She grinned, glancing back at him with soft eyes. “What am I going to do with you, warrior? You really have to stop being so nice, or I’m going to want to take you home with me.” She didn’t give him a chance to respond to that, was chagrined that she’d even said it. “Come on, you’re here to inspect, aren’t you? I’ll help.” She moved on to the next post. “This one looks as sturdy as the rest.”

She kicked the base of it with her slippered foot, not hard, but the farden thing moved. Tedra jumped back as dust filtered down from the ceiling. Fanning the air in front of her, she said, “Sorry about that-”

Challen yanked her away before she could finish. “Return to the entrance, woman, now!”

He shoved her in that direction. She took about two steps before she turned back to see Challen moving toward the post she’d kicked.

“What about you-?”

The groaning overhead drowned her out. The mountain was pressing down on the ceiling planking. The dislodged post couldn’t take the weight at its present angle and cracked. With the support entirely gone, the planking overhead started cracking, too, and Tedra stared in horror as a large section of the ceiling dropped. The whole thing had taken only seconds.

Tedra was hit with the blast of disturbed dust and dirt and immediately started coughing. The cloud was so thick, she couldn’t see anything in front of her, even though uncovered gaali lit the whole area, particles of it sparkling in the dust cloud like floating glitter.

“Challen, I can’t see anything. Come out of there. Challen?” She went cold with the realization that he wasn’t coughing like she was, that the only other sound she could hear was more dirt and small rocks falling-and that he’d been directly under that collapsing ceiling. “Challen!”

In a panic, she entered the bright cloud, stumbled on something, fell forward onto a high pile of debris-and heard the groan from under it, just barely. She immediately rolled to the side to get her weight off the pile. It was so high, so much weight!

Like a madwoman, she started frantically digging through dirt and rock, crying, choking, calling his name repeatedly, screaming it when she couldn’t get even another groan. She couldn’t see what she was doing. She knew when she reached wood only by the feel of it. And then something tried to pull her away and she turned to attack it.

“Easy, Tedra.” Hard arms wrapped around her before she could do any serious damage. “We can work more quickly than you.”

Tamiron, and the rest of the escort. Thank the Stars! Either they’d heard her screaming, or some of that dust cloud had reached the entrance to alert them.

“Go out now-”

“I’ll wait.”

Her tone was emphatic enough that he didn’t try to insist. He only moved her out of the worst of the area while the others went to work.

After agonized moments, there was another groan. Tedra almost collapsed with relief, her worst fear put to rest. Challen would be all right. He wasn’t hurt badly. Oh, Stars, please, please don’t let him be hurt bad!

And then he was being carried out. The six warriors it took to do it didn’t stop so she could see him. Tamiron almost got his fingers broken when he didn’t release her quickly enough so she could follow. But even when she caught up with the bearers, she couldn’t see Challen clearly around the large warriors carrying him. She tried getting in between two of them, and was yanked out of the way again.

“Are you determined to delay them?” Tamiron demanded sharply, none too pleased with her at the moment with his fingers smarting.

“No, I just-”

“Do you stay out of the way, woman, the sooner he will be seen to.”

She knew that on a rational level, but she wasn’t working just then on a rational level. Tamiron must have concluded that for himself, for he kept hold of her arm to make certain she didn’t get in the way again. So it was that Challen had already been laid on the ground outside the entrance by the time she left the tunnel.

She shook off Tamiron’s hand to rush to Challen, but one of the warriors who had carried him turned and prevented her from getting close. One look at the man’s face and Tedra screamed, very nearly fainting with the anguish that filled her chest almost to suffocation. But she didn’t faint. She went wild, attacking the warrior, dropping him in seconds and the next who came to help him. It took four of them to finally throw her back, and they stood there like a steel wall, refusing to let her pass, refusing to let her see what was left of her barbarian.

“I just want to hold him!” she screamed at that solid wall, dropping to her knees, pounding on the ground with her fists until they were bloody. “Ah, Stars, noooo! Nooooo! Don’t take him! Give him back, please, please, pleeeease!”

“Tedra, you must stop.” Tamiron went onto his knees beside her, pulling her into his arms. “He hears your voice and is trying to wake. Do you want him to suffer even more before he dies?”

She pushed back, staring at him in shock. “He’s not dead yet? You’ve kept me from him when he’s not dead yet?”

She shoved Tamiron over in her haste to rise, but he caught her foot as she passed him and she went down. He had to roll on top of her to keep her down. It was almost next to impossible, since she had gotten closer to Challen and knew it.

“Enough, woman!” he had to shout to make her hear him. “You can do nothing for him, do you understand? Nothing! He will be dead before the sun sets. Let him die in peace, without your hysterics waking him to the pain.”

“Oh, you fools!” she screamed up at him. “I can save him!”

“You have not seen him,” he said more gently.

“Because you won’t let me!”

“Woman-Tedra… he has bones crushed. He has a mortal wound in his chest. Nothing can be done, no matter that you wish it otherwise.”

“It can-it can!” she cried. “I tell you I can save him, if my communicator can be found before he…Tamiron, please, you have to believe me. Challen has a small box of mine. Where would he put it-hide it? Where would he hide something?”

“This you will not be told.”

She couldn’t believe her ears. “Don’t… be… an… idiot!” she screeched at him. “I have to have that box. It has to be found, now! Or do you want him to die?”

“Do not be foolish-”

“Damn you, why won’t you believe me? With that box, I can save your friend. If you have any feeling for him at all, how can you take the chance that I’m not telling the truth?”

“How can the box save him?”

Thank the blessed Stars, he was finally listening to her. “It will-”

“No.”

Tedra gasped to hear that voice, sounding so weak, but still commanding. She craned her neck around to see him, but couldn’t.

“Challen, you don’t understand! You have to tell me where-”

“No,” he repeated, but he wasn’t speaking to her. “She is not… to have it, Tarn. She will… leave and not… return.”

“I won’t!” Tedra cried, struggling again with Tamiron to let her up. “Challen, I won’t leave you. I’ll take you where you can be healed, and I’ll return with you. I’ll even give you back the communicator, I swear!”

“He heard you not,” Tamiron told her. “He has lost wakefulness again.”

Tedra groaned, and then growled, “Get off me, warrior. I’ll return to town myself and find my unit. But I swear if he dies, when you could have given me a clue to shorten the search, I’m going to kill you.”

“You heard him, Tedra. You may not have the box. His orders are to be obeyed, despite-”

“He didn’t know what he was saying! He doesn’t know he’s dying-or that I can save him. If he knew it, it wouldn’t matter to him if I left or not, would it? But I’ll tell you what does matter. I caused that tunnel to collapse. If he dies, then I killed him. Are you going to let a helpless woman live with that on her conscience?” When he started to smile at that, she growled, “That was supposed to get through to your barbarian mentality, not make you laugh. And if you don’t get off me right now, I’m going to hurt you.”