“Do it!”
She moved left. A moment later, she saw the group of four or five rocks ahead. The water was pouring, gushing around them.
“Grab them.”
She grabbed desperately for the rocks with her free hand. She curled her arm around the smallest and scooted up the flat face of the rock, pulling Erin with her.
A blast of cold air cut her like a knife.
Outside. They were outside.
“Keep crawling. Go down the rocks on the other side. You’ll be able to manage the flow there. If you’d stayed on that course, you’d have gone down that small waterfall and there would have been no way to keep from dunking both of you underwater.”
Bright moonlight. She could see the waterfall pouring down into a wide pool. It was small as Cameron had said but the force could have been deadly.
She crawled over the rocks and then down the other side.
Cold. So cold.
Then she was immersed in water again. Warm water.
She sighed with relief as she pulled Erin down into the water.
“Does this mean what I think it does, Cameron? Are we away from Kadmus’s mountain? Have we reached Milchang and the other hot spring?”
“Of course, I told you that you’d make it. Keep swimming. Hurry. There’s a bank about thirty yards away. You have to get out of this area right away. Kadmus will have found your clothes back on the bank and will start trying to put everything together.”
“I am hurrying.” She was so tired she was numb, but she had to ignore it. Keep moving. Keep swimming. Keep Erin well and afloat. “She’ll need help. You’d better have someone there to—”
“Hush. Stop worrying. Just get her to the bank.”
“Catherine?” Erin’s voice was weak. “Is it going to be—”
“It will be fine. We’re almost there. You’ve been great. Just hold on a little longer.”
“You’re the one who’s been holding on.”
“Hey, I couldn’t let that Pulitzer Prize brain be taken down by some crummy amoeba.” Keep going. Shouldn’t she be seeing that bank by now? Mountains. Moonlight. Water.
There it was!
And on the bank dressed in black parka and gear was Richard Cameron. All power and grace framed against those harsh mountains. Light, glittering eyes, that face that had held her fascinated during their strange mental encounter. He was the same, yet not the same. But definitely more than she had envisioned.
“You said you’d send someone else.”
“You were insistent. What could I do?”
“I was right. Erin needs you.”
“So I’m here.” She was close enough to see his smile. “Now come the last few yards and let me take care of both of you.”
“Just Erin. And, now that we’re away from that damn mountain, you get out of my head.”
“As you wish. But it was much simpler…”
“Cameron?” Erin had caught sight of him on the bank. Her face lit with a radiant smile. “God, I’m glad to see you. Now I know everything will be all right.”
He ruefully shook his head. “Erin, after all you’ve been through? I’m flattered but a little bewildered. The sight of me should make you anything but optimistic.”
“My fault. All my fault.”
“Shh.” He grabbed a dark covering of some sort from the ground. “Now get out of there and let me wrap you up. The minute you’re out of that spring, you’re going to be subject to freezing temperatures.”
“I’ll help.” Catherine swam closer to the bank and steadied Erin. “Watch her shoulder.”
“I’ll do that. I really don’t need your instructions, Catherine.” He reached down and lifted Erin out of the water, enveloping her in the cover with the same motion. He wrapped her carefully, even covering her damp hair. Every movement was done with the most exquisite gentleness Catherine had ever witnessed. Was this a glimpse of Cameron’s treatment of Erin during those days of horror? For the first time, she was beginning to understand the woman’s blind devotion to him.
Cameron glanced at Catherine. “Satisfied?” He shook his head resignedly as he saw that Catherine had levied herself onto the bank. “I brought a cover for you, too.” He gestured to the dark cloth on the ground. “If you’d been more patient, I would have given you—”
She was already wrapping herself in the blanket. “Warm. Very warm.” Her hands were running over the material. Not plastic. Not cloth. Somewhere in between. But it was blocking both sharp wind and frigid cold and seemed to be completely retaining her body heat. “It’s working better than the space-age tech stuff they issued to get me through the mountains. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“There is nothing like it. A friend invented it.”
“What is it?”
He ignored the question. “Cover your head. Don’t bother putting on your boots. They aren’t going to do you any good until they dry out. Just run for the jeep and tuck yourself in with the blanket.” He picked up Erin and carried her toward a jeep parked a distance away.
Catherine jumped to her feet and was right behind him. “Put her in the backseat and let her stretch out. I’ll cover her and make sure she’s—” She stopped. Cameron was already carefully settling Erin in the backseat.
He gently stroked Erin’s cheek. “I’d reset your shoulder, but we don’t have time. The road is rough, but I’ll make sure you don’t feel the pain.”
“I know you will,” she said quietly. She glanced at Catherine. “Get in the car, Catherine. You heard him, we don’t have much time.”
“I believe we established that fact a long time ago,” she said dryly. “We didn’t need him to repeat it.” She got in the passenger seat. “Let’s go, Cameron.”
“Cover up,” he said briefly as he slipped into the driver’s seat and started the jeep. “I’ll put on the heater, but it’s not going to do much good for a while.”
She tucked her feet beneath the blanket and drew it tighter around her. The action brought immediate warmth. “Why didn’t you bring one of these covers for yourself?”
“I’m used to the weather. I spend a good deal of my time in Tibet.”
“Why?”
He smiled. “I find it fertile ground.”
“Really?” She gazed out at the barren landscape. “Then you must be as innovative as Hu Chang about promoting growth. I can’t see how anything could grow here.” Her gaze narrowed on his face. “But that isn’t what you mean, is it?”
“I admire Hu Chang. I understand his latest experiments have been very successful. Mine aren’t nearly as promising. I guess it depends on what you’re trying to grow.”
She was too tired to decipher oblique meanings. “We heard Kadmus back there, and you said he wasn’t as close as we thought. How near is he?”
“I’d judge from the sound of the cadence of those echoes that he’s just reached the hot spring in the mountain. We have a sizable head start.”
“Judge? How the hell can you even guess?” She shook her head. “No, don’t try to explain. I’ll just accept it for right now. I’ll explore it later.”
“I’m sure you will,” he murmured.
“Does that head start guarantee that Kadmus isn’t going to catch up with us?”
“No guarantees. It depends on how much information he was able to gather about the hot springs or if he’s searching blind. But it does give us an excellent chance of avoiding him until I can get you a flight out.”
“Why?”
“I know this mountain very well. I’ve used it for exits before. Kadmus will be running around frantically trying to gather information from the villagers and sending his men all over the mountain.”
“Villagers?” Erin repeated from the backseat. Her voice was tense. “You know what that means, Cameron.”
“I’ve told the monks from the monastery to lead them inland. They’ll do what I say,” Cameron said gently. “Kadmus won’t find anything but empty villages. They won’t be hurt, Erin.”