A slender shadow edged into the cavern and placed a bucket under the milker. Rankil could hear the liquid splash as the culprit worked.

"You going to drink that all by yourself?" Kaelan lunged forward and grabbed the form about the waist. The thief shrieked and kicked backward, planting a foot in Kaelan's groin. Kaelan cried out and her grip loosened just enough for the scrawny someone to bolt away.

"No you don't!" Rankil tackled the shadow at the knees, pulling it to the ground.

"Hold on!" Kaelan grabbed the torch from the wall, relit it and held it to the flailing figure's face. "Now let's see who had the gall to kick me there." The terror-filled brown eyes of a manure-faced Autlach girl no older than six stared up at them. She wailed at the sight of her captors and wet down the front of Rankil's new wrap.

"Don't eat me! M'ma says I'm rotten, too skinny to be much of a meal! I'll only make your belly hurt. Please! I want my m'ma!"

Chapter Ten.

The stomach can speak louder than the mind.

-Taelach wisdom "Don't lay her on the blankets. Her hair is infested." Jewel pointed to where she had spread a portion of the room divider from their Serpent grotto. "We don't all want the itch." She tended the unconscious child in her typical mothering fashion- stripping her clean of the urine soaked clothing, bathing her from a bucket of water and clearing her brown tangles of nits. "I know we can't spare the lamp fuel, but it's the most effective itch treatment I know."

"Use all you need." Kaelan scratched her head. "Maybe we all should wash with it just to be safe."

"Not a bad idea." Jewel slid one of her own tunics over the child's malnourished frame. "Did your phase turn up anything of use?"

"I just discussed the information with Archell." Kaelan shoved the girl's foul smelling, ragged clothes into the water and pushed the bucket away. "She's the eldest of three children. Her mother brought them here to escape an abusive home. They fared well over the summer but had to butcher their pack milker for food a few days ago. The mother is very pregnant." Kaelan blinked and shook her head. "And, Jewel, she knows it's a Taelach babe."

"How would she know?" Jewel stared at the dark-skinned child. "And the oldest? Why, she's just a baby herself. We have to help these people. They'll starve without assistance."

"But how do you convince a terrified child her mother's teachings are wrong?" Kaelan scratched her head again. "Do itch bugs fly?"

"No, but they do hop." Jewel thrust the oilskin at her. "Comb out your head before it spreads even more. Has Rankil finished changing? I want to soak her clothes before they stain."

"Last I saw, she was by the spring, sand scrubbing her cloak."

"Poor girl," replied Jewel, "I hope the smell comes out of the fur."

"You're not the only one." Kaelan wrinkled her nose.

Rankil returned as they spoke, shivering naked from the waist up, her soggy cloak and tunic draped across her arm. She sneered at the sleeping child, spread her things over the drying racks near the fire, and slid on a fresh tunic. Kaelan motioned her over and combed a thick coating of oil through her shoulder length layers.

"Bad enough I smell like piss," Rankil griped between Kaelan's tugs. "Thanks to her I get to smell like a lantern, too."

"Watch your mouth. It's not the child's fault we scared her so." Kaelan pushed her away. "Besides, the urine smell is gone."

"Good riddance!" Rankil shook out her hair as the other youths returned from their morning chores.

"I mucked the cavern for you, Rankil." Myrla grinned at Rankil's appreciative nod and sniffed the fuel-laden air. "The little girl has the itchies, don't she?" she asked in Autlach.

"Doesn't she," corrected Jewel with exact fluency before reverting to Taelach. "And, yes, she does, so keep your distance. We only have so much fuel." She resisted the urge to scratch. "Has Archell finished feeding?"

"All but," replied Myrla. "You know how he likes to sing them through breakfast."

"Sometimes at the cost of his own." Kaelan chuckled. "Ah, there he is." Archell lumbered into view. "Did the livestock enjoy their serenade?"

"Always do." Archell glanced at the tiny Autlach child. "Pretty little girl with pretty little curls-seems so very hungry. Are you going to leave her asleep?"

"We were waiting for you to convince her she's not dinner," said Jewel. "Think you could make her understand we want to help?"

"Archell can try." He settled beside the frail child and smoothed back her oil-laden hair. "Ooh, itchy bugs." His jovial face turned long. "An oiling for me as well?"

"For all of us," replied Kaelan as she shooed the others away. "Keep your distance and let Archell have a go. We don't have many spare clothes." She focused a rousing phase into the Autlach girl's open mind. "She's all yours, Archie. Do your worst."

"Worst?" He said with a sideways glance. "Archell always sings his best." A comforting tune rose from his chest as the girl began to stir. She squinted and shook off her daze, bringing her new surroundings into fuzzy focus. "Hello, pretty thing." He said between verses. "You're safe."

The girl gave him a curious look then turned her ear to the tune. "Nice," she muttered when he stopped. "Sing me some more?"

"Tell me your name and I will."

"Olitti. What's your name?"

"Archell." He sang her a silly upbeat melody. "Tell me about your brothers and mother."

"How'd you know 'bout them?" Olitti sat up. "Where am I?"

"Safe in my family's cavern." Archell couldn't keep from noticing that one of the girl's eyes wandered. The brown iris of the left had faded, and the pupil was shrunken and opaque from disuse. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes!" Olliti's stomach gave an affirming growl. "You have food to share?"

"We have bread and milk. Archell will bring you some. Wait here."

Jewel passed him a laden tray when he returned to the fireside. "She can't see well, that's a plain fact." She whispered in his ear. "We'll introduce ourselves one at a time from a distance."

"Logical." Kaelan bent close as well. "Reduce the shock value. She'll talk to us before she can see us."

"Archell?" Olitti squinted toward him. "Who're you talking to?"

"Archell's family." He placed the tray by her side. "I have two sisters." He placed toasted bread in her outstretched hands. "Their names are Rankil and Myrla." Olitti mumbled her own siblings' names through bulging cheeks then reached for another slice. "When's the last time Olitti ate?"

"The other day when I robbed someone's snare." The little girl gulped down the second slice and followed it with a mouthful of milk. "A hopper ain't much eatin' when there are four of you, and that's all you got." Olitti flashed a gap-toothed grin then pointed to yet another piece. "Can I have some more?"

"Slow down, Olitti. You'll make yourself sick." Jewel made a small step forward.

Olitti whirled her direction. "Are you Archell's m'ma?"

"My name is Jewel." Jewel made certain her hair was secured under her headscarf before she stepped closer. "Your m'ma is having a baby, isn't she?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Olitti took a smaller sip of milk then wiped her cream-coated lip on her cuff. "M'ma is always havin' babies. Do you have a lot of babies?"

"Only Archell, Rankil and Myrla, and they're all but grown. I don't have any little ones left."

"You can have my youngest brother, Flynne. He's a pest. M'ma says he acts just like Dah."

"Where is your dah?" Jewel motioned Myrla to uncover her braids.

"He died in a fire." Olitti's puerile face darkened with memory. "M'ma rode off with us while the house burned. She said Dah was already dead. Said we had to leave before others came and took us away." She took a small bite of bread. "I don't really miss Dah much. He was always hitting on us." Then Olitti strained her eyes to the figures still out of her focus. "Does your dah hang around, Archell?"

He remained silent for a moment. "Archell's dah doesn't come around anymore." The expression he offered Jewel was tortured, agonized by mere mention of his greatest guilt.

"Then who takes care of you and Jewel?"

"I do." Kaelan stepped into the girl's range of sight. "It's nice to meet you Olitti."

"But you ... the ..." Olitti clambered into Archell's lap, climbing onto his chest where she held tight to his neck. "Help me, Archell! She'll eat me for sure!"

"Kaelan doesn't eat little girls." Archell wrapped his arms around her trembling shoulders. "She is kind to Archell. She'll be kind to you if you let her."

"But she's silver topped!" cried Olitti. "A Taewach!"

"It's pronounced Taelach, little one." Jewel took Kaelan by the hand and together they settled on their mat, a comfortable distance from the terrorized girl. "Kaelan wouldn't hurt you." She removed the scarf from her head. "And neither would I."

"But M'ma says-" Olitti's eyes were on the reflections the fire cast on Jewel's wavy hair.

"Your m'ma has been misled." Kaelan placed a loving arm across her gentlewoman's shoulders. "We want to help your m'ma."

"You do?" Olitti's curious one-eyed gaze had drifted back to her protector. "You like them, Archell?"

"They're part of Archell's family." He disentangled himself from her grasp and presented her with another slice of bread. "My sisters are Taelach, too."

"I sorta see them," she revealed between bites. "Can they come closer?"

"Sure." Myrla and Rankil were added to the circle. Olitti considered them as she ate, then, all but tripping over her tunic's hem, took a wary step toward Myrla so she could touch her hair.

"Pretty." She rolled a soft braid end between her fingers. "Blue eyes are pretty, too." She explored Myrla's face and, lifting her arms, touched her nose and cheeks. "Your clothes and milk skin are a little funny, but you aren't ugly like M'ma says."

"Thank you, Olitti." Myrla laughed as the little Autlach's fingers brushed her neck.

"You tickly, too?" Olitti wriggled her fingers against Myrla's collar. "M'ma says I'm too tickly."

"Didn't know you could be too tickly." Myrla took the girl's hands in her own and tickled the back of her small palms. "Can I be your friend?"

"You can." Olitti said, then turned to Rankil who, despite the need to seem sociable, remained sullen. "But your sister doesn't like me 'cause I wet her."

"Serves her right for scaring you." Myrla elbowed Rankil. "You're not mad, are you Rankil?"

Rankil drew up on her knees to frown above Olitti's head. "I'm not angry." She said in a low voice. "Just a little damp."

"Good!" Olitti jumped into Rankil's arms, throwing her back in a hard sit. "I like you. Paelu and Flynne will like you, too." Her hands drew across Rankil's head and face like she had Myrla's, pausing to trace the raised scar line. "Must have hurt."

"It did." Rankil brushed her hand away.

"How'd it happen?"

The question so distressed Rankil that she appealed to Jewel for a reply.

"An accident," said Jewel, rising to bring Olitti to Kaelan. "Rankil had an accident."

"Oh," Olitti stood before Kaelan, one hand in her mouth, the other twisting her makeshift dress. "You sure are big," she said, waving a wet finger. "Bigger than dah, and I thought he was huge!"

"I'm tall enough for what I am." Kaelan pulled two beads from her life braid and offered them to Olitti. "Does your m'ma have enough blankets for you and your brothers?"

"We got two," said Olitti, held the beads up to the firelight. "M'ma sleeps in her cloak. She says she's not cold but I see her shiver sometimes. We build fires but the wind comes in and blows them out. Mamma gets awfully mad when it happens."

"So would I." Jewel twisted a strand of Olitti's hair into a neat braid then added the beads. "We'd like to bring your brothers and mother here, Olitti. We've spare blankets and-"

"And food?" piped Olitti, dangling the braid between her fingers.

"Plenty of food." Kaelan rose to collect her cloak. "Can you take us to meet your mother?"

"I don't know if I should."

"We only wish to talk to her." Jewel wrapped Olitti's slight frame in a blanket and a double layer of Kaelan's heaviest footlings. "Will you show us?"

"Do Paelu and Flynne have to come, too?"

"Don't you think they're hungry?" Jewel clasped the cloak Kaelan placed over her shoulders. "It's not fair that you've eaten when they've not."

"I guess." Olitti twisted from Jewel's grasp. "Will Rankil carry me?"

"Me?" Rankil looked at Olitti then to Jewel who smiled.

"Rankil can go. Archell, too. We may need their Aut voices. Myrla, would you stay here and begin a stew?"

Myrla, though disappointed, started assembling a hearty meal. When she imagined the outside cold, the gray sky and stark winter surroundings, the cavern became less restricting. Her voice carried farther with the others gone so she sang while she worked, fracturing one of Archell's lighter songs with her out of key voice.

"I told you M'ma wouldn't like this." Olitti sat beside Rankil on a snow-cleared boulder, watching as her mother protected the younger children by brandishing the long stick she used as a fire poker.

"Witches! Demons!" Sharillia lunged at Jewel, who had no difficulty keeping out of the pregnant woman's way.

"Please, think of your children." Jewel indicated the rags covering their feet. "High winter is yet to come and-"

"We'll starve before serving Taelachs!" screamed Sharillia, waving the poker to halt Kaelan's slow advance. "We'll not fill your cook pots!"

"The only thing in our cook pot is hopper stew." Kaelan extended her hands to show her passivity. "You cannot permit the children to starve when food is available to you."

"You've already got one slave." Sharillia indicated Archell. "What else would you want with three children besides something tender to chew?"

"M'ma, behave!" Olitti wriggled free of her blanket and jumped from her perch, dodging Rankil's grab to bound to her mother's side. "They fed me, M'ma. They said we could stay with them. They have the most wonderful cave. It has water and a smoke hole so they don't choke up like we do."