chin-high on Blade. Anything energetic enough could cross it easily. After all, they had, and neither of them was in the best of shape. A stealthy swimmer could cross it and never betray himself by sound, what with the waterfall out there pounding away.
He shook his head. “No; we trap this side of the river, but not the other. We’d be too vulnerable on that side, and why bother? We really don’t want to catch these things, do we?” He didn’t look as if he did, and she agreed with him. After all, what could they do with one if they did catch it, alive or dead? All that would do would be to tell them what the hunters looked like, and there were easier ways to do that.
“Not unless we have to start whittling down their numbers,” she murmured, thinking that this cave was both a good and a bad place to be. They could defend it—but it would be hard for rescuers to spot, and it would be very easy to place them in a state of siege from which there was no escape. The narrowness of the chimney that made it impossible for anything to climb down also rendered it impossible for them to climb up.
“Right. Then tomorrow, if it looks clear, we go get some green wood and leaves from across the way to make a smoke signal with. We get all the dry driftwood we can and stock it in here.” He cocked his head to one side, and waited for her contribution.
“Water we have, finally; I might just as well start fishing and as long as we’re running a smoke-signal fire, it can do double duty and I can smoke what we don’t eat.” That way if we’re trapped in here we’ll have something to eat. “We ought to go back down the way we came in and decide what kind of traps we can lay.”
“At least one rockfall, right at the entrance, with a release one of us can trigger from in here,” he said promptly, and yawned. “With a lot of work and cleverness we can even barricade the opening of the cave with wood and rocks; we’re certainly clever enough, so all we need is the work. And that is about all of the thinking that I’m good for. I have got to get some sleep. I don’t need a blanket; it’s plenty warm enough in here next to the fire.” He winked at her. “I can even lie down on this nice, soft sand so that I’m between the fire and the entrance, and screen it with my body. I shall sacrifice staying near the cold and water to do this duty.”
“Big of you. Help me spread out the bedding so it can dry,” she responded dryly. “Then you can sleep all you like—at least until it’s your turn on watch!”
And may there be nothing to watch for—except a search party, and that soon, she thought, as he chuckled and moved to help her with the damp blankets. By now they’ll have missed us back home. We didn’t make the rendezvous, and the other patrol should have sent word back with their teleson. How long until we’re missing instead of overdue? And will they look for us when they think we’re only late? I wish I knew.
I only know one thing. Father’s going to go out of his mind when he hears of this. I’m glad I’m not the one to tell him!
Amberdrake stared at Commander Judeth; for a moment her words made no sense. Then suddenly, they made all too much sense.
“They’re what?” All of Amberdrake’s hard-won equanimity deserted him. He rose out of the chair in his office as if he’d sat on a hot coal. Indeed, that was very much the way he felt.
“Calm down, Drake, the youngsters are only overdue by a day,” Judeth told him. She looked outwardly calm, but he knew more than enough about her and the tiny telltale signals her body showed to know that she was seriously worried. And yet, that was simply not good enough. “The patrol they were relieving got to the rendezvous point expecting them to be there yesterday, and they weren’t there.”
She’s worried. She’s only worried. And she still hasn’t done anything. “And they haven’t shown up yet.” He held both the arms of his chair in a strangle grip, and stared at her with unveiled accusation in his eyes. “So why aren’t you doing anything? You know those two are as by-the-book as any trainees you’ve ever had! They have never, ever violated orders. If they had a reason to be late, if they knew they were going to be delayed, they’d have sent a teleson message! If they haven’t, it’s because they can’t, because something happened to them!”
His voice was rising, and he knew it, and what was more, he didn’t care that he was making a blatant display of his emotions. For once in his life he wanted someone to know how upset he was. Judeth made soothing motions, as if she thought he could somehow be propitiated by a few words. As if she thought he could be “reasoned out of his hysteria.”
She was certainly going to try. “We are doing something, Drake; the patrol has left the rendezvous and they are going on out to see if they can’t find some sign of Blade and Tad. It’s too early to get in a panic about this—”
Too early to get in a panic? Who does she think she’s talking to? He held himself back from exploding at her only by great effort of will. “You tell me that when it’s your child that’s missing!” he snapped at her. “Or have you gotten so wrapped up in being a commander that you’ve forgotten this isn’t wartime? Instead of telling me not to panic, I suggest you tell me what else you’re doing right now. And if you aren’t doing anything right now, I am not interested in hearing why you can’t! I’ll pull in every resource I have to see that something does get done, and without any nonsense about not getting into a panic because one person thinks it’s too early!”
That was the closest he had ever come in his life to saying that he was actually going to use all the power and influence he held and had never used before, for any reason. And I will, I’ll do it, if I have to blackmail everyone in this city. Even her. It was a threat, a real one, and he was not bluffing. But he
