The mountainside thundered. Cracks appeared along the rocky slopes-small at first, like spider veins beneath pale skin, then widening until they resembled the jagged maws of monsters. Two of the dwarves screamed as they were swallowed by one of the growing fractures.

Rikali felt the ground give way beneath her feet as she slipped into one of the widening chasms. Her slender hands thrashed about until her fingers found a spiny tooth of rock. She held on tight as her body was hurled against the rockface, the breath rushing from her lungs. She coughed and blinked furiously as a cloud of dust settled in the chasm, threatening to smother her, then she gasped in terror as the ground began to seal itself. She instinctively propelled herself up the trembling rockface, finding nooks to slip into that an ordinary man would overlook. She hauled herself over the lip and rolled away just as the fissure rumbled one last time and closed.

"Dhamon!" she hollered, though she couldn't hear her own voice. All she heard was the echo of the quake, so loud it was painful to her keen ears. Again she scrambled down the mountainside, kicking up gravel and chunks of crystal. Her heart leapt when she spotted Dhamon's body wedged between a pair of granite columns. Mal-dred was hanging onto one of the columns with his good arm, his eyes shut in the face of flying rocks.

The other dwarves who had tumbled down the mountainside were nowhere to be seen. Only one helmet was comically perched atop a gypsum spire. Fetch was high above Rikali, still clinging to his half-buried rock with one hand, the other somehow still holding fast to a sack of gemstones. Rikali had dashed to the columns and was holding on tight, suffering the fist-sized stones that battered her and riding out the quake until it mercifully stopped.

She sagged next to Dhamon, gasping for clean air. "Lover?" She barely heard the word, perhaps only imagined it. Tears rolled down her face as she felt for him and her hands came away smeared with blood. "Lover? Please, oh please." Sobbing, she put her head to his chest and cupped a hand across his mouth, hoping to find some trace of breath. "He's alive!" she called a heartbeat later to Maldred, who slowly pushed himself off the pillar and dropped to his knees. The big man was mangled, his one arm hung limp, his sleeve covered with blood. But just how badly he was injured didn't sink in, as her concern for Dhamon took precedence. "Help me, Mai! Dhamon's hurt bad."

Rikali was struggling with the quarrel again, which had broken off and was protruding only a few inches above the scale in Dhamon's thigh. Her clawlike nails were broken, and her fingers were bleeding. "I can't pull it out, Mai!"

He pushed her hands away, and with his good hand ripped Dhamon's pants to fully expose the scale. Then he grunted, and with considerable effort he pulled the broken quarrel free.

"What do we do, Mai? I'm afraid he's dyin'." Her hands fluttered over his face and chest. "Help him. I love him, Mai. I really love this one. Don't let him die."

"He's not dying, Riki." Maldred shook his head, fighting a wave of dizziness that threatened to overwhelm him and send him rolling to the valley floor. The side of his shirt was growing darkly crimson. He'd lost quite a bit of blood, and his wounded arm was so numb he couldn't move it. "Indeed, he doesn't look like he's hurt bad at all. Just unconscious." He pointed to a gash on Dhamon's forehead. "Hit a rock, knocked himself out. He'll be fine. Me, on the other hand…"

"You've got magic. I've seen you mend things. You can heal yourself, I know you can. Make sure Dhamon's all right. Please."

"Oh, I can mend things, Riki. But nothing living." His hand touched the scale, his thumb centering on the small wound. "I'd wager the bolt was enchanted," he said, "else it wouldn't have pierced this. Good thing more of us didn't get skewered."

"I don't care what the damn thing was," Rikali cursed. "Enchanted. Lucky shot. Let's get out of here. Please. Let's leave and everythin' will be all right. Won't it?"

"I care about him, too, Riki," Maldred said, his voice too soft for her to hear. He cast a glance up the mountainside to make sure Fetch was still there and that no more dwarves had arrived. Then he looked down at Dhamon, noticed blood gushing out of the hole in the scale. "All right. Maybe I can mend this. But maybe I should just rip the damn scale off."

"No! You do that and he will surely die. I'll help you carry him."

"Wait." The big man concentrated on the hole in the scale, started humming and directing his magical energy. Several minutes later Maldred sagged against the rocky column, and where the hole once was could be seen a flat black circle near the center of the otherwise glossy scale. The ground had flowered red around Maldred's limp arm. "I sealed it, and he's not bleeding anymore."

"Damn the dwarves," she said, bending over Dhamon and running her fingers across his damp forehead. "And damn the dragons. A dragon did this to him, you know." She touched his scale.

"I guess so." Maldred's voice had lost its sonorous power. He felt dizzy and terribly weak. "I don't know how or why, but the red overlord did it."

Rikali cast a glance at Maldred. "By my breath, you're more than just hurt. I'm sorry. I'm so selfish. All the blood you've lost, Mai…"

Ignoring her, he pushed himself to his feet, then bent to shoulder Dhamon with his good arm. Another wave of dizziness struck, threatening to pitch him to the ground.

"You need to rest, Mai," she protested. "You shouldn't be movin'. I can carry Dhamon. I can! All of us need…"

"We need to get out of here," he gasped. "Just like you said. There'll be more dwarves soon, wondering what the quake did to their blessed valley. Time to heal later, Riki- provided we can get out of here alive."

The ground trembled again. Maldred had braced himself, but the half-elf wasn't as quick to react. She tumbled to the ground and managed to catch herself on a spire. The ground shook a moment more, then quieted.

You coming? Maldred mouthed, as the half-elf picked herself up. He turned and started up the mountainside again.

They recovered two bulging bags of gemstones on their way up, Rikali carrying them when Maldred insisted he could handle Dhamon by himself. Even so, he stumbled a half a dozen times as they continued on. The mountain rumbled twice more as they climbed-aftershocks of the first quake or precursors to another. Fear made them drive themselves faster.

"It's still here," Rikali said when she spotted the wagon. "Pigs, but I figured the horses would be long gone-takin' all of our gems with them." A moment later she saw why the horses hadn't bolted. A boulder had tumbled down, blocking the horses' path. There had been nowhere for them to flee.

Maldred nested Dhamon on top of the bags in the wagon bed, using their stolen clothes to pad him. Fortunately, the wagon had received little damage. Maldred sagged to his knees and closed his eyes. He sat back, opened his mouth to say something, then passed out and fell onto his back.

"Mai!" Rikali struggled to pull him up, but he was dead weight and too much for her. Fetch deposited the bag of gems he had somehow managed to hold onto, then scurried to Maldred's side and began tugging on his shirt trying to help. "Worthless," the half-elf spat at the kobold. "You had a hard enough time with the sacks of gemstones. Ain't possible for you to lift Mai." Undaunted, the kobold put his effort into pinching the tight flesh of Dhamon's face and chittering at him in his odd native tongue, which he knew the human found irritating.

Dhamon's eyes fluttered open as he softly moaned. "What…" Fetch nodded toward the back of the wagon.

"Help me," Rikali urged him. "C'mon, you can do it."

Dhamon shook off the dizziness and reached over the back of the wagon, wrapping his arms around Maldred's chest. Muscles bunched and his jaw tightened as he tugged the big man into the back of the wagon. "Heavier than he looks," Dhamon huffed, his arms momentarily numb from the effort. "Much heavier." He slumped next to Maldred and his fingers felt about his own forehead, finding the gash and pressing tentatively on it.