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Delain battened down for the coming storm, and everyone waited.
Ben and Naomi took turns ru
Naomi looked beautiful indeed-the flush of her exercise had colored her ta
“A record run, by the gods!” she cried. “We’ve made it three-no, four!-hours earlier than I would have believed when we left! And not one dog has burst its heart! Aiy, Frisky! Aiy! Good dog!”
Frisky, a huge black-and-white Anduan husky with gray-green eyes, was at the head of the tether. She was jumping in the air, straining against the traces. Naomi unhooked her and danced with her in the snow. It was a curious waltz, both graceful and barbaric. Dog and mistress seemed to laugh at each other in a powerful shared affection. Some of the other dogs were lying down on their sides now, panting hard, obviously exhausted, but neither Frisky nor Naomi seemed even slightly winded.
“Aiy, Frisky! Aiy, my love! Good dog! You’ve led a famous chase!”
“But for what?” Ben asked glumly.
She released Frisky’s paws and turned to him, angry… but the dejection on his face robbed her of her anger. He was looking toward the house. She followed his gaze and understood. They were here, yes, but where was here? An empty farmhouse, that was all. What in the world had they come so far and so fast for? The house would have been just as empty an hour… two hours… four hours from now. Peyna and Arlen were in the north, De
She went to Ben and put a hesitant hand on his shoulder. “Don’t feel so bad,” she said. “We’ve done all we could do.”
“Have we?” he asked. “I wonder.” He paused, and sighed deeply. He had taken off his knitted cap and his golden hair gleamed mellowly in the dull afternoon light. “I’m sorry, Naomi. I don’t mean to snap at you. You and your dogs have done wonders. It’s just that I feel we’re very far from where we could give any real aid. I feel helpless.”
She looked at him, sighed, and nodded.
“Well,” he said, “let’s go in. Maybe there’ll be some sign of what we’re to do next. We’ll at least be out of the blow when it comes.”
There were no clues inside. It was just a big, drafty, empty farmhouse that had been quit in a hurry. Ben prowled restlessly from room to room and found nothing at all. After an hour, he collapsed unhappily beside Naomi in the sitting room… in the very chair where Anders Peyna had sat when he listened to De
“If only there was a way to track him,” Ben said.
He looked up to see her staring at him, her eyes bright and round and full of excitement.
“There might be!” she said. “If the snow holds off-”
“What are you talking about?”
“Frisky!” she cried. “Don’t you see? Frisky can track him! She has the keenest nose of any dog I’ve ever known!”
“The scent would be days old,” he said, shaking his head. “Even the greatest tracking dog that ever lived could not…”
“Frisky may be the greatest tracking dog that ever lived,” Naomi replied, laughing. “And tracking in winter’s not like tracking in summer, Ben Staad. In summer, trace dies quickly… it rots, my Da’ says, and there are a hundred other traces to cover the one the dog seeks. Not just of other people and other animals, but of grasses and warm winds, even the smells that come on ru
“What about the rest of your team?” Ben asked.
“I should open the shed over there”-she pointed at it-"and leave my bedroll in it. If I show them where it is and then free them, they’ll be able to forage for their own food-rabbits and such-and they’ll also know where to come for shelter.”
“They won’t follow us?”
“Not if they’re told not to.”
“You can do that?” He looked at her with some awe.
“No,” Naomi said matter-of-factly. “I don’t speak Dog. Nor does Frisky speak Human, but she understands it. If I tell Frisky, she’ll tell the others. They’ll hunt what they need, but they won’t range far enough to lose the scent of my bedroll, not with the storm coming. And when it starts, they’ll go to shelter. It won’t matter if their bellies are hungry or full.”
“And if we had something that belonged to this boy De
“Aye.”
Ben looked at her long and thoughtfully. De
“Well?” she asked eagerly. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s crazy,” he said, “but worth a try.”
She gri
“We do,” he said, getting up. “Bring your dog in, Naomi, and lead her upstairs. To the attic.”
98
Although most humans don’t know it, scents are like colors to dogs. Faint scents have faint colors, like pastels washed out by time. Clear scents have clear colors. Some dogs have weak noses, and they read scents the way humans with poor eyes see colors, believing this delicate blue may actually be a gray, or that dark brown may actually be a black. Frisky’s nose, on the other hand, was like the eyesight of a man with the gaze of a hawk, and the scent in the attic where De
She barked to show that she knew this smell and had put it safely away in her library of scents.
“All right, good girl,” THE TALL-BOY said. “Can you follow it.
“She’ll follow it,” THE GIRL said confidently. “Let’s g0.”
“It’ll be dark in an hour.”
“That’s SO,” THE GIRL said, and then gri
THE TALL-BOY smiled. “I guess not,” he said. “You know, I must be crazy, but I think we’re going to pick up these cards and play them.”
“Course we are,” she said. “Come on, Ben. Let’s use what little daylight’s left-it’ll be dark soon enough.”
Frisky, her nose full of that bright-blue scent, barked eagerly.