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' 'And with your one-track mind, I know what you'd say, too.''
"Dion's a beautiful lady," the older man said obliquely.
"She wears the clothes of a man." The gray-eyed leader shifted irritably. "She fights like a
man. Hell, she fights better than most men."
Gamon snorted. "YouVe got a thick skull, Aranur. She's on Journey with her brother in a
county where women are stolen and sold like dnu. You expect her to wear Shilia's clothes?"
He chuckled. "You'd have more men following us just for her than for those letters we
stole."
WOLFWALKER 217
"Speaking of Shilia," Aranur said sourly, "she seems to be getting to know Rhom a little too
well.''
"Good for them. It's about time the girl found herself a good man."
"And Rhom?" Aranur asked, hiding his irritation.
The older man was unruffled. ' 'It's time he realized that his attentions should be on
women other than his own sister."
"What about your women, Gamon?"
His uncle chuckled at his unsubtle attempt to change the subject. "I dream about them all
the time," he said slyly.
"She's just so damn different from what I thought I wanted," the tall man complained.
"Dion?"
"Moonworms, Gamon, but I think about her half the time I should be concentrating on
other things. She's driving me crazy. One minute she likes me; the next minute she thinks
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I'm pond slime. Every time I think things are going okay, she ups and gives me that gods-
but-you-are-a-scum-ball look, and I'm back in the doghouse. I'm going nuts, Gamon."
The old man chuckled. "I can tell."
"I've never found a woman who could hold my interest before."
"Ha. What about Wylonia? You acted like you were never going to look at a woman again
when you stopped seeing her."
"I lost interest in her fast enough when she started hanging around with Marco," he
retorted.
"And for a while," his uncle teased, "I thought Ammyn had caught you for a mate."
"Ammyn." Aranur snorted. "She has a tongue like a lepa and the disposition of a dnu.''
"That's not what you said the day after she kissed you in the caves."
"The caves were dark. I couldn't see her true colors."
The old man laughed and leaned back, picking his teeth with a sliver he had split from the
log. "Reminds me of a woman I courted back, oh, ten years ago. When I was around, she
was the sweetest, kindest woman, but when my back was turned, she changed into a
worlag's bitch. I found that out just in time." He grinned and gave his nephew a sharp
look. "What is it exactly that you want in a woman, Aranur? Have you thought about that?"
218 Tara K. Harper
"I don't know." Aramir leaned back and stared at the sky. "I suppose I want everything. I
want someone who's beautifiil and gentle and exciting and unpredictable. I want a woman
who will keep me company for the rest of my life and understand what I do, not just listen
to what I say. I want a woman who will be a mother for my children but will still excite me
thirty years down the trail."
The older man nodded. "I used to be taken with a woman who lived in Conceton, about
fifty kilometers away used to dig up every excuse I could to go see her. I courted her for
four years, trying to convince myself that I wanted to stay unmated. Then I finally decided
to ask her to mate with me, and I rode into town, all spiffed up, with my bouquet of blue
and white flowers, and she met me at the door with another man. She looked at me and
said, 'Four years is a long time to wait for a man to make up his mind.' I just turned around
and rode away. And IVe kicked myself every ninan since." He looked over at his nephew.
"If I'd been riding straight in the saddle instead of going around in circles with myself, I'd
have seen what she meant to me before it was too late. She was the only woman I ever
wanted." He sighed again. "She has two boys now, old enough to learn sword fighting."
"Do you wish they were yours?"
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"Every day," the old man admitted. "Now you, Aranur " He pointed at the younger man
with his sliver of a toothpick, "You're young and strong, and the women, only the moons
know why, think you're handsome. You can still pick and choose."
"Why would I want to choose now? I'd rather face a dozen raiders every day than mate a
woman I wouldn't be able to stand in a year."
"I hear you there. And now's the time to play around, while you're still young. But someday
it's going to hit you like a sandbag that you're in love. And when it does, you're going to
realize that one particular woman is half your life. She may be moody or temperamental,
she may be a nag or a bitch or a shrew, but you're going to want her like you've never
wanted anyone before. And I'll be waiting for the day, too, because I'm going to enjoy
watching you squirm before her with your blue and white flowers, just begging her to take
you." "Gamon, you're a damned romantic."
WOLFWALKER 219
"Aranur, you're a twice-damned romantic because you refuse to recognize the same thing
in yourself."
"Hah!" the other man snorted. But his dreams that night were sharp and clear, and it was
Dion, not another, who lay in his nebulous arms.
The next day was as quiet as the first. Rhom, Gamon, and Tyrel cut some fiatwood and
started to make skis. As unprepared as they were, the trek across the mountains was going
to be rough, and they would need the skis, crude as they were, to get across the snow that
still lay thickly in the lower passes. While the other men went out for flatwood, Aranur
spent the day sharpening and oiling their weapons, since the salt air had not done the steel
any good. Shilia spent the morning practicing some of the martial arts Dion had showed
her. Aranur was impressed: The wolfwalker was a good teacher. His sister had already
grasped the principles behind leverage and power, things that could not be considered too
important for someone of her small size.
He wished Namina would spend some time working out with the other two girls, but his
cousin seemed to have lost interest again. She spent hours silently drying the extra rabbit
meat over the fire. It was tedious and mindless work and allowed her to withdraw farther
from him and everyone else until he wanted to shake her and tell her to snap out of it. '
'Everyone is called to the moons sometime," he told her gently. "But you cannot reject your
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