Da barks and we scatter to find our battle places. I grab Winter Mist's arm. I know where we can go where we'll be safe and have clear arrow-shot at them without being seen.

She breaks away and hangs back. I can tell she's listening and thinking. No time for that now!

"I need a bow," she says, and trots off towards the campfire, which is not the place I wanted us to be.

"Silly toad-witch, I have two, remember?" I call after her. Has she forgotten what she gave me for a wedding gift? I take a few steps to follow her but she's weaving wildly through the trees. She answers back. Her voice fades. I've lost her.

How I would enjoy a love-chase. Not now. I hear dogs. Or worse yet, wolves. The Niafer war band has wolves?! I flee for my life to the edge of the road where there are tall trees with many branches. I have to run straight towards the howling and barking to get there. My legs don't want to go. I keep thinking of my brother, Brody, and how the giant wolf knocked him down with one leap. Have to make a mad dash for the trees. Wolves can't climb.

When I get to the roadside, riders are coming at a march, not slow but not fast. I swing up onto a low branch and pick my way from one limb to another. Here's a good sturdy limb, high enough to be out of wolves' reach and above a horseman's line of sight. I ease back flat into the forked stang. It fits me like a royal chair. I am King of Archers! They'll never see me and the thick branches below me will be my shields if they launch any spears. Perfect!

If only my bride was with me.

I stick some arrows loosely in the bark by my elbow. I flex my arm a few times to bring the strength to it. I take up my new bow, the handfasting bow, never used by me yet. When I pluck the string, it sings!

The sweet sound hasn't yet gone quiet when someone screams. A death scream. Somewhere towards the bog. No, it can't be Winter Mist, it can't be.

A wolfhound comes loping over the hill. Then another. Their noses are to the ground. I lean back in the arms of the tree and wait to choose a target.