“Go back to your caves,” he said to the boys. “Go to bed and rest.”

He looked at Bemmon. Bemmon’s eyes flickered away, refusing to meet his.

“What few blankets we have are for babies and the very youngest children,” he said. His tone was coldly unemotional but he could not keep his fists from clenching at his sides. “You will return them at once and sleep on animal skins, as all the men and women do. And if you want grass for a mattress you will carry it yourself, as even the young children do.”

Bemmon made no answer, his face a sullen red and hatred shining in the eyes that still refused to meet Lake’s.

“Gather up the blankets and return them,” Lake said. “Then come on up to the central cave. We have a lot of work to do.”

He could feel Bemmon’s gaze burning against his back as he turned away and he thought of what John Prentiss had once said: