Cheese and Technical Manuals

Sets (Part I) 1. List all the subsets of { 8, 16, 27, 31, 60} { } {8} {16} {27} {31} {60} {8, 16} {8, 27} {8, 31} {8, 60} {16, 27} {16, 31} {16, 60} {27, 31} {27, 60} {31, 60} {8, 16, 27} {8, 16, 31} {8, 16, 60} {8, 27, 31} {8, 27, 60} {8, 31, 60} {16, 27, 31} {16, 27, 60} {16, 31, 60} {27, 31, 60} {8, 16, 27, 31} {8, 16, 27, 60} {8, 16, 31, 60} {8, 27, 31, 60} {16, 27, 31, 60} {8, 16, 27, 31, 60} 2. Determine the number of subsets of {mom, dad, son, daughter} 16 3. At MegaSalad, a salad can be ordered with some, all, or none of the following set of ingredients on top of the salad greens: {ham, turkey, chicken, tomato, feta cheese, cheddar cheese, cucumbers, onions, red peppers, hot peppers }. How many different variations are there for ordering a salad? 1024 4. Let U = {q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z} A = {q, s, u, w, y} B = {q, s, y, z} C = {v, w, x, y, z} Determine A ? (B ? C) A intersect (qwyzvx) = {q,w,y} 5. Use the Venn diagram to list the set of elements in roster form. Find A ? B. {b, e, j, h, n, u} Sets (Part II) Also, for the first SLP I want you to put into practice what you have learned about sets and functions. I want you to create three sets, set A, set B, and set C by going through the items you use at work (or in your field). * Set A will be a list of all of these items. {wrench, technical manuals, computer, cigarettes} * Create Set B, from the items in Set A that you think are essential. {wrench, technical manuals} * Create Set C, by taking the complement of Set B in Set A, i. e. all of the non-essential items. {computer, cigarettes} * Are sets B and C proper subsets of set A? Explain. Sets B and C are proper subsets of set A because each element of B is an element of A but B isn’t equal to A. You are a Motor Sergeant in charge of a motor pool and the responsibility to ensure maintenance is properly being conducted. Your set A could consist of all of the items you use while working {wrench, technical manuals, computer, cigarettes} while set B could consist of items you use outside of the motor pool {computer, cigarettes}. Set C could be items that you need while working on a vehicle {wrench, technical manuals}. Both Set B and C are still considered proper subsets of A because each subset contains at least one element.

Death of a Loved One Essay

Devastating occurrences have the ability to completely alter the ways in which you live your life. When these certain situations occur, you have two choices: You can let them destroy you, or you can let them strengthen you. My outlook on life was completely changed when my kind hearted grandmother passed away when I was just a child. I was struck with the realization that life can be taken away in an instant and I need to cherish every moment I have left I this world. In early November of 2006, I was sitting in my choir class listening to my teacher describe the scene a horrific car accident she witnessed the day before. As she was explaining the details of the accident, I was feeling little pangs of sorrow for the victims who were unable to walk away injury free. As we carried on with our class, I couldn’t help but think about how miserable their family and friends must be feeling at that exact moment, they didn’t even see it coming. I soon shook the thoughts from my head and made my way to my next class. While walking down the hallway, I feel my newly purchased flip phone vibrate in my purse and the text I receive from my mother was rather unsettling: Honey, I have some bad news. Â  I reply back asking her what she was talking about, and although I was a little nervous, I didn’t try to dwell on it too much. I only assumed that she wasn’t going to buy me a new pair of Buckle jeans that I was eyeing at the time, so I swallowed my disappointment, and carried on with my morning. Thoughts of not owning those beautiful pair jean were going through my head as my phone vibrates with another text that made me stop dead in my tracks: Grandma was in an accident today. She’s in the hospital with severe injuries and they think she has brain damage. A wave of emotions washed over me and my mind couldn’t stop racing. I always heard about this sort of thing happening to people I didn’t know, people I didn’t care about. Never in a million years did I imagine that my own grandmother would be put in this situation. For once in my life, I was completely speechless. Over the next couple weeks, my grandma’s progress was a roller coaster. Some days she was barely able to open her eyes and move her fingers, and other days she was motionless. One day the swelling in her brain would worsen and the next day it would decrease. There weren’t any clear answers explaining if she was going to be okay or not. We were all holding on dearly to a sense of hope that was keeping us together. Towards the last couple days of her life, my grandma’s progress seemed to have gotten better. The swelling in her brain had decreased a great amount and I was told that it was very possible that she would be able to recover. A wave of a relief washed over me and the grasp I had on hope tightened. I truly believed that she would recover and we would have our caring, loving grandma with us again. The thoughts of her recovery were clogging my mind and I completely forgot that even though there was indeed the possibility of her recovery, the possibility of her death was still apparent. On November 28th, I was woken up by my mother and father informing me that my grandma had passed away that morning. Initially, I didn’t feel any sort of emotion. I was stuck in a daze that I couldn’t get out of. Part of me even believed that this was all a dream, and that I was going to wake up with her smiling face still in this world. Throughout the day, the numb feeling went away, and was replaced with sadness and sorrow. I replayed every memory I had with her in my head while hot, salty tears ran down my cheeks. In that moment, I would have given anything to have her alive and well, baking Christmas cookies with me like we did every year. She didn’t deserve to die and we didn’t deserve to feel this pain. Deep down I knew she was in a better place, a place where she wouldn’t have to feel the pain she felt in this world before she passed. This thought alone helped me and many others get over the fact that we lost our dear grandma. They always say that you need to live your life the fullest; you never know when your time is up. My grandma was the perfect example of a barely 60 year old woman who’s last years of her life were cut short. She made sure that she lived every day to its full potential, and she cherished every moment. Ever since the morning that she died, I made a promise to myself to never let a day go by where I don’t appreciate and love the life I live. Although life is difficult, it is still so very beautiful.

Volunteer Wok Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Volunteer Wok Experience - Essay Example As the paper highlights the achievement of any plan depends on valuable team cohesion by members of the group. In our group, the objectives of the project are outlined for members to discuss them. This enables members to demonstrate harmony in principle. Besides, the group consistently demonstrates self-consciousness as it performs its research project. The achievement of this is pegged on the adoption of an explicit, clearly agreed upon, and binding approaches. Additionally, group engages in many discussions where every member is inspired to participate in. During such discussions, everyone’s idea is listened to carefully and subsequent reactions given. Whenever a member takes the discussions off the track, he or she will be politely reminded about the subject matter. This study outlines that this group discussion portrayed some of the basic theories that characterize groups. The shares a common purpose based on the requirements illustrated on the objectives of the project. Each time a disagreement arises within the group, it is good and benefits the group. The reasons for the disagreements are keenly examined before the group members commit to resolving them. The rest of the group does not reprimand the disagreeing member. Instead, the dissidents provide the rational behind his or her disparity in opinion. The group looks for a way to move forward when members cannot resolve the disagreements themselves. They make sure that such disagreements are not given a chance to block the progress of the group.

Biometrics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Biometrics - Essay Example In the present contemporary era of computer science, a different role is being played by the biometrics applications. A particular class of identification technologies has been referred by the high technology sector of the biometrics. In specific, an individual’s identity is determined by the utilization of different technologies that refer to the individual biological traits. In this regard, fingerprints, retina, facial recognition, iris patterns, etc. are some of the major examples of the biological traits that are considered in the field of biometrics. Technical ability of the humans in terms of cataloguing and tracking the biological traits is considered during the selection of individual traits in the contemporary biometric applications. It is observed that a number of biological traits are easy to acquire; however, some are difficult to obtain, which has resulted in the creation of a number of complexities in the field of biometrics. In this regard, a number of experts are endeavoring for the improvement of biometric technology for the advancement of security of life measurements that can provide and ensure foolproof security in different organizations. Today, more reliability has been shown by the fingerprint readers that are available in different markets at very low cost. On the other hand, retina scanners are very costly, and therefore, it will take years to replace the less-accurate fingerprint scanners in different parts of the globe. Nowadays, digital and computer security is confronting immense demand, which has been ca used by the security breaches in different organizations around the world. In this regard, a number of studies are being carried out to ensure effective security, which is now one of the major concerns of the present technological globe. (Thieme, pp. 25-28) In the dominion of computer security, physiological and individual human characteristics are

Marketing Report Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marketing Report - Case Study Example Support 11 D. Conclusion 11 References 13 I. Analysis A. Marketing Challenge The marketing challenge is to grow revenues and to find the perfect marketing mix for the new product to be launched in June, to aid in the achievement of the revenue growth targets for Mackenzie and Marr Guitars (Finnbogason, 2013). B. Internal Analysis B.1. Finance The company is working on a tight cash flow situation, with some budgetary constraints emanating from that cash flow restriction. While they pay suppliers cash, deliveries for orders only occur about 90 days after the payment. This has implications on the ability of the company to convert capital to revenues, and has a bearing too on the ability of the firm to generate cash flow from inventories. Inventories take time to reach the trade, and this compounds the problem of not being able to turnaround capital into cash. All these things besides, the company is still open to increasing the promotions budget from $1,000 to $4,000, and though this is miniscule in comparison to the overall sales target of $1 million dollars for the whole year, from a cash flow perspective this can be a significant amount especially if the revenue targets on a monthly basis are not met, and the margins cannot justify the added promotional expense (Finnbogason, 2013). B.2. ... On the other hand, where the company lacks muscle in terms of promotions budgets, it makes up for with word of mouth and focusing on the price and the product attributes of the marketing mix for its guitar lines. The main positioning being high quality and low price, this positioning strategy is complemented well by its chosen promotions, place and general advertising strategies (Finnbogason, 2013). B.3. Operations One can glean from the way the company is set up that the online presence handles orders processing including payments processing, while orders fulfillment is done via third party logistics and fulfillment services. Product manufacturing meanwhile is outsourced to suppliers in China. That supplier has enough capacity to be able to run the projected volume sales of 100 guitars per month of Mackenzie and Marr Guitars, but may have problems doing so if any new customers engage them. That aside, the rest of the operations is concentrated on marketing, as well as product design , which are basically handled by the CEO John Marr. The other partner, Jonathan Mackenzie, is understood to have a hands off role in daily operations, leaving that to John. One can see that this operations model leaves the physical handling of the processed goods to third parties, from manufacturing to orders fulfillment, leaving the core operational functions of processing orders and payments, doing the promotions and marketing, doing the strategy work and doing product design work for new launches as the core operational competencies of the company itself (Finnbogason, 2013). B.4. Human Resources Outside of the partners, there are no significant personnel in the organization. All of the third party

Recruiting and Training of Correction Officers Term Paper

Recruiting and Training of Correction Officers - Term Paper Example Introduction The justification for occupational or professional training is to pass on accrued experience, knowledge, and facts, the most sophisticated practices, as well as objective, theory, principle, or ethics of practice. Yet, the institution of correction is only starting to familiarize itself to the difficulties of recruiting and training capable correctional officers. There is an emerging understanding among radical superintendents that inadequately recruited, untrained staff is not merely incompetent but is disadvantageous as well. Untrained staff is rather doubtful to be the bearer of progressive principles and a positive ethos for correctional work. Corrections today are becoming increasingly intricate. Besides the problems created by lawbreakers day by day, correctional superintendents today should confront the issues of correctional personnel who usually feel a kind of prerogative and have a broad range of union supporters, lawyers, and laws available to them to help the m resolve problematic issues. Almost all correction superintendents aspire to make the workplace a motivating, stable, secure, and safe environment where in personnel could face the job’s challenges with optimism and enthusiasm. ... The law grants employers much leeway in the recruitment or hiring process when performed properly. Recruiting may involve three methods that will detect possible problem personnel: ‘background checks, physical agility tests, and probationary employment periods.’ Correctional managers could oblige potential officers to agree to a provision involving complete disclosure of their entire personal backgrounds and verification of those backgrounds or histories. This normally will identify any major issues with illegal conduct and even adverse social activities. Employers could oblige potential personnel to undergo a physical agility test; this procedure will help identify those with serious pre-existing deficiencies that may be drawn upon to file for compensation or disability claims. The third method, the probationary employment period, is usually performed ineffectively. The law permits superintendents to monitor the performance and behavior of the personnel a lot more thoro ughly throughout the probationary period, and to discard employment if behavior and performance is unsatisfactory. Even though most previous employers remain cautious about giving unfavorable references for incompetent personnel, drawing on these three recruitment methods will lessen the problems of the correctional human resources department. In order to fill important personnel positions in corrections, a large number of recruitment or hiring methods are applied by the reporting system. The key procedure stated is job fairs. Other techniques identified were salaries for valid rural sites; on-site recruitment; placement or internship prospects; public notices; presenting at local conventions or meetings; incentives for effective employee recommendations;

Adam Smith Inquiry on the Wealth of Nations Essay

Adam Smith Inquiry on the Wealth of Nations - Essay Example As the discussion highlights subject to his arguments, Adam smith is onto something. First, by saying that specialization and division of labor is the key to prosperity, he was indeed very right because the two attributes leads to perfection and high productivity. At the same time, specialization allows for the maximization of technical skills and relevant innovations. This amounts to effective and quality labor that guarantees better performance in all fields. However, to achieve the skills for specialization and division of labor, adequate knowledge is required. This is only transmitted in a structured education system that starts at childhood and hence the need for widespread education for children. Though this trend was not famous at the time, it would be highly effective upon implementation. Indeed, in the absence of specialization and division of labor, innovations, perfection, high quality labor, and improved performance can never surface. Lack of specialization leads to gener alization and lack of specific goals that is detrimental to the economy of any nation. The poor on the other hand develop general skills that are very efficient in their livelihood but have no chances of advancement since there are no innovations. Hence, Adam advocates for widespread education that will improve the skills of the citizens and enhance specialization and division of

Professional Knowledge and Career Success Research Paper

Professional Knowledge and Career Success - Research Paper Example The organization is known for its FACHE credential which is known all over the world. It provides with different educational programs which help the healthcare professionals to learn more about their field. ACHE organizes different conferences for its members who are health care professionals so that they can learn and share their knowledge. It helps the individuals to know about the latest medical innovations which can prove to be beneficial in practice. The knowledge provided by the organization can prove to be very beneficial for the careers of many health care professionals. The knowledge given in the conferences and educational programs is such that it can be used in practice by the health care professionals. The FACHE credential is recognized as a reputable credential and may give an edge to the health care professional in his way to success. FACHE can help the health care professional to get a job in reputable hospitals where they can further build their reputation. ACHE is he lping health care professionals to do a better job and enlighten them with further knowledge about medicine. It is an organization which is trusted by many and hence if a health care professional gets knowledge from ACHE then it is possible that his career would improve. If an individual achieves the relevant knowledge and information from the organization then it is expected that his career might flourish. The knowledge which the individual would get from ACHE can be applied in real. Latest medical innovations and researches are also presented by the organization which can be used in real life practice by the health care professionals. In other words it would help the individual to apply new methodologies in their practices which would be unknown to the ones who have not gone through the courses of ACHE. Success can instantly be achieved after an individual possesses all the relevant knowledge and literature about medicine through this organization. Career development

History of Special Education Essay Example for Free

History of Special Education Essay Special education has changed in many different ways throughout the last century. The views of they way students with differences should be taught and treated have changed as people have become more open minded. The education laws have also seen a turn about. One major area of education was in a desperate need of changed opinions and beliefs. Education for children with learning problems has emerged from no education to special funding and programs especially for those individuals with learning problems. The first phase of special education is the largest span of time. The Foundation Phase was from 1800 to  1930, children who had any sign of learning problems were labeled as dumb, retarded, and even brain injured. The reason students would have been labeled as brain injured is because of studies done on war victims and soldiers of war. Many soldiers had head injuries and the way they acted related very similarly to the way brain injured students acted. At this time period researchers and doctors located the area of the brain related to language, or the language function of the brain. The Transition Phase began in 1930 and lasted until 1960. This phase had some turning points in the way brain injured children were taught. Researchers developed instruments for assessment, analyzed specific Atwell 2 types of learning problems and also presented a plan for teaching brain injured children. At this stage the labeling of the children with learning problems was not as harsh as brain injured. The students were called children with minimal brain dysfunction. The turning phase for the education of students with learning problems was the Integration Phase, 1960 to 1980. There was a man by the name of Samuel Kirk, who came up with the name learning disabled. After this term took the place of brain injured and minimal  brain dysfunction, it seemed like there was hope for children with learning problems. Schools started establishing programs for the learning disabled. Funding was provided for teachers to be trained in learning disabilities. The most important part of the Integration Phase is the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) in 1975. This act was to ensure that all students no matter what type of problem would receive a free and appropriate public education. The last phase is the Current Phase, from 1980 to the present. One of the major aspects of this phase is inclusion. Inclusion is educating students with disabilities in regular classrooms in their neighborhood schools, with collaborative support services as needed. Another aspect of the Current Phase is when the EMA of 1975 was rewritten as IDEA in 1990. IDEA, Individuals Atwell 3 with Disabilities Education Act, made it hard to suspend or expel students with learning disabilities because of their behavior. IDEA also required that each learning disabled child have an IEP, Individualized Education Program. An IEP is a document that must include current performance of the student, the annual goals the studen  needs to achieve, special education and related services the child needs, participation, if any, with nondisabled children, modifications needed to take state tests, dates and places of when and where special services will be provided and the measuring progress of the child. Before a student can have an IEP, they first must be labeled as a student with a learning disability. There are stages to figure out whether or not a child has a learning disability. The first stage is noticing if a student is having difficulty in one or more subject areas. The next step is to evaluate the childs  suspected disability area, but before this can take place, the school must receive permission from the parents to evaluate their child. Then the eligibility is decided by a group of qualified professionals along with the parents to determine if the child has a disability defined by IDEA. If found eligible, the IEP team must meet and write an IEP for the child within 30 days of the student being identified as disabled. The IEP team meeting is held and the IEP is written. Atwell 4 Services are then provided for the student. At the end of the year, progress is measured and IEP is reviewed. After this process takes place, every three years after that, the student is reevaluated. By law certain individuals must be involved in the writing of a childs Individualized Education Program. Parents must be involved because they know their child and what their child may need. Regular education teachers, if the student will be placed in regular classrooms some time during the day, are a need on the team, because they know the general curriculum. They also have knowledge of how to handle behavior problems. The next member of an IEP team should be a special education teacher. This  person will be able to contribute their knowledge in how to modify general curriculum and testing to help the special needs child learn and show what they have learned. The special education teacher also has the responsibility to teach the student and carry out the IEP. The individuals involved in the IEP team are individuals who can interpret evaluation results, represent the school system, individuals with knowledge or special expertise about the child, representatives from transition service agencies and the student who the IEP is being written for. Atwell 5 Education has gone through many stages of the way a  child should be taught. The law has made a path for those with learning problems and now there is no stopping them. Children with learning disabilities finally have a chance to excel in school and gives them the opportunity to have a normal life. Atwell 6 Works Cited A Guide to the Individualized Education Program. U. S. Department of Education. 20 Feb. 2001. . Lerner, Janet W. Learning Disabilities: Theories, Diagnosis, andTeaching Strategies. 8th ed. Boston: Ally Bacon Publishers, 2000. Levine, Daniel U. , Allan C. Ornstein. Foundations of Education. 6th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.

Tale of Two Airlines Memo Essay Example for Free

Tale of Two Airlines Memo Essay Im writing in regards of recommendations for service improvement. These findings are based on the McPherson complaint and the following issues have been identified. 1. Information technology and operation strategy failure for not identifying a full fare customer through the (RMS) revenue management system or (CRS) computer reservation system. This may have caused the airline to lose a loyal 10 year customer. 2. Poor service management by a failure of airline employees to coordinate standard operating protocols of inclement weather procedures. Inflight attendants failed to identify passengers with close connecting flights and notify employees at destination airport to hold flights. 3. Poor management control over gate boarding and gate closing, failure to monitor departure time schedule for flights. International flight departed ahead of scheduled time without regard to passenger list and reasons for possible passenger delays. The following is a list of options available. 1. Establish and integrate standard operating protocol that in the event of inclement weather, management will instruct and verify that operation employees identify connecting passengers and coordinate with outbound flights. 2. Complete organizational transformations with new service standards. Taking in consideration more human factors with todays standards in mind. This will require a fundamental change attitudes and training on behalf of management. IT managers should also take human factors more seriously than ever. 3. Prior to departure all outbound flights with missing connecting and checked-in passengers will work with operations to determine the status of missing passengers. Recommendations for correction are as follows 1. Develop a protocol for system identification of delayed flights,  inclement weather or mechanical failure, with in-flight connecting passengers to be cross checked. Having a system in place to communicate between airlines is key in this case. A study done by Jody Hoffer Gittell states, â€Å"relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect enable participants to connect in a meaningful way across functional and organizational boundariesallowing them to coordinate â€Å"on the fly†.(Gittell, J. H. 2003) Studies have also shown that a firm should be able to increase customer satisfaction which ultimately leads to a better firm performance. 2. Develop new service standards to be instituted for operations management with necessary actions to be taken to insure performance measures are met. Establish training to empower employees to take initiatives to increase satisfaction with customer service. Develop alliances with competitors in market area to use â€Å"code sharing† in the CRS to boost customer service  satisfaction. 3. Improve operations strategy for gate closing procedures. Implementation Create a project for the IS/IT department to write program into the enterprise CRS system to trigger a generated report with linkages between incoming delayed flights passenger lists and connecting flight passenger lists. Management is to distribute the above report to the appropriate parties in order for measures per operational protocol to be instigated. Develop incentive program for a pre-determined ratio of completed transfers and connections made. Assign committee to develop and monitor outreach program to alliance competitors. Establish mandatory adherence to scheduled gate closing departure times and pre gate closing passenger checklist. IS/IT department to develop pre gate closing checklist in system with requirement of management signature prior to closing out flight. Assessment Criteria Affirm successful project completion and integration into CRS system. Track ratio of completed flight connections and establish high baseline for number of completed connections made. Hire market research firm to conduct surveys on customer satisfaction for passengers of identified delayed flights. Assign staff to reconciliation of survey, delayed report, and completed connection report to monitor progress. References: Gittell, J. H. (2003). The Southwest Airlines way: Using the power of relationships to achieve high performance. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Effect of Alcohol on Reaction Times: Experiment

Effect of Alcohol on Reaction Times: Experiment The experiment tested whether alcohol had any effect on reaction time. Abstract Objective: The experiment tested whether alcohol had any effect on reaction time. Method: Subjects were required to identify the threshold at which a flickering light became constant (critical flicker fusion threshold) using a computerised flicker fusion system.   Frequency increased at a rate of 4 hertz per second.   Critical flicker fusion threshold is a well accepted and documented non-invasive measure of reaction time.   Ten female subjects were tested under control conditions and following ingestion of 2 units (80 mg) alcohol.   It was hypothesised that alcohol would cause an increase in reaction time, which would translate to a delay in recognising the critical flicker fusion threshold, thus higher frequency results. Results:   Ingestion of 2 units (80mg) of alcohol was associated with an increase in mean critical flicker fusion threshold from 14.6 hertz to 15.4 hertz (p Conclusion:   2 units of alcohol had the effect of increasing reaction time by an average of 0.2 seconds, which has serious implications for the consumption of alcohol prior to tasks involving complex motor skills such as driving. Introduction Alcohol and its effects Alcohol is believed to be the oldest drug used by humans, predating even the use of opium by 2000 years to around 8000 BC (Kerr, Hindmarch 1998).   Whilst legal age limits exist for the purchase of alcohol in the United Kingdom, it is widely regarded within the Western world as an acceptable drug. In recent household studies in the UK it was found that 75% of men and 60% of women consumed at least one alcoholic drink per week.   In addition, 40% of men and 23% of women were found to have exceeded the national recommendations on alcohol consumption within the previous week (Office for National Statistics 2005).   The Institute For Alcohol Studies ranks the United Kingdom as 9th in per capita consumption of pure alcohol within European Nations, with 9.6 litres of pure alcohol being consumed per capita in 2002 (Institute for Alcohol Studies 2005). Alcohol is known for its psychoactive effects, which include alterations in vision, motor tasks and skills such as car driving and flying.   In addition it is repeatedly shown, whether anecdotally or via scientific measurements, that a strong correlation exists between alcohol consumption and violence. Alcohol is known to be a contributory factor in road accidents, with 9% of casualties showing evidence of alcohol consumption, this figure rising to 31% when considering pedestrians (The Scottish Office Central Research Unit 1998).   Research carried out in the 1980s by the Transport Research Laboratory indicated that alcohol was involved in 35% of fatal road traffic accidents, with the figure falling slightly to 31.5% in a similar study completed in 2000 (Tunbridge, Keigan James 2001).  Ã‚   However neither of these reports explained why the association existed between alcohol and road traffic accidents, whether resulting in death or not.   Of import for this report is the association between alcohol and reaction time.   The majority of alcohol consumers can identify a slowing down of their faculties following alcohol consumption, regardless of claims to the contrary.  Ã‚   Research has shown that alcohol impairs the ability of individuals to carry out complex motor tasks. One example involved bus drivers being asked to drive a vehicle through a narrow space, or highlighting the fact that the gap was too narrow if necessary.   It was shown that alcohol consumption was correlated with a reduced ability to accurately guide the bus through the gap, coupled with an inability to accurately gauge the width of the gap.   Hence bus drivers who had consumed alcohol were more likely to judge a gap as to be wide enough when it was not, than those who had not consumed alcohol and whose spatial awareness remained intact (Rang, Dale Ritter 1999a). Recommended stopping distances at 30 miles per hour are 23 metres / 75 feet, of which 9 metres / 30 feet are the ‘thinking distance’.   This is based on an average reaction time of 0.7 seconds when the car is travelling at 44 feet / second.   Therefore if reaction times increase, stopping distances will do so also, with serious implications in an accident. It has been indicated by some research that low levels of alcohol consumption have very little effect on reaction time if attention could be focussed on a single objective (Jaaskelainen et al. 1996).   Where attention needs to be divided between task objectives, even low blood alcohol levels were found to impair performance.   This suggests that alcohol is not going to greatly impair reaction time during simple tasks, but complex tasks which require several aspects to the performance would be much more likely to be impaired.   This was further supported by the research of Bartholow et al which found that response times per se were relatively unaffected by the presence of alcohol but the ability to respond appropriately to tasks that required complex attention were (Bartholow et al. 2003).   Indeed the authors implicate alcohol in impairments of cognitive processing, rather than the motor responses that result from these processes.   They cite data from studies that have sho wn that alcohol acts to reduce the ability to respond to stimuli as well as interpret and process the correct relevance of these stimuli.   This inability to respond fully to cues from the environment is described as the attention-allocation model, as the brain is selective in which cues are actually attended to and processing within the brain.   Further research has indicated that alcohol can sometimes actually improve the ability of subjects to resist distraction from a task (Erblich, Earleywine 1995) but this is not in keeping with the majority of research. Given the existing data this experiment was designed to assess the ability of female subjects to respond to a change in a single form of stimulus.   There was no distraction, nor a divided attention focus required, in an effort to ensure that the effects of alcohol on reaction time, if any, were more obvious. Flicker fusion threshold The human eye is capable of distinguishing between intermittent stimuli such as flickering light, up to a threshold, which is usually around 16 Hertz.   The frequency at which the human eye is no longer able to distinguish individual stimuli is defined as the critical flicker fusion threshold.   It is at this frequency that the individual stimuli have fused to form a single continuous stimulus.   The flicker fusion threshold will vary between individuals depending on their eyesight, hence the use of a number os study participants.   It will also vary between an individual’s readings depending on their reaction time at each stage – ie the time at which they actually consciously register that the hitherto flickering stimulus has now become constant and are able to respond to this knowledge.   The purpose of this experiment was to use the measurement of critical flicker fusion threshold as a correlate to reaction time.   For this experiment the experimental hypothesis was that alcohol acts to increase the reaction time of female subjects. The null hypothesis was that alcohol has no effect on the reaction time of female subjects.   Thus it would be expected that an individual with a slower reaction time would give results indicating a higher critical flicker fusion threshold, measured in hertz.   In other words it would be expected that the frequency at which subjects indicated that the flickering light (for full details of methodology please see below) had fused into a single light would be higher under alcohol conditions than control.   This would not be due to an enhanced ability to differentiate between flickering and constant light, rather a delay in the ability for this change to register and be processed by the brain, and the subject to press the button. Method Ten female subjects aged from 18-35 years, with a body mass index of 19-28 were selected as part of an open experiment into the effect of alcohol on reaction time.   All subjects were informed of the purpose of the experiment prior to taking part and were required to complete medical questionnaires to exclude medication that might affect the results of the experiment.  Ã‚   Known negative effects of alcohol consumption were also excluded and subjects all had a history of regular alcohol consumption of at least 2 units, once per week. Subjects were required to refrain from eating or drinking for the 2 hours prior to each test, which took place on consecutive days, with the control (no alcohol) test taking place prior to the alcohol test.   The 2 hour nil by mouth regulation was put in place in an effort to standardise the absorption of the alcohol by reducing stomach contents to a more uniform amount, thus providing a similar surface area available for alcohol absorption in each study participant. On arriving at the test room subjects were required to complete a health and safety questionnaire and were again reminded of the aims and purposes of the experiment.   Subjects were free to leave at any time, and signed consent forms to allow their results to be used.   Following the initial briefing subjects were given a training briefing on the specialised equipment and allowed to take a small number of practise tests to familiarise themselves with the equipment requirements.   Following this training period a five-minute break was allowed. For the test itself each subject was required to drink 250ml of pure orange juice, with a five-minute timespan being allowed for the drink to be consumed.   Forty minutes after the drink had been consumed subjects critical flicker fusion threshold was tested using the Model 12021 Flicker Fusion System (Lafayette Instruments). This time scale was used as the 2 units of alcohol would have reached a peak blood alcohol concentration of approximately 80 mg/100 ml 45 minutes following ingestion (Wilson, Benjamin Sreenivasan 2003).   Assuming absorption and metabolism at the accepted 4 mmol/l per hour (Rang, Dale Ritter 1999b), the alcohol would be expected to have been removed completely from the body within 6 hours (Wilson, Benjamin Sreenivasan 2003). Subjects were requested to look in to the binocular eye piece at two white simultaneous lights.   The use of a separate light for each eye was used to prevent differences in eye focussing from causing conflicting critical flicker fusion thresholds. The initial flash frequency of 4 hertz was set to ascending at a rate of 4 hertz / second.   The subject was provided with a push button connected to a 1 metre cable and was required to push the button when the flickering ceased and the lights became fused to a single light emission.   The point at which the button was pressed was taken as the critical flicker fusion threshold.  Ã‚   Each subject was required to undertake ten reaction time recordings. The experimental procedures on day 2 were identical to day 1, except that 2 units of alcohol (vodka), approximately 80mg of pure alcohol, had been added to the 250ml of pure orange juice that the subjects were required to drink.   A further ten reaction time recordings were made using the flicker fusion system. Results Each subject was able to provide 10 reaction time recordings, which ranged from a minimum of 11.5 Hertz (subject 9, recording 6, no alcohol) to a maximum of 19.4 Hertz (subject 3, recording 8, with alcohol).   The mean for the control / no alcohol test was 14.6 + 3.6 Hertz.   The mean for the alcohol test was 15.4 + 4.0 Hertz. Tables 1 and 2 below show the individual reaction times of each subject participant on the two tests. Table 1. Reaction times of 5 female subjects with and without alcohol, as measured by critical flicker fusion threshold Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4 Subject 5 Reaction test number None Alcohol None Alcohol None Alcohol None Alcohol None Alcohol 1 15.0 17.2 14.3 16.9 18.2 18.1 13.4 17.5 12.5 13.1 2 14.1 13.6 15.5 17.2 17.9 19.3 14.4 14.9 12.9 12.5 3 16.2 16.2 15.8 16.7 16.5 18.5 14.8 14.5 12.3 12.8 4 13.6 16.1 16.3 17.9 17.7 17.9 14.3 14.8 12.8 12.6 5 12.5 14.3 14.9 15.5 16.9 18.9 14.9 13.5 12.4 12.4 6 13.8 15.5 15.7 16.1 17.4 18.3 14.1 14.6 12.6 12.9 7 12.0 14.8 15.4 18.5 16.0 17.6 15.1 14.9 13.1 13.5 8 11.8 12.9 14.8 17.1 17.3 19.4 15.3 15.1 13.9 13.2 9 12.9 12.7 15.7 16.7 18.0 17.9 13.3 13.5 12.8 12.6 10 13.0 15.8 15.0 17.8 16.7 18.9 16.7 14.7 14.1 11.9 Mean 13.5 14.9 15.3 17.0 17.3 18.5 14.6 14.8 12.9 12.8 Median 13.3 15.2 15.5 17.0 17.4 18.4 14.6 14.8 12.8 12.7 Table 2. Reaction times of 5 female subjects with and without alcohol, as measured by critical flicker fusion threshold Subject 6 Subject 7 Subject 8 Subject 9 Subject 10 Reaction test number None Alcohol None Alcohol None Alcohol None Alcohol None Alcohol 1 13.9 15.1 16.5 15.6 12.8 14.5 13.6 15.5 16.5 15.4 2 16.5 15.9 14.3 15.1 12.6 13.5 14.9 14.2 15.9 18.1 3 14.2 14.6 12.9 14.0 12.4 12.4 15.0 14.8 15.7 14.6 4 14.9 15.5 13.9 16.8 12.0 12.6 15.8 14.8 15.2 16.8 5 14.1 15.6 13.5 16.7 13.1 13.8 14.7 13.9 16.4 16.5 6 16.5 15.8 13.4 18.1 13.5 14.2 11.5 16.7 16.2 16.4 7 13.2 13.3 13.9 15.1 12.3 14.2 15.4 14.6 16.8 15.8 8 14.5 15.6 14.2 15.8 12.9 14.6 15.3 16.1 17.1 16.2 9

Software Requirement Specifications Essay -- essays research papers

Software Requirements Specification 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Introduction 1.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Purpose This document is a definition of software requirements to develop an automated night class enrolment system and flexible query database required by St.John’s Central College. This document will present the functional, non-functional, and design constraint requirements for the system to be developed. Use case models and descriptions are included along with class diagrams to help model and specify the functional requirements and specifications of the system. 1.2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scope The software application that this SRS applies to a night class automated enrolment system and flexible query database required by St.John’s Central College. This document is to be used as basis for the analysis and design of the system and test cases for the system that is to be built. 1.3  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations DES: Department of Education and Science   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  SRS: Software Requirement Specification 1.4  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  References [This subsection should provide a complete list of all documents referenced elsewhere in the SRS. Each document should be identified by title, report number (if applicable), date, and publishing organization. Specify the sources from which the references can be obtained. This information may be provided by reference to an appendix or to another document.] 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Overall Description 2.1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  User characteristics 2.1.1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Student- an individual filling out Enrolment Form with the purpose of becoming a night class student 2.1.2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Administrator- a person closely interacting with the Night class enrolment system 2.1.3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Director Of Adult Education – a person who creates DES returns report at the end of an academic year 2.2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  User environment 2.2.1. The traditional system platform for the database is Apache server. I am using mySQL database and PHP scripting language 2.3. Assumptions and dependencies 2.3.1. It’s assumed that all the office staff of St.John’s Central College will get at least 2 hours training prior to the using of the database 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Specific Re... ... enforcement requirements or other usage restriction requirements that are to be exhibited by the software.] 3.10  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Legal, Copyright, and Other Notices [This section describes any necessary legal disclaimers, warranties, copyright notices, patent notice, wordmark, trademark, or logo compliance issues for the software.] 3.11  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Applicable Standards [This section describes by reference any applicable standard and the specific sections of any such standards which apply to the system being described. For example, this could include legal, quality and regulatory standards, industry standards for usability, interoperability, internationalization, operating system compliance, etc.] 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Supporting Information [The supporting information makes the SRS easier to use. It includes: †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Table of contents †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Index †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Appendices These may include use-case storyboards or user-interface prototypes. When appendices are included, the SRS should explicitly state whether or not the appendices are to be considered part of the requirements.]

Dutch and Belgium Organ Donation Acts Essay -- essays research papers

Assignment III-B: Dutch and Belgium Organ Donation Acts. In Belgium there is a different post mortem organ donation law than in The Netherlands, although they both have the same main purpose: they seek to increase the supply of donors. In Belgium it is presumed that each citizen has consented to the harvest of organs following death unless an objection to such a harvest was recorded, an opt-out system. Belgium combines presumed consent with a practice of inquiring into the wishes of the next of kin. One advantage of presumed consent is that there is no need to refer to drivers’ licenses or donor cards, which may not be carried at the relevant time. Another is that distraught family members do not need to make a positive decision to approve harvest. The patient has been able to record their objection, if any, during their lifetime, so the decision to do so will have rested with them and doctors are spared the difficult task of asking for consent. The decision whether or not to object was that of the patient made in a reasoned manner and cannot be overturned by family (1). In The Netherlands each citizen is given the opportunity to indicate whether or not they are willing to donate their organs in the event of their death, or whether they would prefer to leave the decision to their relatives, a full decision system. General consent may be given for the removal of organs and tissues, or one may withhold consent in relation to certain parts of the body. The Organ Donation Ac...

Bureaucracy and Public Policy

In most situations of dealing with government, people often find themselves experiencing communication with street-level bureaucrats who, despite of their comparatively low position, in many ways define the person’s further well-being. Street-level bureaucrats have a direct influence on the number of people participating in public programs, and it’s them who determines what number of people is going to receive certain benefits, or participate in some programs. This, their final decisions become vital for certain groups of society.The communication which occurs between bureaucrats and people in such situations creates the public policies which all the citizens experience when dealing with government. A very important issue concerning bureaucracy still remains understanding the mechanism of decision-making by street-level-bureaucrats, for it appears a much more difficult problem than it seems. As Brehm and Gates state, despite a large number of literatures sources on the point of decision-making by bureaucrats, it still remains uncertain what real reasons influence their behavior [1].Due to the complexity of decision-making by street-level bureaucrats, different approaches have been suggested towards this matter. Various authors suggest their own solutions of the problem. The first approach is connected with economics, while the other one deals with public administration and organization theory. According to the behavioral theory of choice, bureaucratic decisions are the function not only of rational decision-making, but as well of all the variables which might influence the decision-making in the process.This can occur in situations when cognitive abilities of decision-makers fail them in the situation of uncertainty, and they become unable to make rational decisions. One of the main economists who have carried out the research of decision-making by bureaucracy were Brehm and Gates in their work â€Å"Working, Shirking, and Sabotage: Bureaucratic Response to a Democratic Public†, and Michael Lipsky â€Å"Street Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of Individuals in Public Services†. John Brehm and Scott Gates in their work were dealing with the problem of the types of bureaucratic decisions.As far as authors have found out, the decisions which the bureaucrats make are divided into 3 categories: working, shirking, and sabotage, which are very different in their descriptions. The main criteria is the matching the supervisors’ goals by the street-level bureaucrats in their decisions. In the category of â€Å"working†, the bureaucrats completely answer the goals which their supervisors put in front of them, and this is the most efficient decision-making for them.In the case of â€Å"shrinking†, the bureaucrats direct some of their efforts towards recreation or any other activities which have nothing to do with the goals set for them by the supervisors. The category of â€Å"sabotaging† is the leas t efficient because in this case the bureaucrats choose the goals which completely differ from the goals which their supervisors set for them, and that is why they can often fail to achieve the outcome which the supervisors would like them to achieve [1].According to the analysis of the mentioned categories, Brehm and Gates come to the conclusion that in many cases it’s impossible for supervisors to coordinate the actions of street-level bureaucrats, and thus the public policy which they carry out on a high level might appear very different from the policy which is actually provided on the lower levels in which the actual interactions of people with government occur.It means that the efficiency of the government policy becomes much lower in the case of street-level bureaucrats’ shirking and sabotaging because they don’t achieve the goals set for them by higher officials. The connection between the bureaucrats of higher and lower levels does exist, but it’ s much weaker in reality than it appears in theory, so many decisions might simply not reach the lower level.As far as the empirical evidence shows, the main argument in decision-making by street-level officials lies not in the instructions which they get from the top but from their own preferences, or the preferences which other bureaucrats have. However, here lies the crucial point of the analysis: lower-level bureaucrats have their own interests which they want to follow, but those interests turn out very close to the interests of high-level officials, and thus the actual public policy which is provided in the country becomes very close to the policy which was elaborated in the high level of government.This means that according to Brehm and Gates, by understanding the policy-preferences of the bureaucrats, we are able to predict the decisions they will make in different situations. Michael Lipsky in his â€Å"Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of Individuals in Public Servicesâ €  also investigates the problems of bureaucrats behavior in relation to their customers, and decision-making by bureaucrats of low level in relation to the instructions they get from higher officials.According to the author, the mentioned issues are very important because â€Å"†¦in delivering policy street-level bureaucrats make decisions about people that affect their life chances. † [2] Michael Lipsky defines one of the main reasons of the importance of bureaucrats’ behavior in the fact that â€Å"†¦they play a critical role in regulating the degree of contemporary conflict by virtue of their role as agents of social control. Citizens who receive public benefits interact with public agents who require certain behaviors of them† [2].When investigating the main aspects of bureaucrats’ decision-making, Michael Lipsky believes in rational decisions of bureaucrats: â€Å"There is every reason to think that the general evaluations of social wo rth that inform the society will also inform the decisions of street-level bureaucrats in the absence of strong incentives to the contrary† [2]. Unlike Brehm and Gates, Michael Lipsky focuses not on the relationship of higher and lower level bureaucrats but on the importance of discretion in this matter.If Brehm and Gates tend to analyze the main categories of bureaucrats’ decision-making through the prism of their working, shrinking, and sabotaging categories, Michael Lipsky devotes his attention to the analysis of the necessity of discretion in making decisions. He finds the main reasons of that in the fact that street-level bureaucrats cannot learn by heart all the instructions which they were given and carry them everywhere, or decide every matter in the same way not regarding the difference of cases, or not to take into consideration a personal impression of a person.The discretion is very necessary in order to carry out the right decision because only the particul ar official investigating the particular case can make the right decision based on his knowledge of instructions and his general impression. In case of following his personal impression of interaction with a client, the bureaucrat doesn’t simply sabotage or shrink, but makes the only right decision in the particular case. Michael Lipsky argues that there are some practices which commonly contribute to routine control of clients.One of them is that clients are separated from the officers by certain desks in order to minimize the personal conflict. There are no comfortable sofas in such places, either. Another practice is isolating one client from another one for them not to know what is going on with others in the same position. It’s also important to mention that street-bureaucrats carry out special sanctions for those who disobey the order of the procedure. The investigations have shown that it’s impossible to conclude the general criteria for decision-making b y street-level bureaucrats.Brehm and Gates investigate the subject from the point of view of interactions between higher and lower level officials in the general outcome of the public policy, and argue that at the end, the preferences of the officials turn out the same. Michael Lipsky makes a point that discretion is very important in decision-making, and the influence of higher officials and instructions is minimized in this situation. Bibliography. 1. John Brehm and Scott Gates. â€Å"Working, Shirking, and Sabotage: Bureaucratic Response to a Democratic Public†. 2. Michael Lipsky. â€Å"Street-Level Bure

Controversies as a Result of the Alien and Sedition Acts Essay

In the late 1700s and into the early 1800s, large controversies over the Alien and the Sedition Acts, containing four bills, took place. Some of the controversies included immigration, slander and libel of the government, and states’ rights. While the controversy set the stage for Jefferson’s election, it also left some in tense and unsettled states. The Alien and Sedition Acts brought many disagreements upon the states. The Acts had two bills that seemed to stand out most among the government. The second bill of the Alien and Sedition Acts gave the President power to deport â€Å"all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United Stats. † Just before the Acts were created, President George Washington wrote to the Vice-President John Adams in 1794 of his believe that immigrants brought with them not only their language, but their habits and formal morals too. Later, he goes on to say, that this is not particularly a bad thing because as time goes on, as generations grow, all people will become one. Just before that though, in 1785, Thomas Jefferson had made close to the same note, but a bit different. He believed it would be a miracle for the morals and beliefs of the immigrants to halt in changing at the exact point of liberty. He believed that infusing the aliens into our United States would create a â€Å"heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass. † Altogether, immigration was an extremely controversial topic. Each person had their own opinion, especially the rising parties who seemed to almost separate the nation more. While the Acts had allowed the President this power, it also prohibited the slander of libel of the President or any other part of the government. It seems to almost be a coincidence. After this was passed, Federalist prosecutors arrested more than twenty Republican newspaper editors and politicians. The Federalists had accused them of sedition, and convicted and jailed a number of them. Many believed that this part of the Sedition Act was against the First Amendment that forbade the †abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. † As a matter of fact, the Republicans actually tried to charge the Sedition Act as a violation of the First Amendment, although it did not appeal to the Supreme Court. This was because the Court was not sure how to review the case considering the board was made up of mostly Federalists. Jefferson sent a letter to Francis Hopkinson of Pennsylvania clearing up a rumor that he was a Federalist. He states that he â€Å"never submitted the whole system of (his) opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. † Last, but definitely not least, was the issue of whether or not the states had a right to judge the Constitution. After the Republicans tried to charge the Sedition Acts as a violation against the Constitution, Madison and Jefferson looked to the state legislature which led to their declaring the Alien and Sedition Acts to be â€Å"unauthoritative, void, and of no force. This resolution set forth a states’ rights interpretation of the Constitution, asserting that the states had a â€Å"right to judge† the legitimacy of national laws. Albert Gallatin, a Democratic-Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, made a speech in the House of Representatives on the proposed Sedition Act wherein he stated, â€Å"The only evidences brought by the supporters of this bill consist of writings expressing an opinion that certain measures of government have been dictated by an unwise policy, or by improper motives, and that some of them are unconstitutional. The Alien and Sedition Acts caused many controversies. The controversies led to many letters and arguments with the government. With this being said, the major problems seem to have been the topics of immigration, slander and libel of the government, and states’ rights. Although, after these controversies developed over the Acts, the Acts were then rethought. It is often wondered, even now, why the Alien and Sedition Acts were ever passed in the first place.

The Blue Sword CHAPTER FOURTEEN

She woke up with a jolt, hearing her name, â€Å"Harry,† and for a moment she did not know where she was, but was convinced she was a prisoner. It was only Jack, standing in the doorway of the bedroom. She sighed and relaxed, conscious that much of her panic was caused by the fact that her right hand had closed only on bedclothes. Jack was looking at her quizzically; the white-knuckled right fist was not lost on him. â€Å"It's right here,† he said, nodding to his left, where Gonturan hung from a peg on the wall, next to silver-hiked Dalig and long Teksun. She unbent her fingers one by one, and with her left hand smoothed the bedding. Senay and Terim sat up and quietly began pulling on their boots, and Narknon lay down with an offended grunt over the pillow Harry had just vacated. There was food on the table again, and silent Ted stood to one side, poised and waiting to fill a plate or a cup. Harry came into the front room with her left arm close to her side and her hand across her stomach; Gonturan was hanging over her right shoulder. â€Å"Jack,† she said, â€Å"do you suppose I could borrow a – a belt from you? I seem to have †¦ lost mine.† Jack looked at her and then at the saffron- and blue-sashed waists of her two companions. â€Å"Lost?† he said, knowing something of Hill sashes. â€Å"Lost,† said Harry firmly. Ted put down his coffee-pot and went off to search for a leather Outlander belt. The sky was red when two dozen grim Outlanders set out beside three Hillfolk, one wearing a brass-buckled Outlander belt, heading north and west away from the Outlander fort. â€Å"We include one first-rate bugler,† said Jack cheerfully. â€Å"At least we'll know whether we're coming or going.† His men were dressed in the Homelander uniform of dull brown, with the red vertical stripe over the left breast that indicated Damarian duty. Harry permitted herself a twinge of nostalgia for her first sight of those uniforms, in the little clattering train, sitting opposite her brother. She asked, â€Å"Is it indiscreet, or merely putting a good face on it that you're wearing your proper uniforms?† Jack replied, staring toward the mountains, â€Å"It is that most of us have little useful clothing that is not of army issue.† He turned to her and smiled. â€Å"And besides, familiarity also breeds comfort. And I think, just now, we might do well to think of morale whenever we can.† They jogged steadily, with much jingling of tack from the fort horses; Harry had forgotten how noisy bits and chains and stirrups were, and felt that the Northerners would hear them coming from behind the mountains. They stopped just before dawn, in a valley at the beginning of the foothills. â€Å"Tonight,† said Senay, â€Å"we must go east into these hills, for there my village is.† Harry nodded. Jack looked uneasy. â€Å"Harry,† he said, â€Å"I'm not sure my lot will be very welcome in Senay's home town. If you like, we can ride a little farther along the way, so as not to lose time, and meet you near the pass – at the foot of the final trail to it, perhaps.† â€Å"Mm.† Harry explained this to Senay, who looked at Jack and then Harry with surprise. â€Å"We will all ride together,† she said. â€Å"We are comrades.† Harry did not need to translate. Jack smiled a little. â€Å"I wonder if Corlath would approve.† Terim had caught the king's name, and asked Harry what was said. â€Å"He would say the same, of course,† Terim replied. â€Å"It is true we are often enemies, but even when we are enemies, we are nearer each other than we can ever be to the Northerners, at least so long as only human blood runs in our veins. It is why this war is so bitter. We cannot occupy the same land. It has always been thus.† â€Å"We don't occupy the same land particularly well ourselves, however human we may be,† said Jack, and when Terim looked inquiringly at him, Jack put it in Hill-speech. Terim chewed his lip a minute. â€Å"Yes, we fight, and usually we do not love each other; but we are still the same. The Northerners are not. You will see. Where their feet step, it will be as if our land were sown with salt.† Jack looked at Harry, and Harry looked at Jack. â€Å"I am not sure of this,† she said. â€Å"I know the wizardry their folk produce is different than the Hillfolk's, and †¦ I know that any possibility of a part-blood Northerner is looked on with disgust and †¦ fear. You call someone half-North, thidik, and they may be forgiven for trying to kill you. Evidently,† and Harry's voice was very even, â€Å"Hill and Outlander blood is supposed to cross more gracefully.† As Jack stared at his horse's neck, Senay leaned toward him, and touched his horse's mane. â€Å"We are like enough, Jack Dedham; we all follow Harimad-sol.† Jack smiled. â€Å"We all follow Harimad-sol.† Harry said, â€Å"Jack, you are not following me. Don't you start.† Jack looked at her, still smiling; looked up, for his stolid gelding Draco was a hand and a half shorter than Sungold. But he did not answer. They rested most of the day and started off again an hour before sunset, following Senay's directions. The desert was behind them now, and so neither the sun nor the conspicuousness of traveling through empty country would force them to march only by night. It was near midnight when two men stepped into the path before them, and held up torches that suddenly burst into fire. Everyone blinked, and the Outlander horses tossed their heads. Then a voice behind one torch said sharply, â€Å"Who are you, who travel to the town of Shpardith?† Senay replied, â€Å"Thantow, have you forgotten me so quickly?† Thantow walked forward, holding his torch high, and Senay dismounted. â€Å"Senay you are,† he said, and those near behind could see him smile. â€Å"Your family will be pleased to see you return to them,† although his eyes wandered over them, and the jingling of bits was very loud in Harry's ears. â€Å"These are my comrades,† Senay said simply, and Thantow nodded. He muttered a few words to his companion, who turned and trotted off, the light of his torch bobbing dizzily till he disappeared around a bend of the rocky way. Harry dismounted, and Narknon reappeared from the darkness to sit under Sungold's belly and watch the goings-on, and make sure she wasn't being left out of anything interesting. Senay turned to Harry and introduced her reverently as â€Å"Harimad-sol,† whereupon Thantow swept her a very elegant Hill bow, which included the hand gestures of respect, and Harry tried not to shuffle her feet. They all moved forward again, and after a few minutes the narrow path opened up. It broadened slowly till it turned into a round patch of grass encircled by a white path that gleamed mysteriously in the torchlight. A little breeze wandered around them, and the smell was like roses. Thantow led them around the white path, and at the end of the circle opposite was a tall building of brown and grey stone, built into the mountainside, with moss and tiny, carefully cultivated trees bordering its roof. In the windows of this building lights were appearing. As they approached nearer, the wooden door crashed open, and a child in what was probably a nightgown came flying out, and unerringly sprang into Senay's arms. â€Å"You've been gone weeks and weeks,† the child said accusingly. â€Å"Yes, love, but I did tell you I would be,† said Senay, and the child buried her face in Senay's diaphragm and said, â€Å"I missed you.† Three other people emerged from the still-open door. First was a tall old man carrying a lantern, and limping on one leg; a younger woman strode behind him, then hurried forward to say, â€Å"Rilly, go inside.† Senay gently disengaged the reluctant Rilly, who backed up, one foot at a time, toward the house, not caring whom she might run into, till she bumped into the doorframe, fell through it, and disappeared from view. The young woman turned back to Senay, and embraced her long and silently. When the old man came up to them, he called Senay daughter. Harry blinked, for this man was certainly the local lord, the sola, of this place; but then, to be able to send his daughter so far to the laprun trials, perhaps it was not surprising. The third person was a young man, Senay's brother, for they both looked like their father; and he patted her arm awkwardly and said, â€Å"How was it?† He looked about sixteen. Senay smiled at him. â€Å"I was well defeated,† she said, in the traditional phrase, â€Å"and I wear my sash so,† and her fingers touched the torn rent. Harry sighed. â€Å"This is Harimad-sol,† Senay said, â€Å"who wielded the sword that cut my sash. She took the trials.† The old man turned to look at her sharply, and Harry met his gaze, wondering if he would comment on her obviously Outlander cast of features under the Hillman's hood; but he looked at her a moment, the lantern light shining in her eyes, and then bowed himself, and said, â€Å"My house is honored.† Only then did his eyes drop to the blue hilt just visible beyond the edge of her cloak. He turned to look at the rest of them, and his quiet face gave nothing away as he looked at two dozen Outlander cavalry standing uneasily at his threshold. â€Å"These are my comrades,† Senay said again, and her father nodded; and the woman, Senay's stepmother, said formally, â€Å"They are welcome.† Terim and Jack followed Harry and Senay into the house, while Jack's men and horses were led along the stone ridge of mountainside that the sola's house was built against, to a long low hall. â€Å"It is the village meeting-place,† Senay explained. â€Å"Many of our Hill towns have them, near the sola's house, for there we can all come together to talk or to celebrate; and when it is necessary we can shelter our friends and stable their horses.† Harry nodded slowly. â€Å"And if you must †¦ defend?† The old man smiled without humor. â€Å"There are caves, and twisting paths that lead pursuers to walls of stone or cliffs; and we can disappear if we must. You would not have come easily to this place if Senay had not guided you. The Hills are not good country for conquerors; there are too many holes in them.† â€Å"Yes,† murmured Jack. The room they entered was a large one; there were rugs on the floors and walls, and a long low table beside a long window, although it was closely curtained now. â€Å"Rilly,† said her mother firmly, â€Å"you may stay up for a short while, but you must put your robe and your boots on.† Rilly disappeared again. Servants entered the room bringing malak and small fat cakes, and Rilly reappeared and snuggled down by Senay, who put an arm around her. Harry waited, wondering if she would have to explain their errand; but Senay said with the same simplicity as she had explained the Outlanders as her comrades: â€Å"We go to stop the Northerners who come through the Madamer Gate. Who is there that can come with us?† Sixteen riders joined them in the morning when they set out once more, and Harry began to feel a trifle silly riding at the head of what was becoming at least a company if not an army. But it was obviously expected of her to ride first, chin in the air, staring forthrightly ahead. It's better than one mad Outlander on a Hill horse, she thought. What would I have done if Senay and Terim hadn't followed me, if Jack hadn't been at the fort? â€Å"Jack,† she said. â€Å"Mmm?† â€Å"Have you ever seen Ritger's Gap?† â€Å"No. Why?† â€Å"I am wondering, in a foresightful commanding sort of way, how ridiculous a few dozen of us strung out across it are going to look when – if – the Northerners do in fact decide to use it.† Jack grimaced. â€Å"Not very – silly, I mean. I believe it's a very narrow place; there's a valley spread out on the far side of it, but the gap itself we should be able to bottle up for some time, even the few of us.† Harry expelled her breath. â€Å"I do keep thinking how much of a fool's errand this is.† Jack smiled. â€Å"A noble and well-meaning fool's errand at least.† That night Harry dreamed: Ritger's Gap, the Madamer Gate, was a thin cleft of rock, no more than two-horse width; on the south side was a small rocky plateau, which then fell away abruptly into the forested mountainside. On the north was a wide bowl of valley with some dull brush and loose rock covering it; uneven footing, she thought in her dream, and no protection. Not a battlefield of choice. The valley led slowly up to the final narrow gap in the rock. She turned in her dream, and saw a little string of riders, the leader on a tall chestnut horse that gleamed like fire in the sun, striding up the path to the rocky plateau. She had seen these riders before, toiling up that mountainside. The familiarity of the vision comforted her; perhaps she had, after all, made the right choice when the path had forked. Perhaps she would justify Luthe's faith in her. And Corlath? She woke with a start. There was the greyness before true dawn in the sky, but she arose nonetheless and began to stir the fire. She noticed, with a flash of fear and anger, that her hand trembled; and then the fire burned up, and in its red heart she saw two faces. First was Corlath's. He stood quietly, staring at something she could not see; and he looked sad, and the sadness wrung her heart as though she were the cause of it. Then his face became the flames of a campfire again, but they flickered and rearranged themselves and became the face of Aerin, who smiled wryly, and it came into Harry's mind that perhaps Aerin had something to do with Senay and Terim following her, and Jack having sent Richard alone to argue for the General Mundy. Harry smiled a little, weakly, herself, at the face in the fire. Aerin looked away, as if something had caught her attention, and there was a blue glint at her side, which might have been Gonturan's hilt, or only the snapping of a small fire. â€Å"Do we ride out early, then?† said Jack, his voice rough with sleep. â€Å"Yes,† said Harry. â€Å"I don't like my dreams – and I †¦ suspect that I am supposed to pay attention to some of my dreams.† Their voices caused other sleepers to stir, and by the time the sun rose up over the crest of the Hills on their right, they had ridden some miles. â€Å"We will be there by tomorrow,† said Harry at their midday halt; and the grimness of her own voice surprised her. She was sitting on the ground as she spoke, and Narknon came to her, and wrapped herself around her shoulders and back like a fur cloak, as if to comfort her. There was a scuffle, suddenly, to one side, and Harry whipped around, one hand on Gonturan. A tall woman strode out from the trees, two of Jack's soldiers, looking tousled, slightly annoyed, and slightly afraid, standing on her either side. One of them held half a loaf of bread and the other a drawn dagger; but he held it like a bread knife. The woman was dressed in brown leather; there was a woven blue belt, sky blue, a color that comforted the eye, around her waist, and a dull crimson cap on her head; and she wore a quiver of arrows over her shoulder and carried loosely in her hand a long bow, with blue beads the color of her belt twisted just below the handgrip. â€Å"I am Kentarre,† she said. â€Å"Forgive the abruptness of my arrival.† â€Å"The filanon,† breathed Senay, standing stiffly at Harry's side. â€Å"The who?† muttered Harry; and then to the tall woman, â€Å"You have just proven to us that we need to post sentries, even to eat a mouthful of bread. We thought ourselves alone here, and our haste to our own ends has made us careless.† â€Å"Sentries, I think, would not have stopped me, and you see – † and Kentarre held up her bow – â€Å"I come in peace to you, for I cannot notch an arrow before any of your people might stop me.† She spoke Hill-speech, but her accent was curious, and the inflections were not predictable. Harry found she had to listen closely to be sure she heard correctly, for she was not that accustomed to the Hill tongue herself. Perhaps it was her attention that caught the unspoken â€Å"even† before â€Å"I cannot notch an arrow,† and she smiled faintly. Kentarre stood quite still, smiling in return. Narknon came to sit, in her watch-cat disguise, at Harry's feet. She gave Kentarre one of her long clear-eyed looks and then, without moving, began to purr. One mark in your favor, thought Harry, for Narknon's judgment is usually pretty good. â€Å"What do you wish of us?† she said. Kentarre said, â€Å"We have heard, even in our high Hilltops, where we talk often to the clouds but rarely to strangers, that she has come who carries the Lady Aerin's sword into battle once more; and we thought that we might seek her, for our mothers' mothers' mothers followed her long ago, when Gonturan first came to Damar in the hands of the wizard Luthe. So we made ready for a long journey; and then we found that Gonturan, and the sol who carries her, were coming to us; and so we waited. Three weeks we have waited, as we were told; and you are here; and we would pledge to you.† In the last sentence Kentarre's lofty tone left her, and she looked, quickly and anxiously, into Harry's face, and color rose to her cheekbones. Harry was doing some rapid calculations. Three weeks ago she had sat in a stone hall and eaten breakfast with a tall thin man who had told her that he had no clear-cut fortune for her, but that she should do what she felt she must do. Harry met Kentarre's gaze a little ruefully. â€Å"If you knew so well when we would be here, perhaps you know also how pitifully few we are and how heedless an errand we pursue. But we would welcome your help in holding the Northerners back for what time we may, if such is also your desire.† The last finger of the hand holding the bow gently spun one of the blue beads on its wire; and Harry thought that Kentarre was not so much older than herself. â€Å"Indeed, we do wish it. And if any of us remain afterward, we will follow you back to your king, whom we have not seen for generations, for in this thing perhaps all of what there is left of the old Damar must come together, if any of it is to survive.† Harry nodded, thinking that perhaps Kentarre's people would be convinced to go without her when the time came, for Corlath was likelier to be pleased to see them without his mutineer in their midst; but such thoughts were superfluous till they found out if any of their number would survive a meeting with the Northerners. Kentarre turned and stepped briskly back into the woods. â€Å"The filanon,† Senay murmured again. â€Å"The which?† Harry said. â€Å"Filanon,† she repeated. â€Å"People of the trees. They are archers like none else; it is said they speak to their arrows, which will turn corners or leap obstacles to please them. They are legends now; even my people, who live so near their forests, have believed that they no longer exist, even if the old tales are true, and once the filanon, with their blue-hung bows, did live high in the mountains where no one else went.† She paused a moment, and added, â€Å"Very rarely one of us has found one of the blue beads; they are thought to be lucky. My father has one that his father found when he was a little boy. He was wearing it the day the gursh – boar – gored him, and he said that it would have had him in the belly, and killed him, if the blue bead had not turned the beast at the last.† Jack said, â€Å"Tell me, Captain, do you always take in the loose wanderers you find in the woods if they offer to fall in with you?† Harry smiled. â€Å"Only when they tell stories that I like. Three weeks ago I was talking to a †¦ wise man who told me that †¦ things would happen to me. I am inclined to believe that this is one of them. Besides, Narknon likes her.† Jack nodded. â€Å"I prefer to believe you. Although I have my doubts about your tabby's value as a judge of character.† He blinked at her once or twice. â€Å"You're different, you know, than you were when you still lived with us Outlanders. Something deeper than the sunburn.† He said this, knowing its truth, curious to see its effect upon the young woman he had once known, had once watched staring at the Darian desert. Harry looked at him, and Jack was sure she knew exactly what was passing through his mind. â€Å"I am different. But the difference is a something riding me as I ride Sungold.† She looked wry. Jack chuckled. â€Å"My dear, you are merely learning about command responsibility. If you were mine, I'd promote you.† They finished their noon meal without seeing anything more of Kentarre; but as they mounted, many of them looking nervously around for more tall archers to burst from the bushes upon them, the materialization suddenly took place. Kentarre stood before Harry with a dark-haired man at her elbow; he carried a bow too, but among the blue beads at its grip was one apple-green one; and his tunic was dun-colored. Then Harry without turning her head saw that the path was lined with archers; she nodded blandly as if she had expected them to appear like this – which in fact she rather had – and moved Tsornin off. Kentarre and the man fell in with her and Jack and Senay and Terim, and the rest of the archers followed after the last horses had passed. Kentarre walked with as free and swinging a pace as Sungold. There were about a hundred of her new troop, Harry found, when they stopped again. With them were about twenty hunting-cats: bigger-boned, with broader flatter skulls than Narknon's, and more variety of color than Harry had seen among Corlath's beasts. Narknon herself kept carefully at Harry's heels: even the indomitable Narknon seemed to feel discretion was the better part of valor when faced with twenty of her own kind, and each of them a third larger than herself. Harry and her company found a little rock bowl, sheltered from the northwest wind that had begun to blow that afternoon, and all of them clustered in it, around several small fires. The archers unstrung their bows and murmured to or over their arrows, and the others watched them surreptitiously. Bows seemed as outlandish to the sword-bearers as feathers on one of their horses. Jack's men felt absently for revolvers that weren't on their hips. At dawn they set off again, and now Harry felt that she rode into her dream; perhaps she would wake up yet and find herself in the king's tent, with unknown words on her lips and Corlath's hands on her shoulders, and pity in his eyes. They rode, the archers striding long-legged behind them, up a narrow trail into the mountain peaks; up the dark unwelcoming slopes to the border of the North. The cold thin air bit at their throats, and the sun was seen as scattered falls of light through the leaves. The ground underfoot was shaly, but Tsornin never stumbled; his ears were hard forward and his feet were set firmly. Harry tapped her fingernail on the big blue stone in the hilt of Gonturan and thought of a song she'd sung as a child; the tune fluttered through her mind, but she couldn't quite catch the words. It made her feel isolated, as though her childhood hadn't really happened – or at least hadn't happened as she remembered it. Perhaps she'd always lived in the Hills; she'd se en Sungold foaled, and she had been the one first to put a saddle on his young back, and had trained him to rear and strike as a warhorse. Her stomach felt funny. They reached Ritger's Gap, the Madamer Gate, before sunset, spilling out across the little plateau that lay behind it, with trees at its back and only bare rock rising around it to the mountaintop, a few bowlengths above them. There was a long shallow cave to one side, where the mountain peak bent back on itself, and low trees protected much of the face of it. â€Å"We'll sleep in something resembling shelter tonight,† said Jack cheerfully. â€Å"At least as long as the wind doesn't veer around and decide to spit at us from the south.† Harry was listening to the northern breeze; it sneered at her. â€Å"It won't,† she said. Jack cocked an eyebrow at her, but she said no more about it. The plateau was loud with the panting of men and horses; they had hurried to arrive, just as her dream had told her they would, or must; the last hour, men and horses had had to scramble up, side by side. Harry leaned against Sungold's shoulder, grateful for the animal solidity of him; he turned his head to chew gently on her sleeve till she petted him. After a minute of staring around her she slowly followed Narknon as the cat paced up to the Gap itself and stared into the valley beyond. Even Narknon seemed subdued, but perhaps it was the day's hard miles. Two riders abreast could pass the narrow space in the rock, perhaps, but their knees would touch. On this side of the Gap, the plateau sloped up to the shoulders of the narrow cleft and down the other side, where men and clever-footed horses might climb. Harry stared through, and became conscious of Sungold's warm breath on the back of her neck. Narknon leaped down from her perch beside the cleft, turned her back on it, and began to wash. Harry stood in the Gap itself, and leaned against the spot Narknon had vacated. A pebbly slope dropped down away from her to a scrub-covered valley between the mountain's arms; there was a lower valley wall on the far side, but it fell away into foothills. Harry felt her sight reaching away, into the harsh plain beyond the dun-colored valley and scattering of low sharp hills; and on the edge of the plain she saw a haze that eddied and drifted, like a tide coming in, exploring the shore before it, reaching out to stroke the little hills before it swe pt over them. Harry turned and went back to her company. She said to no one in particular, â€Å"They will be here tomorrow.† It was a silent camp that night; everyone seemed almost superstitiously afraid to polish a dagger one last time in too obvious a fashion; much quiet checking of equipment went on, but it was a shadowy sort of motion. No one met another's eyes and there was no bright ring of metal on metal. Even footfalls were muffled. Jack's bay gelding Draco and Harry's Sungold had become friends over the days of carrying their riders side by side. The Outlander horses were always set out on a picket line while the Hill horses wandered where they would, never far from the human campsite; and Sungold and Draco stood nose to nose often, murmuring to each other perhaps about the weather and the footing of the day past; perhaps about the eccentricities and preoccupations of their riders. Tonight they stood near together with their heads facing the same way – watching us, Harry thought, looking back at them; or watching that awful northwest wind. Sungold nicked one ear back, then forward again, and stamped. Draco turned his head to blow thoughtfully at his companion, and then they both settled down for a nap, one hind leg slack, their eyes dim and unfocused. Harry watched enviously. The north wind gibbered. â€Å"Draco, who knows almost as much about battles as I do, has told young Sungold that he should get a good night's sleep. I, world-weary warrior that I am – that's hard to say after too many hours in the saddle – am about to say the same thing to you, my brilliant young Captain.† Harry sighed. â€Å"Do stop calling me Captain. Carrying Gonturan is enough; and she's not your legend.† â€Å"You'll get used to it, Captain,† said Jack. â€Å"Would you deny me one small amusement? Don't answer that. Go to sleep.† â€Å"Perhaps if I could stand on three legs and let my eyes glaze over, it would help,† she replied. â€Å"I do not feel like sleeping and I †¦ dread dreaming.† â€Å"Hmm,† said Jack. â€Å"Even those of us who aren't compelled to believe in what we dream aren't happy about dreams the night before a battle, but that's †¦ inevitable.† Harry nodded, then got up to unroll her blanket and dutifully laid herself down on it. Narknon couldn't settle either; she paced around the fire, wandered over to touch noses with Sungold, returned, lay down, paced some more. â€Å"I'll send Kentarre and her people into the woods on either side of the Gap, looking down on the valley; we can all mob together here – and see what comes.† â€Å"Splendid,† said Jack from his blanket, as he pulled off his boots. â€Å"I couldn't arrange it better myself.† Harry gave a breathless little laugh. â€Å"There isn't much to be organized, my wise friend. Even I know that.† Jack nodded. â€Å"You could send us through that crack in the rock two at a time, to get cut in pieces; I would then object. But you aren't going to. Go to sleep, General.† Harry grunted. Harry's eyes stayed open, and saw the cloud come across the moon, and heard the whine of the north wind pick up as the clouds strangled the moonlight. She heard the stamp of a horse from the picket line, and an indeterminate mumble from an uneasy sleeper; and Narknon, who had finally decided to make the best of it by going to sleep, snored faintly with her head on Harry's breast. And beyond these things she heard †¦ other things. She had set no sentries, for she knew, as she knew the Northerners would face them tomorrow, that they were not necessary. It was a small piece of good fortune that every one of her small company might have the chance of sleep the night before the battle, and it would be foolish not to accept any good fortune she was offered. But as she lay awake and solitary she heard the stamp of hooves not shod with iron, the shifting of the bulk of riding-animals that were not horses, the sleeping snores of riders that were not human. Then her mind drifted for a few almost peaceful minutes; but she heard a rustle, and as her drowsy mind slowly recognized the rustle as a tent flap closing she heard Corlath's voice say sharply, â€Å"Tomorrow.† She sat up in shock; Narknon slithered off her shoulder and rearranged herself on the ground. Around her were the small dead-looking heaps of her friends and followers, the red embers of campfires, the absolute blackness of the curve of rock and the shifting blackness that was the edge of the trees. She turned her head and could faintly see the silhouette of horse legs, and she heard the ring of iron on a kicked rock. Jack was breathing deeply; his face was turned away from the dying fire glow, and she could not see his expression; she even wondered if he were feigning sleep as a good example for her. She looked at Narknon, stretched out beside her; her head was now over Harry's knees. There was no doubt that she was sincerely asleep. Her whiskers twitched, and she muttered low in her throat. Harry lay down again. The wind sniggered around the rocks, but overhead it flung itself, laughing shrilly, through the mountains, into the quiet plains of Damar, bearing with it the inhuman whispers and moans of the Northern army. Harry shivered. A finger of breeze touched her cheek and she recoiled; it ran over her shoulder and disappeared. She pulled the blanket over her face. She must have slept, for when she pushed the blanket away from her face again the mountain was edged with dawn and her mouth tasted sticky. She sat up. Narknon was still asleep. Jack's eyes were open. He was staring grimly at nothing; she watched his eyes pull into focus to look at her. He sat up, saying nothing, and put his elbows on his knees, and rubbed his hands over the grey stubble of hair on his head. Other bodies were stirring. There was a small spring-fed pool in a fist of rock where the front of the shallow cave was sheltered by the trees; one of Jack's men filled a tin at it and brought it to one of Kentarre's archers, who had produced a slender tongue of flame from last night's ashes. Harry stared dreamily at the little fire till something black came between her and it, which proved to be Jack, kneeling down at their own bed of embers. Harry got up, kicking her blankets off, and went to fetch another tin of water. Jack smiled at her when she returned. She tried to smile back; she wasn't sure how successful she was. While they waited for the water to boil, Harry walked to the Madamer Gate and stared through it. The top of her head stood above the rock cleft, and the north wind howled down on her; her scalp felt tight and cold. The haze still hung where she had seen it the evening before, at the beginning of the foothills; but this morning she felt she could see flashes of color and motion within it. The color was the color of fear. The wind chewed into her and she went back to the cave. They were all sitting, hunkered down around their tiny fires; and they were all watching her; or all but Jack, who was shaving. She admired the steadiness of his hand as he bent over a ragged bit of mirror propped against a rock on the ground. She stopped just before the shadow of the cave began. â€Å"Stay out of the wind while you can,† she said. â€Å"It's not †¦ the right sort of wind.† Terim looked up, as if he could see the shape of the wind itself, and not only the way it shook the leaves and bounced pebbles from the rockfaces. â€Å"The Northerners send their wind to chill us,† he said. Harry remembered the creeping touch on her face the night before. â€Å"Yes,† she said slowly. â€Å"To chill us – but I think also to discover us. I prefer that we tell it no more than we must.† At midmorning Harry saddled Sungold, unrolled the tops of her boots and lashed them to her thighs, settled her leather vest with particular care across her shoulders, and Gonturan against her hip. Shield and iron-bound helm hung ready from the front of the saddle; Sungold turned to look at her. The saddle looked strange, unbalanced, without the bulky knapsacks strapped around it. Draco chewed his bit, and Tsornin pointed an ear briefly at the sound. Shortly before noon Harry sent Kentarre and her archers and their big soft-footed cats out beyond the Gate, into the last trees on the mountains' shoulders rising above the haggard valley. Harry watched anxiously, for the covering of stunted trees was not good, and she felt that every blue bead would be visible; but the archers disappeared as if they were no more than thrown pebbles. Harry was sure that whatever approached them knew the Gate was held against them – knew and smiled at the tale the wind brought; but she could do no more. Jack saw them for the first time just before Kentarre led her archers away. He was staring through a narrow black spyglass; his hands were as steady as they had been with his razor. Harry could keep hers from chafing and plucking at each other only by thinking about it constantly; she clamped them on her sword belt. They felt damp. Harry had been watching those coming toward them all morning and it took her a moment to understand Jack's sudden grunt of comprehension. The fog had flowed into the mouth of the valley, and now it resolved itself into a mass of dark moving shapes which still seemed to cast more shadow than they should, for they were very near. â€Å"Mount,† said Harry. The wind chuckled wildly as it tore at their hair, and pinged madly off metal as helms were settled in place, and dragged at the fingers of gloves, and sword tips, and horse tails. Sungold stood with his nose in the Gate; Draco stood at Harry's knee, stolidly, ears pricked. Harry could feel Tsornin tremble, but it was impatience; and she bit her lip in shame for herself and pride for her horse. Terim's horse tossed its head anxiously and switched its tail; Terim's face beneath the helm was unreadable. Narknon reappeared from wherever she had spent the morning, licking her chops; she hadn't been satisfied with porridge this morning. She polished her whiskers carefully, then came to the head of the column, to sit between Tsornin and Draco. â€Å"Narknon, my dear,† said Harry, â€Å"why don't you go sleep by the fire for now, till †¦ till we come back? This isn't your sort of hunting.† Narknon looked up at her, perfectly aware that she was being addressed; then she lowered her gaze again and stared out across the valley. â€Å"The filanon's cats went with them,† said Jack. â€Å"You'll hurt her feelings if you try to leave her behind.† Harry said fiercely, â€Å"This is not the time to make silly jokes.† â€Å"On the contrary, Captain,† replied Jack. â€Å"This is exactly the time.† Harry swallowed and looked out at the Northerners again. At the front of the army before them was a rider on a white horse. The horse was magnificent, as tall as Sungold, with the same proud head and high tail; red ribbons fluttered from its forelock and crest. His reins were golden glints against its snowy neck; and the rider's heavy sword was a great golden bar at his side. Beside him a dark rider on a mud-colored beast carried a banner: white, with a red bird on it, a bird of prey with a curved beak. â€Å"No army can move that fast,† said Jack. â€Å"No,† said Harry. The white horse screamed and Sungold answered, rearing; Harry punched his neck with a closed fist, and he settled back, but his haunches were tensed under him, waiting to hurl them forward. â€Å"Very well,† said Harry. â€Å"We will go to meet them now.† A rain of arrows fell from the sky into the dark sea at their feet, and some of the dark many-shadowed shapes fell, and weird cries drifted up to the watchers at the Gate. â€Å"At least arrows pierce them,† Harry heard Terim say. Sungold's ears lay flat to his head, and he pranced where he stood. Harry could hear the horses moving up close behind her; Senay and Terim stood with their horses' front feet half up the rock slope on either side of the Gap. â€Å"Jack,† said Harry. â€Å"You wait here; we'll come back when we're ready for a breather, and you can argue with them for a while.† â€Å"As you say, Captain,† said Jack. And he whispered, â€Å"Good luck, Harimad-sol.† Harry gestured to Jack's trumpeter, and they sallied out under a banner of bright brass notes, for they carried no other. Sungold leaped down the slope, and the white stallion reared and neighed; his rider turned him and galloped to one side, and the lightless mass of the army surged up the sides of the valley. War-cries rang in harsh throats, twisted by ill-shaped tongues. The ground before the Gate was in Harry's favor, for there was little room to maneuver, and no room for the overwhelming numbers of the Northerners to sweep around their small adversaries and crush them. Each side must fight on a narrow front; it was a question merely of how long the Hillfolk had the strength to fight, for there were always replacements for any Northerner who fell or grew weary. Harry pulled Gonturan from her scabbard and swung her once, shrilling through the air, splitting the northern wind into fragments that fell, crying, under Sungold's feet. â€Å"Gonturan!† yelled Terim. â€Å"Harimad-sol and Gonturan!† called Senay, not to be outdone; and then the Hillfolk met the Northerners. Sungold plunged and struck with teeth and hooves as Gonturan cut and thrust; and Harry felt the yellow wave rising in her mind and was glad of it, for her intellect was of little use, and that the wrong sort, just now; and she noticed that Gonturan was wet with blood, but that the blood seemed an odd color. Clouds massed to cover the sun, but they kept breaking up and drifting away again, and the Hillfolk fought more strongly for this proof that the black army was not all-powerful. Harry was dimly aware that Draco's head was at her knee again, and there was a momentary lull when her right arm could drop and her small shield rest heavily on her leg, and she said, â€Å"Where did you come from?† â€Å"It looked as if you never would come back and give us a chance, and we got tired of waiting,† said Jack; and then the battle swelled around them again, and the clank of metal and the bash of blows rose up and smothered them. There was a smear of blood along Sungold's neck, and as he tossed his head, foam flew backward and ran down Harry's forearm. Those they fought were hard to see clearly, even from as close as a sword stroke. Harry saw better than most and still she could not say why she was sure that those she faced were not all human. Some glittering eyes and swift arms were human enough; but others seemed to swing from curiously jointed shoulders and hips, and the eyes were set oddly in odd-shaped skulls – although perhaps the skulls were all right, and the helms were deliberately misshapen. Some of the horses too were true horses; but some had hides that sparkled like scales, and feet that hit the ground unlike hooves, and teeth that were pointed like a dog's. Minutes passed and Gonturan had a life of her own; and the next time Harry saw Jack, Draco crashed into them from one side and Jack's stirrup caught at her ankle; and he yelled, â€Å"You might think of retiring for a few minutes, Captain; we've upset them, and we deserve it.† Harry looked around puzzled, but it was true; her handful had driven the dark army back; they were halfway down the valley again. â€Å"Oh,† she said. â€Å"Umm. Yes.† â€Å"Back!† shouted Jack, standing in his stirrups. â€Å"Back to the Gap!† The trumpeter picked it up, for he had followed Jack when the colonel struggled to reach Harry, as he had followed Colonel Dedham often before in years and battles past; and never yet had he received a wound that hindered his playing, although the border skirmishes he was acquainted with had little prepared him for this day. He was tired and bloody now, and it took him a moment to fill his lungs to make his trumpet speak; but then the notes flew out again, over the heads of the combatants, and Harry's company collected themselves to fall back to the Gap. Harry saw Senay near at hand, and then the others, one at a time, turning, half aware, in their saddles, hearing the notes of the retreat; some picking up the cry and throwing it farther; the filanon had a long clear singing note that they passed among themselves. As the Hill and Outlander horses wheeled to gallop away and Harry prepared to fol low them, suddenly the white stallion was before her. This one almost looked like a real horse, she thought; but its teeth were bared, and they were the sharp curved fangs of a flesh-eater. Its bit came to a sharp point on each side of its jaw, so it could slash an opposing horse with a sideways twist of its head. Its long ears were flat to its skull, and its blue eyes rolled. It reared and screamed its stallion scream again, and Sungold answered; but when her horse's front feet hit the earth again, he leaped forward; and Harry saw the other stallion's rider sweep his golden sword up in challenge. Gonturan glittered in the sunlight; but when they met, the blow was of more than physical strength. The other rider's sword drew no blood, but Harry reeled in her saddle; the noise the sword had made against her fresh-stained and pitted shield sent waves of fear through her, and her yellow war-rage went grey and dim. Sungold reared and shrieked; the white stallion was not quick enough, and when the chestnut swerved away there was blood on the other's neck and shoulder and rein. This seemed to drive the white horse mad, and it came again; Harry heard through the deadening thunder in her ears that the other rider laughed. She raised her eyes to where his should be, under his blazing white helm, and saw spots of red fire; below that, teeth were bared in a grin in a jaw that might once have been human. The power that washed over that face, that rolled down the arms and into the sword and shield, was that of demonkind, and Harry knew she was no match for this one, and in spite of the heat of Gonturan in her hand her heart was cold with fear. The two stallions reared again, and reached out to tear each other; the white stallion's neck was now ribboned with blood, like the real ribbons he wore in his mane. Harry raised her sword arm, and felt the shock of the answer; the hilts of the swords rang together, and sparks flew from the crash, and it seemed that smoke rose from them and blinded her. The other rider's hot breath was in her face. His lips parted and she sa w his tongue; it was scarlet, and looked more like fire than living flesh. Her arm was numb. The contact lasted only a moment; Sungold wrenched himself and his rider free, and Harry's legs held her on his back from habit, while she struggled only not to drop her sword. Sungold bit the white stallion just above the tail, and the horse kicked; too late, for Sungold again twisted out of the way and bit him again on the flank, and the blood flowed from the long wicked gash. The white stallion threw up his head and lunged forward, away from his enemy. Harry heard the rider laugh again, although he made no attempt to rein his horse around for another attack; an attack that Harry knew would be her last defense. He could wait. He knew the strength of his army and the size of the force that chose to try and block it, for the wind he sent had told him. But it was then, as the white stallion ran from them, and the banner-bearer turned to follow its leader, that from the black ground-swell a long stripy body rose and flung itself snarling at the mud-colored beast. Sungold was leaping forward again before Harry was aware of her legs closing around him; for it was Narknon. The cat slashed at the rider, and dropped away again, and then sprang at the beast's face and seized its nose in her teeth; purple blood welled out and poured down Narknon's matted sides. The beast reared, trying to tear at the cat with its clawed forefeet, but Narknon twisted in mid-air. The beast came to the ground again as its rider made a sword cut at the cat, but it missed, for Gonturan got in its way. And the beast reared up once more, mad with pain, and flung itself over backward; and neither beast nor rider rose again, and the red-and-white banner was trampled underfoot.