st the burning sand and her feet were lumps of raw
pain. Heat hammered down, poured up from the sand and swirled her in
an oven of pain. The air she gasped in was molten metal that dried
and cracked her mouth. Each pulse of her heart throbbed blood to the
wound in her scalp until it seemed her skull would burst with the
agony. She had stripped down to the short tunic--in spite of Brion's
insistence that she keep her body protected from the sun--and that
clung to her, soaked with sweat. She tore at it in a desperate
effort to breathe. There was no escape from the unending heat.

Though the baked sand burned torture into her knees and hands,
she couldn't rise. It took all her strength not to fall further.
Her eyes closed and everything swirled in immense circles.

Brion, blinking through slitted eyes, saw her go down. He lifted
her, and carried her again as he had the night before. The hot touch
of her body shocked his bare arms. Her skin was flushed pink. The
tunic was torn open and one pointed breast rose and fell unevenly
with the irregularity of her breathing. Wiping his palm free of
sweat and sand, he touched her skin and felt the ominous hot
dryness.

Heat-shock, all the symptoms. Dry, flushed skin, the ragged
breathing. Her temperature rising quickly as her body stopped
fighting the heat and succumbed.

There was nothing he could do here to protect her from the heat. He
measured a tiny portion of the remaining water into her mouth and
she swallowed convulsively. Her thin clothing was little protection
from the sun. He could only take her in his arms and keep on towards
the horizon. An outcropping of rock threw a tiny patch of shade and
he walked towards it.

The ground here, shielded from the direct rays of the sun, felt
almost cool by contrast. Lea opened her eyes when he put her down,
peering up at him through a haze of pain. She wanted to apologize to
him for her weakness, but no words came from the dried membrane of
her throat. His body above her seemed to swim back and forth in the
heat waves, swaying like a tree in a high wind.

Shock drove her eyes open, cleared her mind for an instant. He
really was swaying. Suddenly she realized how much she had come to
depend on the unending solidity of his strength--and now it was
failing. All over his body the corded muscles contracted in ridges,
striving to keep him erect. She saw his mouth pulled open by the
taut cords of his neck, and the gaping, silent screa