong. There were eighteen,
not the nineteen we're looking for. You counted wrong. The crones were
unmarked. It doesn't matter if