Valleroy moved to take her shoulders. She came into his arms like a lost child deserted to die alone. He let her cry a few minutes. Then he shook her gently. "You do have a future to live for. Look into yourself! Are you any less a real person now than last week? You're a Gen. Is it really true that Gens are mere animals? Do you feel any different? If you don't feel any different, do you think any other Gen feels any different... any less a human being? And if Gens really are the same, what makes you think they don't have just as much of a going civilization out there?" He waved his hand vaguely to ward the border.

Really confused now, she lifted her tear-stained face to look into his eyes. What she found there, Valleroy never knew, but it stemmed the flood of tears. After that it didn't take long for her to clean out the bowl of grain and apples. The warm food and the cheerful fire worked on her weary body. Within moments, she was asleep under Klyd's blanket, leaving the two men in muttered conference over steaming bowls of a predawn breakfast.

"We've got to get out of here."

"Yes, Sectuib. It will be dawn soon."

"No. Now. She was followed."

Valleroy sprang to his feet. "Where... ?"

"Sit down. They're still pretty far away. But the Runzi will probably spot them shortly if they have scouts out. As soon as the Runzi realize that only a chase could bring out nightriders, they are bound to check here. We must not be here when they do."

"But what about her?"

"Naztehr. We can't take her with us." The grim resolve in the channel's voice was the coldest death sentence Valleroy had ever heard.

"You lied to her! You knew she wouldn't be safe here!"

"Unto Zeor, forever. Sometimes the things one must do for Zeor are not pleasant."

"I won't leave her here to be slaughtered!" Valleroy half rose to his feet, but Klyd's right hand shot out to grip his arm. "Naztehr. Wake her and we die too. Now at least she raises no beacon of fear to guide them. Finish your meal. We must go."

"You cold-blooded..."

"Naztehr. Anger carries well in these deserted hills!"

Valleroy gulped hard and settled back into his chair. The wisdom of Klyd's proposal was undeniable. But Valleroy knew that his own mother had been just such a child once.

"Eat. The sooner we are gone, the better chance she has to survive. Together, we form a conspicuous deformity in the selyn field."

"I've lost my appetite. Let's go before I lose my dinner."

Softening, Klyd said, "She does have a chance, you know. They might not spot her if she's alone and has faith in the starred-cross."

"You're lying to me, now."

"No. Just hoping. A perverse human habit that attacks Simes and even channels sometimes."

They gathered up their things, but left Klyd's blanket covering the child. Before stepping out the door, Valleroy moved the starred-cross from the shrine's wall into the girl's hands.

Then, grimly, he followed the channel out into the predawn dark. Moving over familiar ground, they deposited the closed cylinder in the niche where they'd found it. They continued along the top of the ridge, westward toward Zeor. There was still a chance they might avoid the Runzi and make it down into the valley.

But it was a slim chance and growing slimmer. The channel flitted from shadow to shadow as if he had merely to think of a place and be there without touching ground in between. Valleroy was hard put to keep in the position Klyd had calculated would bring their combined field resultant into an inconspicuous level with that of the Runzi. But Valleroy tried to keep up. In the process, he acquired a wrenched ankle that made him swear luridly.

The channel didn't even drop back to investigate the mishap. Nor did he slacken pace to accommodate Valleroy's limping process. The Gen had to keep reminding himself that need drove his partner now. Only a stalking predator intent on his goal could move through the night with such ease. By keeping his attention on the goal ahead, Klyd was trying to avoid qualifying Valleroy on the spot.

And Valleroy had never been less certain of his ability to qualify. He'd spoken boldly to the girl, calling himself Companion and had felt proud at that moment. But with every passing hour, he'd become more and more aware of the signs of Klyd's need growing beyond his control; the fact, flickering eyes always darting restlessly, measuring distances, hyperaware of everything; the laterals trembling almost visible throbbing of the ronaplin gland. Even the Sime's voice revealed a tension that hadn't been there hours earlier.

As Valleroy watched this transformation come over the channel, he began to doubt once more whether he'd be able to face the test if it came. Here, again, was the man he'd met that long-ago night in the rain. Since the second time he'd seen the channel, Klyd had become a different creature. Calm, strong, self-assured, dedicated, but never demanding. He could be arrogant and insufferably authoritarian, but never grasping, greedy, or thoughtlessly callous. But now, thought Valleroy, Klyd had become once again that hyperactive predator intent on nothing outside of personal survival. This time, the transformation would continue even farther.

Absorbed in his own thoughts, Valleroy stumbled along peering at the ground just in front of his feet So it was a double shock when he walked into an outstretched arm. He jumped back, stumbled, and sprawled against a fallen tree trunk. "Hugh! What's the matter with you?"

"You scared me!"

"Quiet now. The hills are crawling with Runzi."

"I don't see anybody."

"Gens!" snorted Klyd. "All alike. Blind, deaf, and dumb."

"Save the insults. Just con us out of this."

"From here we go down. Watch your step."

"That's what I was doing!"

"If you value your life, stay in position!"

"Yes, Sectuib. But you'll have to go slower. I twisted my ankle. I think it's swelling."

"We'll take care of it when we get home. For now, ignore it."

Valleroy just grunted and started off in the channel's wake. He tried to forgive his partner. It must be easy for a Sime to forget that Gens can't ignore injuries. He gritted his teeth and concentrated on keeping up. A misstep might mean a long fall.

But it wasn't the Gen who took the fall. Klyd stepped onto a jutting rock table and prepared to lower himself over the edge. Just as he was squatting on the rim, the whole rock table tilted, uprooting its deeply implanted end! Instantly the Sime leaped sideways out of the path of the falling and sliding rocks, but he wasn't quite fast enough. The rubble carried him head over heels nearly fifty yards downhill where he came up against a lone, gnarled tree trunk. The cascade of rock continued down the hill. In its wake, slipping and sliding, came Valleroy.

Catching a overhanging branch, Valleroy danced to a precarious halt beside the Sime. He bent to examine his partner. The first flush of dawn was chasing the stars. It cast a vague gray light over the world. The ugly red gash on Klyd's head looked even more ghastly by that light, but for Valleroy the first area of concern was the laterals.

He kneeled to draw back Klyd's sleeves. There was an angry welt rising across the right hand dorsal sheaths, but apparently all four laterals were unharmed. Just as Valleroy ran a lightly probing finger along the fourth lateral, Klyd came awake all at once. He grabbed Valleroy in the transfer position but without the right dorsals. After the briefest instant, far too brief to allow Valleroy to react, the Sime withdrew and forcibly relaxed his body. "Your field is up and climbing steeply. You knew I had to augment to avoid being crushed by rocks... why did you have to touch me like that!"

"Well, it brought you back to consciousness, didn't it?"

Sullenly, the channel propped himself against the tree trunk. "May as well not have bothered. We might have made it to the valley before dawn. They were withdrawing eastward. We might have made it."

"Can you travel? That cut on your head..."

"Is nothing. But it's too late. They've spotted us."

Valleroy's heart pounded a little faster as the realization of failure washed over him like black ice water. In the growing light, he could see little flickers of motion converging on them from every direction. The hillside was alive with the enemy!

"We'll run for it," said Valleroy. "Let me help you up."

"Don't touch me! If I could depend on you, I'd draw now and make them wait a month to watch me die. But your attitude toward me has changed in the last few hours. Attempting transfer in haste like this, I might hurt you."

Dry-throated, Valleroy gauged the tightening circle of the Runzi. There was no escape. "Sectuib. If you can bring my field down low enough, it will grant me another month of life, too. A lot can happen in a month."

"They won't touch you as long as they believe you are immune to the kill. If one of them tries to take you, just remember that none of them are channels. Their draw is slow and shallow compared to mine... and you are capable of serving me. I'd require time to qualify you now..." He broke off, looking over Valleroy's shoulder. "We don't have any more time."