Outcast Read Free Page A

Torak."
"Not like this."
"No," she said in an odd voice. "Not like this."
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Then she surprised him by asking which of the Soul-Eaters had put the mark on his chest. "It was Seshru. Why?"
She ripped off the scab and dug her fingernail into the rawness underneath. "Where were the others?"
He swallowed. "Thiazzi held me down. The Bat Mage watched. Eostra ..." He shuddered as he recalled the ghastly wooden mask of the Eagle Owl Mage. "I didn't see her. But there was an owl, watching from an ice hill...."
    Suddenly he was back in the freezing dark of the Far North. He felt the powerful grip of the Oak Mage. He saw the hunched bulk of the Bat Mage standing guard, and caught the orange glare of the greatest of owls. Then Seshru the Viper Mage was blotting out the stars, and he was staring up into eyes the deep blue of the sky before middle-night. He watched her perfect mouth pronouncing his fate as she drove the bone needle again and again into his skin and smeared him with the blood of murdered hunters. This mark will be like the harpoon head beneath the skin of the seal. One twitch, and it will draw you....
    "Torak?" said Renn.
He was back in the shelter.
"What are you going to do?"
"What I should have done in the beginning. I'm going to cut it out. Tell me how to do the rite."
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"No," she said without hesitation. "Renn. You've got to."
"No! You couldn't do it on your own; you don't know Magecraft."
"I've got to try."
"Yes, and I'll help you."
"No. If you helped me, you'd be outcast too."
"I don't care."
"Well I do."
Renn pressed her lips together. She could be incredibly stubborn.
    So could he. "Renn. Listen to me. Not long ago, they took Wolf--because of me. He was nearly killed-- because of me. That's why I haven't howled for him now, because he'd only try to help, and get hurt. If you got hurt because of me ..." He stopped. "You've got to swear--swear on your bow and your three souls--that if they cast me out, you won't try to help."
    A noise in the clearing. Torak saw the bent figure of the Raven Mage hobbling toward them.
"Renn!" he said in an urgent whisper. "Do this for me! Swear!"
Renn raised her head, and in her dark eyes, two tiny flames leaped. "No," she said.
"The clans have gathered," said Saeunn in her raven's croak. "The elders have decided. Renn. Leave."
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Renn lifted her chin. "Leave."
Defiantly, Renn turned to Torak. "I meant what I said." Then she was gone.
The Raven Mage told Torak to gather his things, and waited at the mouth of the shelter, clutching her staff in one shriveled claw. Her sunken eyes watched him without pity. A life spent peering into the world of the spirits had detached her from the feelings of the living.
    "Not the sleeping-sack," she rasped.
"Why not?" said Torak.
"The outcast shall be as one dead."
Torak's belly turned over. Until now, he'd clung to a faint hope that Fin-Kedinn might be able to save him.
    The rain came, pattering onto the hide roof and making the fire smoke. He picked up the last of his gear and glanced around. Often he'd hated this shelter. He'd never gotten used to the Raven way of staying in the same camp for three or four moons, instead of moving on every few days, as he'd done with Fa. Now he couldn't imagine leaving it and never coming back.
    "It is time," said Saeunn.
He followed her into the clearing.
The clans were gathered about a huge long-fire. If was still light, but the rain clouds turned it to dusk. Torak was glad of the rain. People would think he was 30
shivering with cold, not fear.
The crowd parted to let them through, and he took in a blur of firelit faces. Raven. Willow. Viper. Boar. But no Mountain or Ice clans, and none from the Deep Forest or the Sea. This was a matter for the Open Forest. He wondered when his kinsman in the Seal Clan would get to hear of what had happened. What would Bale think? Aki had planted himself at the front of the throng. He'd scrubbed his skin clean of pine-pitch, but it had gone a blotchy red, and he'd had to cut his