The Demon's Den

stone placed exactly to hold the weight of the next. Slowly, with exquisite care, she moved up and over the rockfall that had nearly killed Neegan. She lightly touched the splintered end of the shattered support, then went on. She had no time to mourn the past.

Years of destruction couldn't erase her knowledge of the mine. She'd been trapped in it for too long.

'Herald? Can you hear me?'

Jors turned his face toward the sudden breeze. 'Yes ...' -.Gevris, she's here!:

:Good.: Although he sounded relieved, Jors realized the Companion didn't sound the least bit surprised.

:You knew she'd make it.:

Again the strange tone the Herald didn't recognize. :I believed her when she said she'd get you out.:

'Cover your head with your hands, Herald.'

Startled, he curved his left arm up and around his head just in time to prevent a small shower of stones from ringing off his skull.

'I'm on my way down.'

A moment later he felt the space around him fill, and a rough jacket pressed hard against his cheek.

'Sorry. Just let me get turned.'

Turned? Teeth chattering from the cold, he strained back as far as he could but knew it would make little difference. There wasn't room for a cat to turn let alone a person. To his astonishment, his rescuer seemed to double back on herself.

'Ow. Not a lot of head room down here.'

From the sound of her voice and the touch of her hands, she had to be sitting tight up against his side, her upper body bent across his back. He tried to force his half-frozen mind to work. 'Your legs ...'

'Are well out of the way, Herald. Trust me.' Ari danced her fingers over the pile of rubble that pinned him. 'Can you still move your toes.'

It took him a moment to remember how. 'Yes.'

'Good. You're at the bottom of a roughly wedge-shaped crevasse. Fortunately, you're pointing the right way. As soon as I get enough of you clear, I'm going to tie this rope around you, and your Companion on the other end is going to inch you up the slope as I uncover your legs. That means if anything's broken, it's going to drag, but if we don't do it that way, there won't be room down here for me, you, and the rock. Do you understand?'

'Yes.'

'Good.' One piece at a time, she began to free his right side.

:Gevris, she doesn't have any legs.:

:I know.:

:How did she get here?:

: brought her.:

:That's impossible!:

The Companion snorted. .-Obviously not. She's blind, too.:

'What!' His incredulous exclamation echoed through the Demon's Den.

Ari snorted and jammed a rock into the crack between two others. It wasn't difficult to guess what had caused that reaction, not when she knew the silence had to be filled with dialogue she couldn't hear. She waited for him to say something Herald-like and nauseating about overcoming handicaps as though they were all she was.