"I went to my mother, and we embraced, and did nothing but weep for a long time. I told her briefly what had passed between me and my brother, and asked what she would do when Father came home, for I feared he would beat her again. She said she would tell him to go ask Lao'ue, but surely I must be gone by then. She took me back to the hut, washed my wound, gave me the biggest water-skin and filled my pouch with dried food. We embraced again, quickly, and I set off for the mountains to the east. The rest, I suppose, you know."
I pulled up my spear and leaned on it, and thought for a long while. For certain, Great Grandmother must hear of this—and before the Sacred Folk did.
"Go to the herders' hut on the edge of the fields," I said. "Stay there until morning. If any ask, say that you suff
