"You cannot lie to me, Redbird. I see what you are doing. You are going to him."
"No, no, I am looking for herbs."
"What is this?" With his free hand he tore away the blanket roll she had tied to her back and threw it into the snow. "And this?" He jerked on the water skin so hard that the strap broke, and he threw that down, too.
"Do you need those things to help you find herbs?" he shouted.
Trembling from head to foot, she felt herself starting to cry. She hated herself for showing such weakness in front of Wolf Paw. If she was to die, she wanted to be strong.
To her surprise, the sense that she was being watched from a distance came back again. There was someone else out here in the frozen darkness besides herself and Wolf Paw.
"It is death to interfere with a spirit quest," Wolf Paw growled. "The shaman's daughter of all people should know better than to break a holy law."
Her fear made her feel as cold, as breathless, as if she were already plunged into black, freezing water, swept along, an enormous weight of ice between her and the air.
"I have done nothing."
"You meant to. That is as bad."