The Dog Master by W. Bruce Cameron Read Free Book Online

out,” Calli noted, glancing down significantly. Urs blushed and bent to pick up his garments.
    â€œThough I see you already put one of them away,” she continued.
    Urs simply had no idea what to say to that. He reached out to her, holding her so that he could look into her eyes. “He was very fast, faster than any Kindred. I barely missed him, but I did miss.”
    â€œSo. Just one person fell victim to your magnificent weapon today,” Calli speculated.
    â€œYou are too smart for me, Calli Umbra,” Urs said, laughing.
    A man who thinks I am smart, Calli thought to herself. Imagine such a thing.
    They began making their way on the path back toward the summer settlement. Urs fell silent and Callie hoped it was for the same reason she had run out of words herself: the memory of what they had just done together was too profound for any more banter.
    They walked slowly, their hands entwined, but when the trail became strewn with loose rocks they released each other to better balance through the uneven footing. This fortunately meant there was no obvious intimacy between them when, at a bend in the path, they encountered Palloc, at nineteen summers a full year older than Urs. Where Urs towered and was thin, Palloc was stocky and short—Calli’s height, in fact.
    â€œAny luck?” Palloc demanded. He was standing with his spear near a den of rabbits that had been completely exploited the summer before. This year, though the Kindred kept returning to the same spot, there were no rabbits.
    â€œYes!” Calli replied gaily. “We had much luck!”
    Urs turned and gaped at her audacity.
    â€œWhat did you get?” Palloc asked, eyeing them suspiciously.
    â€œNothing,” Urs admitted, giving Calli a stern look to stay quiet.
    Palloc snorted, looking between the two of them. “You two are such children.”
    This bothered Urs. “I am no child. I am spearman,” he challenged softly.
    Palloc was one of the oddest-looking members of the Kindred. While nearly everyone else shared homogeneous dark brown eyes and complexions to match, Palloc’s coloring was fair, his brown eyes so light the facets seemed to glow in the sun. It made the mood in them easy to read, somehow, so that Calli knew he was angry before he spoke. “And I am spear master, ” Palloc icily reminded Urs. “Your attitude does not please me, spearman.” He glanced at Calli and his face flushed because he knew she was examining the hairs on his arms, which always turned nearly invisible in the summer. “Someday I will be hunt master and I will remember those who caused me disapproval.”
    Calli did not want to spend any more time with Palloc. “I need to help prepare dinner,” she declared.
    â€œThen go,” Palloc ordered dismissively. “The hunt master has instructed the men to look for prey close to camp. Urs will help me hunt rabbits.”
    â€œBut I should not be unescorted, not this far up the trail,” Calli smoothly pointed out.
    Impatience flitted across Palloc’s pale features.
    â€œShe is right, Spear Master,” Urs observed.
    â€œThen both of you go. There is real work to be done; you would be of no help to me anyway.”
    Though the stiff set to Urs’s jaw told Calli how furious this made him, he responded to the slight bump of her body against his and moved off without a word. Soon Palloc was out of hearing range.
    â€œThank you,” Calli said softly.
    â€œYou were right, a woman should not be alone, not this far away.”
    â€œNo, I mean thank you for leaving him. Leaving the … discussion.”
    â€œDiscussion,” Urs repeatedly moodily. Then his wonderful smile flickered back on his face. “Yes, it was very much a discussion. With Palloc, he talks, and you listen, and that is the discussion.”
    â€œDo you think it is true? That he will be hunt master someday?” Calli asked.
    â€œWe do not