"Why did he try to take control?" Aiden asked, assuming it was more than just a desire for power. He knew Katla and the Thane of her tribe didn't see eye to eye and that there was a power struggle going on, but he wasn't sure how Jerrick or Old-Tooth fit into picture.

"Because that's how his father took control," Sigrun said in a dark tone. She sighed, one hand on her hip as she looked at him. "Svarn should be our Thane," she told him quietly. "And after him, Hakon. Old-Tooth challenged the old thane when he was aged and infirm; he took the hold under his control in a contest that was far from fair. Then Halvar was killed in a raid on the Heart - a pointless raid, made only to remove him. Halvar was Svarn and Katla's elder brother, and Hakon's father. Old-Tooth forced the mating of his own son on Katla to gain legitimacy, but it backfired on him - Jerrick and Halvar were milk-brothers. He couldn't forgive his father for what he'd done."

As if he wasn't confused enough, the woman's explanation confused him further. "And to become Thane, Svarn would have to challenge Old-Tooth," he said, slowly making sense of it all.

"Svarn or Katla," Sigrun told him. "They've a good deal of support, especially now Old-Tooth is growing paranoid in his ageing. But one foot wrong, and we'll be turned out. He'll take Tabren, Hakon, and Siv away from us, and send us into the mountains to die. He's not yet made the mistake that will allow a challenge against him."

"I thought you said Svarn should be Thane," Aiden pointed out, unsure if a woman was allowed to become tribal leader here. Things were different in the lowlands, but that hardly mattered as he did not really belong there anymore.

"As the elder, yes," she shrugged. "But if it were Katla who challenged, he'd support her claim to power. They share the same mother, unlike Halvar - all three were unusually close. Tabren! Come when I call you!" This yell was answered by the youthful voice from outside.

"I'm comin', Mamae!"

Aiden took that as his cue to finish his meal and be on his way to meet Katla, wherever she was. "Thank you for your kindness and your honesty, Sigrun," he told her, gratefully and sincerely. He might have liked to have had more sleep and eaten a bigger meal, but the truth was that he'd had more sleep and food since arriving there than he'd had in a few weeks.

"Just you keep her alive out there," Sigrun told him fiercely. "There's already one child in this family who's lost both parents; Siv shouldn't join him." She glanced up as Tabren came in, scratching his fingers through his scruffy hair. "Take Aiden down to the butts," she told her son. "No side trips. And don't come back alone - wait for your aunt."

"Yes, Mamae," the boy nodded, flickering a wild grin in her direction. "C'mon, Owenson."

"I will," Aiden promised her without hesitation. Though he had only just met these people, he had taken an oath to protect and defend, and these people were no exception. He arched a brow at the boy, finding him a little bold for his age, but that wasn't a bad thing necessarily.

Perhaps it wasn't so strange that a boy of eleven should be so bold - in such a war-like society, he was likely close to the age when he might be considered a man, and just as likely to already be training with weapons. Whatever the reason, Tabren was a merry companion on the walk through the hold, leading the way past the huts and workshops down to the lake, all the while keeping up a cheerful commentary on the people they passed for Aiden's amusement.

At the butts, which turned out to be a training ground, Katla was sparring with another woman, both of them wearing bright grins as they exchanged blows with sword and axe that would make most lowland women think twice about ever lifting a bread knife again. As they watched, Katla headbutted her opponent, dropping to scythe her feet out from under her with one leg, her sword blade laid against the woman's throat. A clear win, and one the other didn't take badly, laughing as she rose to her feet. She nodded toward Aiden for Katla's attention, and the Dawn Rider sheathed her sword, moving to join her claim and her nephew.

"Impressive," Aiden remarked on her sparring once Katla joined him. He wasn't arrogant or foolish enough to challenge her to a fight, though he knew she'd asked him here so that he could prove himself worthy to her tribemates. He might have heard the story of how she became the Dawn Rider, but to see her fight proved her ability more than any story.

"For a woman who hadn't picked up a sword until five years ago, yes," she agreed, pulling the helmet from her head. "Tabren, Bjarth is pulling spears. Why not practice your throw for a while?"

The boy grinned happily at the suggestion. "Aye, Dawn Rider, I will!"

As he ran off, Katla's smile only showed in her eyes. Outside the walls of her home, she was like ice. "No one here uses the bow," she told Aiden in a low voice. "Make a show of it and don't miss. Once they see you're touched by the Lady, not one of them will object to you joining me on the hunt tonight."

"This Lady you keep mentioning ....Would she be the Goddess?" he asked, keeping his voice low so that the others would not overhear. Their belief system was different from that of the Lowlanders, and yet, there were some similarities, too.

She frowned curiously. "She's the Lady of the Skies," she told him, her own voice low, aware that this difference could earn him enemies of his own here. "The daughter of Father Earth and Mother Sea. She guides the visions of the augurs, and paints signs in the sky with the migration of birds; she protects the hunter. What is this Goddess of yours?"

"The Goddess of the Hunt," he replied, keeping his voice on a level with hers. "Mistress of the Wild - the forest, the hills, the animals. Goddess of the Moon, among other things," he explained. "Not so very different from your Lady of the Skies."

"No, not so different," she agreed softly. She stepped back, nodding to where a series of targets were set up - targets that were used for spear throwing, judging by the size of the holes in them. "Impress them, lowlander. Our lives might depend on it."

"Why do you not use the bow?" he asked curiously as he stepped forward and unslung the bow from his back. He wasn't too worried about impressing them. He'd learned how to use a bow almost as soon as he could hold one.

"Tradition," she shrugged, following him at a reasonable distance. "The game we hunt up here are bison mainly, some boar - hides too thick for arrows. Our spear points are stone; sharp and heavy enough to pierce that hide if you throw hard enough."

"I hunt smaller game," he explained, not bothering to explain that he was usually a solitary hunter. A solitary man on the move hardly needed a bison or boar to fill his belly when a rabbit or pheasant would do the job. If he really wanted to impress them, he thought he should demonstrate his prowess with the sword, but then that could be deadly. No, it was better this way. He came to a halt a short distance from a row of round targets made of twisted straw propped up on wooden posts, frowning thoughtfully a moment. It was almost too easy.

Just a claim. Aiden scowled. It was going to take more than a little fancy archery to win this people's respect. He wondered, in fact, if he ever would. Then again, why did it matter when he didn't plan on staying that long" "I'm also a grown man who can take care of himself," Aiden pointed out. And for all his bravado, Tabren was still only a child of eleven years.

"I can take care of myself!" Tabren argued hotly as they headed back through the huts toward their home. "I can use a sword and a shield, and I killed a corpse just last month, all by myself!"

Katla raised a brow, but said nothing. It seemed she'd had this argument with her nephew several times before.

"Someone needs to stay back to protect your family," Aiden interjected, hoping the boy would see this as something worthwhile and not just an excuse to convince him to remain behind. "Being a man means protecting those who are weaker than yourself. Can you do that, Tabren?"

"But nothing ever happens here," the boy whined. "I want to go on the hunt, like the Dawn Rider and Father. I'll be a great warrior, just like them. But no one wants to let me try." He let out a great sigh, scuffing his feet through the dirt as they walked.

"And if you are away when it does happen, what then?" Aiden reasoned, letting the boy sort that out for himself. It was unlikely that anything would happen in the village while they were gone, but there was always that possibility.

Tabren scowled, but he didn't put up any more arguments. He was used to losing when he tried to fight for his right to join the hunting parties that left every evening.

Katla laid her hand gently between his shoulder-blades. "Don't be in such a hurry to grow up," she advised quietly. "It isn't any fun, being an adult in these times."

Aiden smiled a little to himself, seeing that things weren't much different here than anywhere else he'd been, at least where children were concerned. They were always in too much of a hurry to grow up, not realizing what they'd lost until they were adults.

"You know what would give you an advantage in learning the bow?" Katla said suddenly, drawing the boy's attention from his feet. "You should take over the wood chopping for the stove. That will make your arms and shoulders strong. Would it not?" This, she aimed at Aiden curiously.

"Aye," Aiden replied, taking his cue from Katla. "It will help with the sword and spear, as well," he added, which was true. "I wasn't much younger than you when I learned the bow," he said, though he didn't mention just how much younger.

"And it is something you do not need someone to teach you how to do," Katla added. "Something that would make your mother happy to know you are doing, and something Hakon and Siv will not be allowed to do for some years yet."

Tabren brightened as they spoke, encouraged by this offer of a responsibility that would bring him closer to his ultimate goal. "I can do that."

"The first thing we'll work on is making you a bow. We'll need the right kind of wood - yew or elm," Aiden added, letting the boy know there was more involved in mastering archery than learning to shoot.

Tabren nodded eagerly. "There's yew just outside the stockade," he offered. "It's a graveyard, so all that wood's got to be yew."

Katla bit her lip, trying not to smile. The forest outside the stockade was, in fact, a mixture of pine, elm, and oak, but she would let Aiden puncture this hopeful bubble.

"When I get back, we'll go looking together. That is, if you trust me," Aiden said, adding that little caveat at the end. If the boy wanted Aiden to teach him to shoot, he was going to have to trust him.

"Trust you more if I could go tonight," the boy muttered, which was probably about as close as Aiden was going to get to an acknowledgement. As they approached their hut, he slipped away, pulling at the wood axe set in the stump Svarn used to chop wood on.

Katla bit down her smile until they were inside. "Well, it's going to take him a while to get it out."

"He's got spirit. Reminds me of myself at that age," Aiden observed, though, of course, they weren't related. Maybe boys were just always boys, a little too eager for adventure, despite the danger.

"He's never going to be burly like Svarn," Katla shrugged, smiling over at her brother. "No one's as thick as Svarn." Her brother scowled at her, even as his wife laughed at the comment on him.

Aiden smiled at the easy camaraderie between the group, even knowing as he did that he was not part of it. As far as they were concerned, he was a lowlander and an outsider, but they were slowly starting to trust him.

"So, you're off without me tonight?" Svarn asked. The big man was sat at the table, skinning a brace of rabbits as Sigrun took the meat from him to chop and cook it. "Sure you won't need me?"

Katla shook her head. "Not tonight, Svarn," she told him firmly. "Someone has to stay."

Aiden remained quiet, allowing the little family to talk without him interrupting. What could he say, anyway' There was no point in promising he'd protect Katla when she was likely to be insulted by it. Instead he found a place to sit where he was out of the way and started to sort through the arrows to see which needed repairing.

"Hakon, fetch that twine down for me, would you?" Katla asked her other nephew as he passed through the room. She smiled at him as he did so, letting him go on his way as she sat down at the table herself.

"Who're you taking with you?" Svarn was asking, glancing at Sigrun significantly as Katla's hands started to repair the arrows Aiden set aside without a word being spoken between them.

"Bjarth's coming," his sister told him mildly. "Sven went out earlier - he's holding the horses for us."

Without a word spoken between them, Katla and Aiden started working to repair the arrows and replenish his supply, just in case they were needed later. Neither said a word, and yet, they worked so well together, it was almost as if they'd known each other for years, not a single day. "How many are we taking?" Aiden asked, at long last.

"Just the four of us," she told him. "We'll need to move fast, and we'll need to move quiet once we're in the Heart. We can't afford to attract their attention, so it's a small group and a lot of luck."

"If we find the truth of what happened, if it's not what we have always believed ..." Katla sighed, shaking her head. "It's all speculation, lowlander. I cannot make promises with the lives of my people. I won't speculate with my daughter's life. You should hope we find something in there tonight that will change my mind."

"It doesn't matter, Katla. I'm grown used to being alone. All I ask is that you don't blame my sister for what I am," he told her, not blaming her, and yet feeling the sting of rejection all the same. "I am grateful for everything you've done for me, and I don't wish your people any harm."

She frowned, disliking the way things had turned out. "If you were not a Walker, I would welcome you into our home," she admitted reluctantly. "I wish you had not told us."

He smiled a little sadly, touched by her regret, though her feelings would not change things. "You would have found out sooner or later, and then what would you think of me for keeping it from you?"

She held his gaze, her eyes dull with a pain that she wasn't sure she had ever thought to feel again. "I'd have killed you for keeping it," she admitted, glancing down at her hands. What was wrong with her" She'd known him only a day - less than a day - but she knew she would miss him when they parted ways. She'd not felt that way for anyone before now. "Keep it to yourself, for now," she advised. "No need for Bjarth or Sven to know, not until it's too late for them to abandon us, at any rate."

He mirrored the look in her eyes, pained, sad, lonely even, but he knew better than to argue the point. Being a Shadow-Walker - a Hunter of the Dead - was a mostly solitary life; a legacy that would most likely die with him, and then where would the living be? "You need not go with me, Katla. This is my quest, not yours." At stake, his only flesh and blood family member left living.

"I gave you my word," she repeated, emphasizing her point. "I keep my word. Turning you loose out there would be sending you to your death, and I will not do that. No one deserves to be abandoned without hope on the mountainside."

"I don't know what I'm going to find there," he murmured thoughtfully, a worried expression on his face. "I'd know it if she was dead, but ..." He trailed off, refusing to give up hope just yet.

"So long as the chance remains that she might still live, you have to try," she agreed softly. "I know. My father didn't give up on my mother until he held her body in his arms. Believe me, I know." She rose, laying a hand on his shoulder, strong fingers squeezing. "Come away for a walk with me. Let them cook and eat together without us."

He rubbed a hand across his face, though there were no tears. He was well beyond tears, or maybe they just hadn't caught up with him yet. His sister was all he had in the world, and without her, he would have to face true loneliness. He wasn't sure why she wanted to walk alone with him for a while, but he was too heartsick to refuse, nodding his head in silent reply.

Katla lead him out of the hut, turning to guide him away from the gathering of habitations to where greenery hung from the over-hanging rocks of the sheer granite wall that surrounded the hold, out of sight of a casual glance from anyone looking their way. She scuffed her foot over the smooth rock beneath them.

"This hold is not a stable one," she said quietly. "I've the support to establish one new, but nowhere a new hold could be built safely to last out against the dead. If that sword of yours is truly a legend-blade, and I can get you in striking distance of the demon that controls the Heart ....both our problems could be solved tonight."

While it was true he had spent less than a day here, he had already become fond of these people and their ways and found himself regretting having to leave. Then again, if staying meant putting them in harm's way, he really had no choice. "I have an idea, but you may not like it."

She turned toward him, her eyes curious. "I'll listen, if you've a mind to talk it through," she told him. "I may seem harsh, lowlander, but life is harsh up here. If you've an idea that'll make it easier, I'll listen and see it done."

"The sword is the key," he started, offering more secrets he had never shared with anyone other than his own flesh and blood before. "I do not know how to explain, but it knows where to find the Dead and it will lead the way."

"Can it find the one controlling the dead?" she asked intensely. "The demon who raises them, who sends them against us?" Her gaze was hard, but it was clear she was trying to hold back a sudden hope that not all was as hopeless as it seemed.

"Aye, I believe it can, but I have never been able to get far enough inside the mountain to try," he replied, with a thoughtful look on his face. "My father once told me that it was the demons who killed the Shadow-Walkers and made slaves of their souls. It was the Lady - the Goddess - who gave us the sword," he continued, "so that we could free the enslaved souls and scour the land of the demons, but there are so few of us now. I am only one man, and there is only one sword."

A fierce smile suddenly appeared on her face, strong hands reaching up to grasp his face and pull him into a hard kiss. "We've got them!" she celebrated, releasing him as she grinned wickedly. "That hold will be ours by dawn!"

This kiss took him by surprise more than anything else she could have done. That she was now grinning at him and looking as though they already had a victory in hand was secondary to that kiss. "I don't understand," he murmured, the taste of her lips lingering against his.

"I know that hold inside out," she told him with a grin. "I've been in and out of it a few times over the last years. I know exactly where that demon dwells, and I know exactly how to get to it. You concentrate on the demon - we'll keep the others off you until you're done. Demon dead, the dead released, the spirits banished, and the Heart is ours for the taking."

"And what then?" he asked, not even bothering to mention his sister. If she was still alive inside the mountain, they'd find her, one way or another; but if they succeeded in defeating the demon and taking the hold, what then" Would he still be an unwelcome outcast or would he have earned not only their respect but their trust - something he thought he should have earned already.

She turned back to him, her smile more than a little suggestive. "Fancy being a Thane's man?" she asked, her brows high. "I can make the rule in my own hold, after all, and if I want a Shadow-Walker, I can have one."

"Are you asking if I'd be your mate?" he asked, brows arching upwards, obviously surprised at this turn of events. Just a short time ago, she was telling him he'd have to leave and now she was telling him the exact opposite. As far as becoming Thane was concerned, he had no compunction about helping her overthrow the current Thane, whom he'd taken an instant disliking to upon meeting the man.

"You prove to me that you are not a beacon for the dead, that you can end them, and I'll bear you a son to take over your line when we're gone," she offered plainly. "Maybe even the hold. It's clear you've little enough waiting for you in the lowlands. Stay in the mountains, make a life with us. With me."

And here, he thought she wanted to be Thane. "You are lucky to have them - your family and your people," he pointed out for the first time since arriving. He only hoped his sister still lived so that she could meet these people and come to know them with him.

"Even in the darkest night, there's some light to be found," she agreed mildly. "Your night has been very dark, hasn't it, lowlander" And your light was stolen away." She frowned, setting her jaw fiercely. "We'll find her. I swear to you, we will find her."

"Aye," he replied, the smile fading, turning gravely serious. "It may be too late already, but I have not felt her death," he said, reaffirming what he'd already told her.

"You ....you can feel her?" she asked sharply. He'd mentioned it before, but she hadn't truly thought he'd meant it. Now she knew he was a Walker, it wasn't entirely outside the realm of possibility.

"We're twins, born of the same mother at nearly the same time of birth," he explained. Even so, being twins only strengthened the bond of blood that already existed between them. He had always been able to feel her, even from childhood.

Katla's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "So ....if you're a Shadow-Walker ..." she said, feeling her way through a snippet of very old storytelling. "Tell me, lowlander, what was your mother?"

He hesitated a moment, that frown still on his face. He had never shared any of this information with anyone outside the small circle of the Initiated. "My mother was a Handmaiden in the Temple of the Goddess," he replied, giving her enough information to connect the dots without telling her everything.

She drew in a sharp breath. "Your sister's a Light-Bringer," she said worriedly. "The demon has a Light-Bringer in the Heart." She swore then, a word that had little meaning in the tongue they shared but definitely expressed a certain amount of angry frustration. "You should have told me."

"Now you know why it's so important I find her," he said, besides the fact that she was his only flesh and blood and that they'd been together forever - even in the womb.

"If we get through this, you and I are going to have a long talk about all these things you haven't been telling me," she informed him sharply, a warning in her tone. "A Light-Bringer in the Heart is the greatest threat we've ever faced in these mountains."

"I wasn't sure you'd understand," he explained, not to mention the way they'd reacted to learning he was a Shadow-Walker. What would they have done if he'd told them the rest' "Being what I am is ....I have not spoken of these things to anyone in years." It was another way of explaining how very solitary his existence had been, aside from his sister.

"I need to get another pair of hands in," she said, shaking her head. "At least one more for our party. This is far more complex than I was expecting it to be." She shook her head. "You may not trust us, but you should trust that we know our mountains. We know a threat when it exists."

"My sister will do everything she can to fight them," he pointed out further, though he knew she couldn't fight them alone forever. He also knew she'd rather die than let them use her, even if it meant ending her life herself.

"Has she ever faced a demon before?" she asked rather pointedly. Her opinion of lowlander women was not the highest to begin with. "If that thing corrupts her, the sun will never shine again. The sun is the only thing holding them at bay!"

He understood her fear and the urgency of their quest and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "We will prevail, Katla. I can feel it." He wasn't sure he could explain just how he knew that, but he did. There had been an imbalance in the world for decades, and that imbalance was about to tip the other way because of them.

"Feelings aren't going to help us tonight," she said in a short tone. "Come on. You need to eat and prep for the hunt. I have someone I need to talk to." She gave him a tug, moving to untangle her hand from his before they stepped back out into the view of her neighbors.

He knew that, too, but she couldn't feel what he was feeling. It wasn't just knowing that they would prevail. That would be nothing short of arrogant. It was about needing to prevail as their very existence counted on it. Before she could step away from him, he touched her cheek, turning her back toward him and leaned in so close that she could feel the warmth of his breath on her face and see the sincerity in his eyes.

"I will never keep anything from you again. I swear," he told her, his words for her alone, just before he touched his lips to hers, returning the gift she had given him a short while ago.

For all her toughness, her harsh outlook, Katla Dawn Rider was still woman beneath it all. A woman who had taken a fancy to this man, and despite her need to be a warrior, she knew she'd developed a weakness the moment his lips touched hers. She'd never felt herself melt before; never allowed herself to be kissed like this before. With Jerrick, everything had been a fight; with Aiden, she found she didn't want to fight. Her lips softened beneath his, her fingers clenching in his stained coat for a long moment before she abruptly pulled back with a gasp.

"I need a clear head," she told him, stepping away. But it wasn't a dismissal or a rejection. If anything, she had just told him he had more of a chance with her than any other man ever had.

Perhaps he was just reminding her that there was something else at stake here besides the very future of their world. There was hope in that kiss and a hint of longing and passion. As for himself, he'd been with other women, but he'd never felt anything for any of them like what he felt for her. He couldn't help but smile a little, even as grave as the situation was. The Goddess - the Lady - had brought him here for a reason, and he chose to believe they would not fail.

There was too much at stake to even consider failure. Though very few knew it, their entire race depended on this one night, and on a very small group of very determined warriors. If they wanted a future, they were going to have to fight for it.