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she had them now. Good boys. Good men. Either of them would have made a good husband for Sky Woman, were she not in love with Frog. She did not understand Frog, but the
num-field
about his head shimmered with a yellow-white radiance unlike that of any other man.
    He was not something she understood. But she approved.
    T’Cori walked at her side. As Stillshadow’s twin sons labored, the girl kept one hand on her swollen belly, striving to control the ebb and flow ofher own breathing. A stew of emotions simmered on her apprentice’s face:
fear, fatigue, despair.
All fought for her heart, a fight she dared not allow them to win.
    “I have tried,” T’Cori said, “in every way I know, doing everything that you have taught me to do.”
    Stillshadow’s wizened hand slipped into the girl’s smooth strong one, a contact comforting to both.
    “This last thing is not learning,” Stillshadow said. “It is the opposite. It is letting go of what you think you already know.”
    “Of what?”
    “Of life,” Stillshadow said. “Of life itself.”
    T’Cori looked back over her shoulder, and Stillshadow glanced back as well. Behind them, tens of families followed. Most seemed merely struggling with the body strain. Some sang songs or made games to entertain their children. The young ones ran ahead of their parents or wandered behind. Stillshadow could not see Snake, but she knew he would be near the back of the line, ensuring that no stragglers were lost.
    So many lives in their hands. Such gentle, loving trust. It was not enough to earn it. One had to feel
worthy
of it. And since the Mk*tk had taken Sky Woman, her greatest student had felt worthy of little save disdain. There had to be some gift to give the girl. Something. She could think of nothing.
    But if Stillshadow’s mind was empty, her husk almost ready to return to the earth, she might still find one last miracle. “I know what must be done and how to do this thing that must be done. One closer to death than life sees these things more clearly. I go now.
    “Paw. Eye.
Stop,”
Stillshadow said. Her order obeyed, the old woman levered herself up off the sled.
    Stillshadow’s legs wobbled, and T’Cori caught her arm.
    “Where do you go?” T’Cori asked.
    “I need my vision,” Stillshadow said. “There is truth, and I cannot see it.”
    “What will you do?”
    “It is a secret thing,” the old woman said, “one that I may show you when I return. Perhaps.”
    “And what will this thing help you to do?” T’Cori asked.
    “I must dig deep,” Stillshadow said. “Find the heart of the world, its drumbeat. Do not fear.”
    “Mother,” T’Cori said, “there is a thing that I have not spoken of before. I think that you already know what I must say.”
    “Perhaps,” Stillshadow said. “Perhaps. Regardless, speak as you will.”
    “There is so much you do for us, more than I think I even dream. Mother, if anything happens to you …” She dropped her eyes.
    Darling child. You think you are the only one who doubts?
“And you fear you cannot?”
    T’Cori turned her eyes away, but not before Stillshadow glimpsed the fear within.
    “You climbed Great Sky!” the old woman said. Her deeply wrinkled hands cupped the girl’s chin. “Listen to me. When I think you are ready, you
will be
ready. Today is not the day. This is not the time. This is the time for me to go, alone, to do what must be done.”
    “But you might die!” T’Cori protested.
    Stillshadow smiled, her deepest, softest smile. “And you will not?”
    As Father Mountain’s countless eyes emerged from a darkening sky, the people prepared evening meals, lashing branches and hides together to make their simple shelters.
    As Frog’s sister, Little Brook, brought Mouse to him, Bat Wing wandered near. In better days Bat Wing would have spent more and more time with his father or uncles. They would have taken him away from the boma on their hunting trips, teaching him the twists of strange