Renata blinked in astonishment.  "You''ve got to be kidding!" she cried.  "C'aranth, he can barely walk!  He's less than a day old, for the gods' sake!  He can't help here!  And when that water breaks, he's the least able  of us to escape!"

    C'aranth shook his head stoutly.  "Then you and Vega must leave too!  If  you stay, then we stay!"

     "What is the matter with you?" she demanded.  "Did you mother hand you a  sword when you were one day old and tell you to go out and fight for the honor of the warren?  That's what you're expecting this little one to do!"

     "You are talking nonsense!" he told her.

     "So are you!" she retorted hotly.  She didn't have time to argue with  him; Vega couldn't hold up the wall much longer without help, so she decided  on something more drastic.  "All right, help me pick Jeratko up."

     C'aranth blinked.  "Pick him up?  Why?"

     "Because the only way he can help here is to function as another  sandbag!" she shouted.  "Help me toss him up there!"

    C'aranth looked at her as she bent down to lift the dragon.  "I get your point.  You don't need to follow through with the theatrics."  He lowered his face to the small dragon's.  <Go on up to higher ground.  I will join you soon.  It is just back the way we came.>  He looked at Renata.  "Who can escort the small dragon back up to the upper warren?"
 
    Renata grabbed a passing boy.  "See this dragon to the upper green, quickly."
 
    <Follow the boy, and be quick.>  C'aranth directed the dragon.
 
    *But, I want to help.*  The little voice pleaded.
 
    <Help on the upper green, watch the human children.>  He turned back to Renata as the little dragon sulked off.
 
    "He is unhappy?" Renata commented as the two forced their bodys against the wall of wet sand and berlap.
 
    "He feels duty bound."  He pushed another board into the the crumbling wall.  "And it was about age two before I got my first weapon.  But duty was taught to me from day one."  He looked at Renata with a deathly serious face.  
 
    Even as a child he could remember the lectures his father would give over the fire pit while heating a peice of steel, on duty and devotion to the warren.  He could not remember his father ever saying a cross word about the warren, or the people in it.  Even when he thought they deserved it.  He would just say it was not his place to judge.
 
    A board slatted into place next to him and Renata placed another brace where he was holding up the wall.  Water trickled down his nose and he could feel a the cold of the water bitting into his skin through his clothing.  He didn't think this place could get this cold.
 
    As he pushed aginst the wall of wet sand and berlap, something hard pushed back.  Then his feet were swept under him.  The water had him flat on his back and in a world of darkness and wet.
    
    The wind from dragon wings kicked the water up into a spray, and C'aranth could make out the pearl of Trevor's dragon.  Renata and he shouted hello at the same time then looked at each other and smiled.  Trevor came running up, his drgaon making a living barrier for the water.

    "So who left the water running?"  He seemed rather chipper and C'aranth attributed it to his trip.  He knew what it was like to find a part of you that you thought you never had.

    He looked over to Renata.  Things had been so fast recently, he has not had time to let her know.... The thought was only half done when the world went black.  The feeling of someone pulling the ground out from under him, then wet, cold and wet.  The murky water surrounded him like a brown shroud.  The branches of trees ripped at him like fingers of the dead  holding him down in the water, and the world was a lot heavier.  

    He could not think, the whole place changed so fast, and he struggled to get air from a place that had no air.  Gasping and thrashing he was pulled from the hell.  A pearl claw holding him over a small river that had burst from the wall.

    He puked up water and mud, and coughed up the same.  Trevor was shouting things, but his ears were so full of water that they sounded miles away.  He could see the tree that had burst through the dike at his feet, and the branches that had held him.  It seemed he was under for an eternity, but it looked as if the water had just started to pour through.  

    The dragon set him on some stairs and Renata was at his side.
(Tag John)
************************************
    Andorra moved over the wounded, adding herbs and cleaning and binding wounds.  Solomon had been teaching her some of the warren ways of medicne.  She was working with the Nomads who had entered the warren because she could converse with them better then the warren staff.  She had gathered some of the older women to help her with the wounded.
 
    She came to a table, a girl sat there with no wounds or aperrant problems other than a welted cheek.  "And what is your ailement?"  She folded her arms looking at her.
 
    "I am Saleh and I have been sick recently."  She looked at Andorra with a bit of spite, she looked to be in a very foul mood.
 
    "What are the symptoms."  She washed her hands in a basin out of habit.
 
    "I cannot stomach foods."
 
    Saleh's father stepped forward, concern in his face, "My bena has also been very weak... I am worried she is ill.  Maybe it is an illness from not living as Nomad should live -- for living in stone tent?"
 
    Andorra looked at the man. "What has been happening?" She started to feel under the girls chin for lumps.  "Lay down" Andorra has an idea what it might be abd feels the stomach 

    Saleh's father frowns, "Is she very ill?"
 
    Andorra starts to free the girls skirt. "I will see.  When did it start?"
 
    Saleh pulls away in embarrassment, "You don't have to do that!"

    "I have to to check you. Now remove your skirt. And where is your mother?" 

    "Her mother died... a long time ago..." the old man spoke again. 

    "Is it just you then?" 

    Saleh glared at them both, "And when did what start? Being tired? Not stomaching food?"  She said ignoring her father, and the question of her mother. 

    "Yes." 

    Knowing that her father only knew about it for a few days, Saleh lied, "Only a few days ago..." 

    "And when was the last time you bled?"  Andorra waits for her to undress. 

    Looking surprised, she frowned and tried to remember.  "Maybe last month?" She slowly slipped her skirt down, as Andorra draped a blanket across her lap.
 
    Andorra slipped a hand under the skirt. "If you feel any pain you should tell me.  Who were you with last?"

    She gasped at the pressure, as Andorra bore down on her abdomen.   "With?" she swallowed, knowing that her father did not approve of Feysal, she blurted out, "Andahar... but we only.... just once."
 
    Andorra went pale. "Andahar...?" 

    Saleh's father nodded, "I sent her to him myself -- with my blessing." 

    "You are with child." She hated to tell them, but it just came out. 

    Saleh did not look surprised, but her father looked joyful. "Andahar of Anavasha is good match for my daughter!" 

    "I am Andorra, Dain Avanasha, and there will be no match without my blessing.  You did not consult me on this mating."  She turned on the the man.  It was an old tradition to ask for a blessing on a marriage from the Dain of a tribe, but it was all she had to stall them.  She should be the one to deliver this news to Andahar and Reain.  But how could she tell Reain.  "I will be the one to tell him, and you will not breath a word until I do."  The man was shocked, and she used that time to slip away before he could protest.
    
    She made her way out of the hall with the wounded and tried to look for Reain.  The rain poured down on the soaked Reain.  She stood alon on the upper green, just looking into the distance.  Andorra started to her.  "Reain, Sister." the girl said nothing and Andorra ran up to her, turning her to look into her eyes.  "What has happened? Are you injured in some way?" the girl asked when Reain didn't acknowledge her presence. "I will find Andahar and tell him to come..."

    "NO!" Reain snapped. "You will say nothing to him about this. Nothing!! He has chosen to be with another and I am nothing to him. NOTHING !!!"  The woman looked frantic.

    "How can you say that? He honored you when chose you to be his chunor.  Doesn't that prove he care for you?"  She gripped the upset Reain by the soulders.

    Reain shrugged out of the hold.  "No.. Andahar cares nothing for me," Reain bit out, anger and hurt sounding her words. "Even now with water rising he is with new Queenrider stating his lust. I saw them go together with his lips and hands on her body. I saw them go into room and have not come back out! She is who he wants. Not me."

    She could not belive this.  He would find some choice words for this male.  Him and his double standards, accuse Nikol, her love, when he was the worse.  "Is not true. He loves you."  She had to soothe things over before she could tell her about this baby.

"No.. this Queenrider not the first women Andahar has shared pleasure with since taking me as chunor," she cried softly though refusing to let her tears fall. 

"He shares pleasure with other women but not me who loves him. Me he treats like a slave who is only worthy enough to cook his meals and wash his clothes. To him I am nobody. Only slave to look after his home... But I *am* somebody! I am dragonrider and niece of Tribal Chieftain. Women chief who runs Dragonriders say I am free to be no slave if I chose."


  She could not tell her, and she should never know.  She was in no state of mind to hear this news."You are unwell my friend.  You speak crazy words. Andahar does care for you. Other women mean nothing to him."


"NO! I," and she pointed her figure hard against her chest. "Mean nothing to him. Me he ignores as if I am nothing but ground to walk on. Even my daughter gets more attention from him then I do. At night I sleep in daughters room while he go out to sleep with other women.  I can not do it no more! I am Dragonrider. I am free to chose as he has done."

"You will bring dishonor to your family and Andahar if you do this thing."

Reain bowed her head to hide her tears.  "I have no honor left that he has not already taken from me, and no hearts love left to give except for love to my daughter."

"But you are Te Reain chunor Andahar ba. He has shown you honor by naming you as such. He could have beaten you."

"Another word for slave.. no matter how you look at it," Reain said bitterly. "I wish now he had beaten me.. for then it would be over and my heart would not hurt so."

    Andorra said nothing as she walked away.  She ran a finger along her scar on her cheek remembering.  She had been a slave, but she never suffered as Reain did.  She had to share her bed with men she did not love, not the reverse.  Andahar was going to get a long talking to, he was like a boy just reaching his first years as a man,  but acting much worse.
(Tag)


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