Sariana regarded her work dubiously for a few seconds and then tied a second knot just to be on the safe side.
"Ready Lucky? Don't feel bad. Neither am I." She re-sealed the lizard's pocket. Then, holding onto one end of the line, she coiled it around herself a couple of times. Cautiously she slipped down the side of the rock into the water.
The rushing river caught her, trying to yank her downstream. It snapped the blade bow from her grasp. Sariana didn't try to hang on to it. She was too busy clinging to the line she had wrapped around herself. She paid it out slowly and deliberately. It proved stronger than the river. She was able to fight a controlled retreat out of the rough water into a calmer area.
Finally she felt the river's grip slacken. With renewed energy Sariana waded toward shore. A few minutes later she was sitting on the bank, the blade in her hand.
"I'm afraid that Gryph is just going to have to get another blade bow," Sariana told Lucky as she tossed aside the useless blade. The line to which it was attached was yanked back into the middle of the river by the force of the current and the blade disappeared into the water.
"Gadgets," Sariana muttered and started pulling off her soaked clothes.
Lucky scrambled out of the cloak pocket and headed for a nearby sun-warmed rock. Enroute he treated himself to several mouthfuls of leaves. Sariana looked wistfully at the sled which had snagged on the opposite side of the river and wondered if the food in the storage lockers had survived. Given her present position, it didn't much matter. The wrecked sled might as well have been on the moon for all the good it did her.
Sariana left her chemise to dry on her body, picked up some of her wet garments and started forward. "Enough fun and games, Lucky. We've got to keep moving."
Her chemise dried fairly quickly. By mid-aftemoon Sar-iana's cloak was also dry. The skirts of her traveling dress took longer, but she was finally able to put it on as the late afternoon shadows filled the gorge. When she was dressed once more she looked down at herself in wry disgust. Everything she had on showed evidence of its recent ordeal in the river. A few things, such as the bodice of the dress, appeared to have shrunk. Ahead of her was the dismal prospect of a night spent alone on shore with none of the recently maligned western gadgets to make herself more comfortable.
She wondered again just how far Gryph could have gotten the day before. The canyon walls loomed over her, rising to eerie heights and leaving very little sky visible as evening approached. Wearily she lowered herself to a rock and tried to figure out what to do next.
For the first time since she had deliberately compelled Gryph to make love to her, Sariana tried to use the freakish new sense of communication she had discovered within herself.
"It's probably just like every other western gadget," she informed the lizard as she sat on the rock and gazed out over the river. "A clever, intriguing toy that's ultimately useless - especially when you really need it."
She had just finished uttering the words when the tendril of awareness brushed her mind. "Gryph!" She knew it was him. She was beginning to recognize the sensations of his mind. Those
sensations were as unique and as identifiable to her as his physical features. He was somewhere nearby. She knew it.
Reenergized, Sariana floundered through the under-brush and over the tumbled boulders that lined the river. The roar of the rapids cut off all other sound now. Sariana struggled to hold on to a vague sense of direction she had picked up from the fleeting touch of Gryph's mind. She followed it blindly, heedless of the oncoming night, the rough terrain and the snagging undergrowth.
A few minutes later she came to a halt, aware that the sense of direction had changed. Gryph was no longer in front of her. She was certain of it. He was above her somewhere.
Sariana tipped back her head and scanned the dark walls of the canyon. He couldn't be up there, she thought. She must have misread the feeling of direction she had gotten. But he was close. He had to be somewhere near. She was certain of it.
Uneasily, Sariana eyed the boulders that had cascaded down the steep wall in front of her. Perhaps if she climbed higher she could get a clearer impression of where the stray thought had come from.
She was groping for toeholds in the darkness when the booted foot appeared above her on top of the boulder she had been about to climb.
Sariana screamed and jerked backward, nearly losing her balance. Lucky hissed inside the pocket. "Only a very strongly linked Shieldmate would have come this far in search of her lord," the stranger
said as he bent down and wrapped his fingers around her wrist. With seemingly little effort he pulled Sariana up the side of the boulder and stood her on her feet. Then he flipped on a small vapor lamp, revealing a scarred face. "Chassyn always did have the luck of the day. Until recently, that is. Come with me, Sariana. You are expected."
"Who are you?" she whispered, tugging her wrist free.
"I am Lord Targyn." A startlingly formal inclination of the head accompanied the introduction.
"You're a Shield." She glanced at the weapon kit hanging on his belt.
"The strongest one of all," Targyn murmured.
"I've always admired modesty. Let actions speak for themselves, I say. No need to brag." Tension seemed to be having its usual effect. Her ever-nimble tongue was gearing up for battle.
Targyn smiled strangely. "I, too, am a great believer in action. Are you ready?" "Depends. Where are we going?"
"You have come to search for your lord, have you not?"
"If we're talking about Gryph, I should tell you I don't think of him as my lord."
Targyn frowned. "Chassyn is your husband, isn't he?"
"Actually, I don't think of him as either a lord or a husband. I think of him more as being a nuisance. But it's mutual. I'm sure he thinks of me precisely the same way."
"Enough of this nonsense. Come with me."
The scarlet-toe shifted slightly within Sariana's pocket but made no sound as Sariana bit down on her tongue. She had been around Gryph long enough to know that Shields tended to expect others to obey them.
"Arrogant bastards," Sariana mumbled as she started walking. "What did you say?" The Shield moved up silently behind her.
"Nothing," she assured him. "You know, it's getting hard to see. Could you hold that vapor lamp steadier? A little professionalism would be appreciated."
Targyn appeared rather bemused by her display of annoyance. Without a word he moved closer and aimed the vapor lamp more carefully.
"Thank you," Sariana murmured dryly, then realized she was stepping over the last tumbled rock and into the wide mouth of a cave.