Outcast by Michelle Paver Page A

fish-skin tents on the foreshore, and the Sea Eagles, who didn't seem to care, had made their untidy stick piles wherever they'd found space. The Open Forest clans had camped nearest the trees, but Torak couldn't see the Ravens' open-fronted shelters.
    "They say the Wolf Clan's headed south," said a man's voice, startlingly close.
Torak froze.
"Good riddance," snorted another man. "I never feel easy with them around."
A muffled curse as one of them tripped over a root. "Still, they should've stayed," said the first man. "It's a clan meet, that's what it's for." "What about the Deep Forest clans?" said his companion. "No sign of them, either."
"I hear there's trouble between the Aurochs and the Forest Horses...."
Their voices faded as they headed toward the river--and Torak breathed again.
It was some time before he dared move. Keeping to the edge of the Forest, he came to a pine-ringed hollow where a throng of people crowded around a large fire. Smells of baked salmon and roasting meat mingled with the music of voice, pipe, and drum.
    The fire was made of three pine logs burning along 84
their length. A Raven long-Fire. He'd found them.
Dry mouthed, he hid in a clump of yews beyond the light.
He saw Fin-Kedinn deep in talk with the Salmon Clan Leader as they cut hunks off a glistening side of red deer and filled peoples' bowls.
He saw Saeunn and two other Mages a little way off, by a smaller blaze that gave off a heady scent of juniper. One Mage cast handfuls of bones and watched how they fell, while a second read the smoke snaking into the sky. Saeunn rocked back and forth, spitting spells.
    Above Torak's head, a branch creaked--and a raven peered down at him with bright, unforgiving eyes. He begged it not to betray him.
The guardian spread its wings and flew, swooping low over the Mages' fire. Saeunn raised her head to follow it. Then she turned and looked straight at Torak. She can't see you, he told himself. But in the firelight, the stare of the Raven Mage was red with secret knowledge. Who knew what she could see? Just when Torak couldn't bear it any longer, Saeunn turned back to her spells.
Shaky with relief, he scanned the firelit faces. He saw the Boar Clan Leader jabbing his finger at the Whale Leader to emphasize a point. Aki sitting nearby, watching his father with an odd mix of fear and longing.
    Then Torak saw her.
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Renn sat cross-legged at the front of the throng, scowling into the flames. She was pale, and her right forearm was bound in soft buckskin, but apart from that, she appeared unhurt.
    The tightness in his chest loosened as if a rawhide strap had snapped.
She's all right.
A dog padded over to him; luckily, one he knew. He shooed it away.
Next time he might not be so lucky. He had to get away before they found him.
He stayed where he was.
Maybe it was seeing Renn again. Maybe it was the wild hope that with the mark of the Soul-Eater cut out, he could simply step into the light, and everyone would welcome him back.
    He stayed.
And that changed everything.
The moon made its way across the sky, and still Torak watched.
He saw men, women, and children dipping beakers in pails of brewed birch-blood. He saw them stepping into the space around the long-fire to offer a story, a song. A Willow man sang of the salmon run to the music of deer-hoof rattles and duck-bone pipes.
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A Rowan woman created a prowling shadow bear by moving her hands behind a firelit hide.
So it went on through the brief summer night. Torak found himself drawn into the stories: the ancient memories which the clans had told on nights such as this since the Beginning.
     
It was a while before he noticed that Renn had gone as white as chalk.
    Two masked figures were now dancing around the fire: a midge with a long, pointed wooden beak, and an irascible elk. The midge--with a Viper woman behind the mask--zoomed about, whining and poking with her beak, to delighted squeals from children and laughter from their parents. But Renn had eyes only