black hair spread over Locust's bandaged right leg, but through the glistening strands, Badgertail could see the dark yellow stains that splotched the white cloth. Locust had dressed in a thin white shirt spun from milkweed threads. It clung to every curve of her perspiring body.
Badgertail bowed respectfully to Checkerberry, who was lying on her back near the door, dozing, with two bundles clutched in her arms. Babies? Green Ash's? Why weren't they at home with their mother? Checkerberry nodded a tired welcome to Badgertail and closed her eyes again.
He went over and knelt before Locust. She had pulled her short locks back and fastened them over her ears with copper combs. The style accentuated the lean, pointed qualities of her face. Her eyes had gone vacant, glazed.
Badgertail lifted a hand and put it against her forehead. "You're burning up."
"You heard what happened?"
"I heard."
Locust's jaw trembled despite her efforts to set her teeth. "Fm going to kill him, Badgertail."
He nodded obligingly. "I don't blame you. But let me talk to him first, find out why he—"
"There's no reason for what he did!"
Locust reached down and threw back the black-and-white blanket that covered Primrose's naked body. Prinu-ose buried his face deeper in the white fabric covering Locust's lap and squirmed to hide the most hideous of his wounds. But Badgertail's heart went cold and still. Primrose's testicles had been cut off. Pink wounds marked the places where they had been. Badgertail closed his eyes and turned away.
Locust reached out and grabbed him by the chin, twisting his head so that he met her hot gaze. "I'm going to kill him, Badgertail . . . and not you or anyone else can stop me."
Primrose sobbed, "No, no, don't." When Locust put a hand tenderly on his hair, his arms went suddenly around her waist and he bawled openly, "I just want you to stay here with me! Don't leave me."
Locust lifted her eyes to Badgertail's, and in them he saw rage the likes of which he had never seen. Rage that seared his very soul.
Badgertail put a hand on Locust's bare foot. "I don't think you'll have to."
"Why?"
"Petaga will be here by tomorrow night at the latest," he said and sucked in a steadying breath. "There's no way we can hold him off."
"Are you saying you've given up?"
"No. You know me. I'm too bullheaded to give up. We'll fight to our last warrior, but . . ."He shrugged, and all of the weariness he'd been staving off settled on his shoulders like a leaden cape. "Hailcloud has managed Petaga's forces expertly. I don't know how many they lost in the fighting up north, but I wager it wasn't more than two, maybe three hundred. He still has about a thousand warriors. You've been home longer than I have. Locust. How many warriors would you say we have?"
Her gaze dropped away firom his. Absently, she stroked Primrose's hair. "We've had very few come in. I don't know, perhaps fifty. I've been locked in here, but Puffball keeps me informed."
"That gives us two hundred and fifty against one thousand. Even with the palisades . . . I don't think it'll be enough."
"What are we going to do?"
"I want you and your family to move inside the palisades—^into my house. I won't be there most of the time anyway, what with planning and fighting, and that way I can ask Nightshade to come and care for both you and Primrose. She's a great healer. You know that."
"Badgertail, if you allow me to enter the palisades—"
"Just give me three days. I suspect that Petaga will have overrun the palisades by then and killed Tharon himself. But if not . . . well, we'll discuss it then. Agreed?"
Locust's expression softened, wiped clean of all except fevered exhaustion. "Agreed."
He squeezed her bare foot and rose. "When can you move to my house?"
"I'll need to get word to Green Ash. She and Nettle are supposed to be married tomorrow. I don't know how she—"
"They can be married on the temple mound ... as long as no arrows are sailing around them. Tharon will agree to that."
Locust's eyes smoldered again, and Badgertail quickly turned away. Checkerberry was staring at him through a wispy veil of gray hair. The old woman said, "I won't be coming to your house, Badgertail, though I thank you for the offer."
"Why not?"
"Because Green Ash will go mad if she has to be close to her babies. And I—^I'll go mad if I have to be close to Nightshade."
"I know your fear of Nightshade, Checkerberry, but what do you mean about the babies? I don't—"
"It's a long story, too long for tonight. Is there perhaps another house where I could stay and keep the children safe?"