But she and her mother were freeloading because they could donate,but didn't.

And that, she realized, was the basis of her reaction to Brian'swords. Brian had called her a freeloader, and she agreed. Hehad implied that she was a freeloader because her mother was afreeloader, and thus she couldn't help it. That infuriated her,and she did not agree. She could always help it.

She had struggled half way out of her sleeping bag before sheremembered Yone's warning: "But I can't promise that myreflexes won't betray me again, so I advise you to stay as faraway from me as you can."

It was one thing to donate selyn, even over her mother's authoritative'forbid.' When they got home maybe they'd put her in reform schoolfor being intractable, but at least she'd be in the right. Itwas something else to compromise her own integrity by riskingsomething she had agreed was wrong.

Suddenly, the whole thing became too complicated for her, threateningto smother her in frustration and ignorance. She felt an irresistibleurge to move and after a few restless tosses that threatened towake her mother, she pulled herself out of her sleeping bag, wrappeda blanket around herself, and went out into the chill night.

She stood a moment, trying to catch a glimpse of the stars throughthe trees. In the distance, she heard the night watch trompingthrough their rounds, tending the fires. There were dangerousnight-prowlers in this forest. Twice, Yone had saved them fromlosses, once wrestling a toddler from the very jaws of a cat-likehunter. He'd killed it bare-handed.

She set off through the trees towards Yone's boulder refuge. He had warned her to stay away. The responsibility was now hers. Somehow, accepting that eased her restlessness. Whatever happened,her action wouldn't smudge anybody else's record.

But it was there, in that tent, that the answers lay. She feltthat without those answers, the problem would surely smother herto death. Yet, when she drew near and heard footfalls to herleft, she hung back in the shadows behind a boulder.

The steps came purposefully nearer and an arm drew aside the tentflap, spilling dancing firelight out onto the ground, and ontoCheryl Inikar. She was dressed in her hiking clothes, but herhair was down about her shoulders.

From within came Alamain's tenor voice. "You! Haven't youdone enough for one day? He doesn't want you here. Go back toyour tent."

"My God! What are you doing! Give me that! Didn't Brianwarn you?"

"Get out of here," said Alamain coldly.

Yone's voice, choked up as if he were suppressing a cough, said"Please!"

"Don't worry, Hajene," said Valyu, "I won't leaveyou."

"Oh, yes you will!" said Cheryl. "Yone, giveme that."

Unable to contain her curiosity, Livya crept around the rock tothe end of the tent not being used as a door. Her mind was atumult of questions. Was the Sime injured? By her or the tree? How bad? There was a crack through which she could see whatwent on inside, and a little of the warmth spilled out.

The tent floor had been swept clean, and on a ledge outthrustfrom the rockface burned a merry little fire, heating and lightingthe tent. It was vented through a small hole formed where thetop of the boulder drew back from the material of the tent. Thespace within was just large enough for the three of them withYone stretched out on his sleeping bag. A few steaming pots ofwater were set about him.

The 'that' they were fighting over was a folded strip of materialbeing used as a hot compress around Yone's forearms, As Livyaset her eye to the crack, Valyu began to wrap the length of steamingcloth around Yone's arm, starting at the elbow. Cheryl streakedacross the tent and ripped the cloth from his fingers. "No,not like that!"

Caught off balance, the Donor went over backwards, the Donor hisfeet kicking in the air. Cheryl circled the sleeping bag on whichYone lay helpless and took the Donor's place, deftly wrappingand twisting the compress from wrist to elbow, finishing beforeValyu could regain his feet.

Then she moved to Yone's other side where his other arm was cladin a similar, but cool, bandage and unwrapped it, dunked it intoa steaming pot, wrung it out gingerly, and said to Alamain, "Youmay as well go. This is going to take a while, and you aren'tvery much help."

Valyu made a grab for the bandage. "Maybe, but he certainlydoesn't want you in here!" However, as Valyu's hand closedon the material Cheryl had begun to twist, Yone's other hand cameover to clamp firmly over Valyu's fingers, keeping him from pullingthe cloth. "Don't. Valyu, she's doing it right. It's helping. Let her finish. Watch."

Valyu withdrew his hand obediently and watched, but although Cheryllet him see, she said, "He'll never learn by watching, Yone. It's something you have to know by experience. Look," shesaid as she finished the wrapping and fished a chain from aroundher neck. Taking the chain over her head, she slipped a ringoff of it and held the crest to the firelight.

Livya choked back a gasp. The Distect outlaw had a Tecton ring,and not just any ordinary donor's ring either, but one of therare First Order Donor's rings with the additional four stars,the very highest ranking of all the professional donors.

Lunging across her lap, Valyu grabbed for the ring, "Thief!"

With one hand, Yone caught Valyu's shirt and pushed. The Genstaggered back a few paces and stayed there. Shocked beyond words. "No," said Yone. "Not thief. It's hers. Traitor,perhaps, but not thief."

Cheryl put the ring on her finger. "It's been years sinceI've worn this. And I won't lie to you. I am a traitor to theTecton oath I took. But there is still a great deal of that oathI keep. I came here tonight to finish what Brian started, tohonor that part of my oath that I've never broken."

Valyu burst out, "Honor! What do you know of Tecton honor!"

"Between us," said Cheryl holding the Sime's gaze, "hedoesn't count Yone. This is between Firsts. You and me. I pledgeto you by our common oath to attend one another in times of need,that I will not take advantage of your weakness, and that I willuse nothing that would not be used in any Tecton Center.

Eyeing her carefully, Yone said, "No Distect tricks?"

"No Distect tricks. It's my life that's at stake here, Yone,not just yours. If you go under, we all go with you. Your oathwon't allow you to refuse my help, even if it means sacrificingyour own interests for the good of all of us. My word is good. You know that, and that's all you need to know."

Yone nodded weakly. "Valyu, go and visit with your brother'sfamily until she tells you to come back. It will be all right."

As the Gen left the tent, Yone wilted back onto his blankets andlay gasping, wracked with spasms that brought tears to his eyes. Livya found herself holding her breath, her heart pounding withapprehension at each seizure. Their channel, their only Sime,was deathly ill – and she suspected she was the cause.

For almost an hour, Livya watched Cheryl battle to keep the Simebreathing. Between compresses, she mixed a broth of powders andcrushed tablets and made Yone drink it between seizures. "Whatdid you put in that?" he asked after one sip, leery of her.

She told him, adding, "You'll feel great when it hits bottom." So he drank and after a bit the spasms relented. She massagedhis arms thoroughly from shoulder to wrist and the cramps weresoon gone leaving him looking wasted and withered against thesleeping bag.

"There," said Cheryl finishing off, "that shouldteach you not to go tossing trees around the forest without somuch as a warm-up exercise!"

"It wasn't all from that."

"I know. And you ought to be ashamed about that, too, gettingyourself caught in a hyperbolic situation with that irresponsible... excuse me ... non-Donor and right on top of a protracted tenth-levelAugmentation, too! Honestly, you could get yourself fired fromthat nice cushy Astrogator's berth for that."