them, burying and crushing them. Running on without a check, he dragged
Royan along behind him in the darkness. He reached the end wall at full
tilt, and the impact knocked the breath out of him. Now, through the
swirling dust cloud, he was just able to make out the rectangular
opening in the plaster wall in front of him, back-lit by the lamps on
the landing at the head of the staircase outside.
As he reeled backwards he seized Royan around the waist and lifted her
bodily off her feet. He hurled her through the opening and heard her cry
out as she fell heavily on the far side. Another piece of rubble struck
him on the back of his head and knocked him to his knees. He felt
himself teetering on the very brink of consciousness, mail but crawled
forward, groping frantically until he touched the jagged edge of the
opening. With this handhold he was able to drag himself over the sill,
just as the full weight of the roof came thundering down along the
entire gallery.
Here on the upper landing of the staircase Royan was crouching on her
knees. She crawled towards him, guided once more by the lamplight.
'Are you all right?' she panted. A trickle of blood snaked down her
cheek from a wound in her scalp line. It cut a dark glistening runnel
through the caked white dust that powdered her face.
He did not answer, but dragged himself to his feet and pulled Royan up
beside him. 'Can't stay here,' he croaked, _1ro just as a thic '. lite
at St. ug mouth of the opening and swept over them, choking them and
dimming the floodlamps to a faint glimmer.
'Not safe.' He pulled her away from the opening. 'The whole thing might
cave in.' His voice was rough, his throat closing with the dust.
He dragged her to the head of the steps and they staggered down
together, stumbling against each other, their feet sliding under them as
they came on to the algae.
slippery footing. Through the dust mist ahead of them loomed the broad
square figure of Sapper.
'What the ruddy hell is going on?' he bellowed with relief as he saw
them.
'Give me a hand here,' Nicholas yelled back at him.
Sapper lifted Royan in his arms and together they ran back -down the
tunnel, only stopping to draw breath when they reached the causeway over
the sink-hole.
unburrit and glared like a mirror in the high mountain sunlight. The
public telephone should have been in its booth outside the front door.
However, the instrument had long since vanished - stolen, vandalized or,
more likely, removed by the military to prevent it being used by
Political dissidents and rebels.
Tessay had expected this, and hardly glanced into the booth before she
strode into the small room which was the main post office. It was filled
with a motley crowd of peasants and villagers, queuing to conduct their
leisurely business with the elderly postmaster, the only person behind
the barred counter. Some of the customers had spread their cloaks on the
floor and settled in for a long he post office in the village of Debra
Maryarri a small building in the dusty street behind was the church. Its
