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."Well, I admit I'm only fifteen, but I was born in the uplake mountaincountry of Dillia; my family has hunted and trapped on both sides of the border for a long time.I knowevery trail and pathway between here and Dillia, and that's a pretty good ways.""And the Gedemondas?" Mavra prompted.The Dillian shrugged."They've never bothered me.You see them every once in a while big whiteshapes against the snow.Never close they're always gone when you get there.You hear them, too,sometimes, growling and roaring and making all sorts of weird sounds that echo between the mountains.""Is it their speech?" Vistaru asked."I don't think so," Tael replied."I used to, but when they asked me to do this guide job for you they fittedme with a translator, and I didn't hear any difference.I've wondered sometimes whether they have anyspeech as we know it at all.""That could be bad," Renard put in."How can you talk to somebody who can't talk back?"She nodded."I'm still excited about all this.We've tried off and on to communicate with them for thelongest time; I'd like to be there when it's done.""If it's done," Hosuru added pessimistically."I'm worried about the smoke from that thing," Mavra said, cocking her head a little bit toward the stove."Not the Gedemondas.The war parties.They have to be close by."The girl looked uncomfortable."I've seen them already, but they just took a close look at me and went on.A few flying horses like yours, and some really strange, beautiful things that must have had orange andbrown butterflylike wings three or more meters across.None of them landed."Vistaru looked concerned."Yaxa and Agitar both.Advance scouts.We can't stay here long.""We won't," Tael told them."We'll leave at first light up the Intermountain Trail in back of the base here.With any luck we'll make Camp 43 shortly after noon, and from there we start getting into snow countryand the air thins.""How high is this camp?" Renard asked."Fifteen hundred sixty-two meters," Tael responded."But you're already almost four hundred meters up.You wouldn't know it, but the plain's a slope.""We could fly up that far," Vistaru noted."We're good to about eighteen hundred meters, and I think yousaid, Renard, that Doma's good to about that."He nodded."But that doesn't help our guide, here.No wings for her."Tael laughed."That's all right.I told you I was mountain-born.Even better if we have a head start, butbeyond Camp 43, flying will be difficult.I can start up this evening, and be there to meet you in themorning.That way we move even faster." Her face darkened, and she looked at Mavra."But you will haveto be dressed far better than that.All of you, in fact.Frostbite will be a big problem.""We have some winter things," Hosuru told her."And I understood you were supposed to bring somestuff."She nodded, went over to a stall, and hauled out some tough fabric knapsacks.They were heavy, but shemanaged them without strain.Maybe she couldn't fly, but she did add the muscle power that was their most conspicuous lack.She sorted things out.Special form-fitting thermal wear to suit Latan contours, including transparent buttough and rigid shielding for the wings, appeared, and a heavy coat and gloves that sealed with an elasticof some kind fitted Renard."You'll also find these useful," she said, tossing him some small objects whichproved to be wrappings for his hooves, with a flat, spiked, disklike sole that would give him not onlyprotection but better footing.She brought out some more clothes, also of the Latan model but larger andwithout the wing flaps.She looked a little puzzled.They were obviously for a biped with hands and feet.Hastily, Mavra explained what had happened.The girl nodded sympathetically, but was plainlyconcerned."I don't see how these can be cut down," she said."Your feet should do all right in the snow, like mine,but you should have some kind of wrapping.You haven't got my protective skin layers and hair," shepointed out
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