"So?" she asked Donalla curtly as memory flooded back.She had cut black to go into thrall, which she had obviously done, and the thrall had lasted much longer than planned.
The look on the medic's face answered her question."You were more impenetrable than when I tried back at the Infirmary," she said, with a weary sigh."You just stood there, holding this wretched thing."She gave the black shaft a careless waggle.Killa lunged to save it.Donalla drew it sharply back into her chest.
"I'm all right now, Donalla.It can't thrall me again.Just don't damage the thing."
"After what it did to you?I thought I'd never get it out of your hand."Donalla regarded her burden warily.
"Then put it in the carrier."Killa wrenched her upper body about, looking for the carrier, and jabbed her finger at it."Just don't drop it," she added as Donalla obeyed.Her voice was strident with anxiety.She cleared her throat and went on, controlling her voice, "For some reason, fresh crystal cracks faster than at any other time.Ah!"She sighed in relief as the medic stowed and covered the shaft.
Killa got to her feet then, brushing off clinging bits and pieces of dirt and crystal.She was tired, but glancing at the sun, she saw there was enough light left to make a couple more cuts to add to this bigger C.
"What are you doing?"Donalla asked, her voice sharp with concern.
"I'm going to cut."She had to use force to get Donalla to release the cutter.
"But I couldn't break through the thrall."
"Shouldn't keep me from cutting.Especially as it's black."
Killa went down a fifth, sang loud and clear, heard the answering note, and set her cutter.Donalla stepped in front of her.
"Out of my way," Killa said, appalled that she had been about to swing the cutter into position-a movement that would have brought the blade slicing right through Donalla's thighs.
"I can't let you."
"Ah, leave off, Donalla!"Killa tried to push her away."There's no sun.It's the sun that starts thrall.For the love of anything you hold sacred, let me use the light that's left."
"You're sure?It took me hours…"
"Well, it won't happen at this time of day."Killa blew out with exasperation.Donalla was worse than any novice she'd ever shepherded."Sun's nearly down.Now, move out of my way!"
Hesitantly and watching Killa very warily indeed, Donalla stepped aside.Killa sang again and tuned the cutter, neatly slicing beyond her first cut.She excised that one, managed two more quick ones in the same level-smallish and stocky but black!She had the cutter poised for a third when the face turned sour.There was an intrusion or a flaw.Cursing under her breath, she stepped back and signaled Donalla to bring the carrier over.She finished packing crystal just as the last of the sunlight faded from the ridges above them.
The two women stumbled back to the sled, the carrier between them.Only when she had seen the carrier secured behind straps and the cutter properly racked did Killashandra allow fatigue to creep up on her.
"How long did you say I was thralled?" she asked, slumping into the pilot's chair.
"I forgot to check the time right away, Donalla admitted, "but from the time I did till I threw you down, it took three and a half hours!"
Killa chuckled weakly."Don't doubt it."She rubbed at shoulder muscles still twinging from a long inactivity."And I wouldn't answer?"
"You kept staring at the crystal.I tried every single maneuver Lars showed me and you might as well have been crystal yourself for all the blind good it did me."
She had been scared, Killashandra decided; that's what was making her angry now.
"Don't reproach yourself, Donalla.I got out, and the crystal's okay.I'd've been out of thrall once the sun went down.Or didn't Lars remember to mention that?"He hadn't, to judge by the expression on Donalla's face."Fix me something to drink, will you?I'm too tired to move and my throat's so dry…"
Donalla banged the cup on the counter as she hauled the water out of the cooler, her movements revealing more plainly than any words the state of her feelings.
With food in her stomach, Killashandra took a hand beam and went out to examine the face.If she could cut past the damaged crystal to clear stuff, she ought to.She was damned lucky to find black-then she laughed, recalling that luck hadn't entered into the discovery.Knowing that she would have black to cut in this site took some of the elation out of the work.It was the mystery, the challenge of having to find the elusive material.But the work was still rewarding-and Donalla had had the chance to acquire firsthand Range experience to augment her clinical knowledge of crystal singers.
Killa hummed softly, listening for an answering resonance, and heard none.Cursing under her breath, she went back to the sled.She would have to wait till morning to see how deep the flaw was.Worse than not finding black was finding it uncuttable.
She woke in the night, aware of the warm body beside her and instantly recognizing it as Donalla's, not Lars's.That was another matter they had neglected to explain to Donalla.As the woman was apparently unremittingly heterosexual, Killa decided she would have to manage on her own-morning song could be rather more of a shock than Donalla was ready to handle.
Moving carefully, Killa rose.She found an extra thermal in the cupboard and let herself out of the sled.This wouldn't be the first time she had slept on the ground.Rolling herself up under the prow of the sled where she would be protected from any heavy dew, she wriggled around until she got comfortable and dropped off to sleep again.
Dawn and crystal woke, singing her awake.She took deep breaths to reduce the effect on her until she heard Donalla crying out.Grinning, but as uncomfortable herself as Donalla probably was, Killa endured.She waited until the effects had faded before returning to the cabin.
"What was that?Where did you go?"Donalla demanded, her tone almost accusatory.
"That's crystal waking up to sunlight.Fabulous experience, isn't it?"Killa grinned unrepentantly, folding her thermal to stow it away again."I felt discretion was the better part of retaining our growing friendship."
"Oh!"Donalla flushed beet-red and turned away, looking anywhere but at Killashandra."No one told me about this."
"I know," Killashandra said sympathetically."It's another case of us knowing it so well we think everyone else knows it."
Donalla took another deep breath and managed a weak smile."I gather-I mean-well, is that why certain partnerships… Oh, I'm not sure what I mean."
Killa laughed, flicking the switch on the hot-water heater, as she began preparations for cooking breakfast."It has a tendency to make minor quarrels disappear in the morning."
By the time she had eaten, Donalla had turned clinical in her examination of the sensual effect of sun-warmed crystal on human libido.Killa answered honestly and fully, amused at Donalla's professional curiosity.
"What's astonishing is that more singers don't sing duet," the medic finally announced, turning inquiringly to Killa, who shrugged.
"I suppose it's like anything else," she said."Palls after a few score years."
"You and Lars were partners for-" Donalla bit off the rest of her sentence.
Killa regarded her for a long moment.Those of the Guild who did not lose "time" in the Ranges were taught not to make comparisons that could upset singers.
"A long time," Killa said."A very long time."She paused."It doesn't seem like a long time.How old am I, Donalla?"
"You certainly don't look your age, Killashandra," Donalla said, temporizing, "and I won't put a figure to it."
Killa grunted and heaved a big sigh."You're right, you know, and I don't really want a figure."
"You don't look older than four, maybe five decades," Donalla offered as compensation.