. . .
An hour later Li Sung and Ruel appeared at camp, driving before them the tiny elephant. The baby was only three feet high, tottering and weaving uncertainly with every step. He was big-eyed, clumsy, and totally endearing.
"Did you have any trouble?" she asked Ruel.
"Not with Danor. He let Li Sung do whatever he wished with the baby." He made a face and nodded toward the elephant. "But we had trouble convincing this little fellow to leave his mother, and it's not easy to shift a hundred-and-fifty-pound infant anywhere he doesn't want to go."
"Where's Danor?"
"Still trying to wake her," Ruel said. "We may have to find the herd on our own."
"He's so sweet." Jane reached out and gently caressed the baby's trunk. "We'll have to give him a name."
"Why?" Li Sung asked. "So you'll have a name to mourn him by when he dies?"
"He's not going to die." The elephant curled his trunk about her wrist. "I've always liked the name Caleb. We'll call him Caleb."
Li Sung made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a snort.
The elephant released her wrist and started to totter toward her.
Jane's brow knitted worriedly. "He doesn't seem too steady on his feet."
"He's weak." Ruel said. "There's no telling how much milk the mother was able to give him before she died."
"What can we feed him, Li Sung?"
Li Sung looked at her without speaking.
"Li Sung?" she prompted.
"He will die anyway."
"We don't know that. Tell me what to feed him."
"Water or milk," Li Sung said reluctantly. "He's probably too young for anything else."
Caleb's legs gave out, and he fell in a heap to the ground. Jane felt a melting tenderness as she looked at the helpless baby.
In spite of his disapproval, Li Sung appeared to be similarly affected. "He needs milk, but perhaps water will help ease his hunger. I will go to the pond and get some." He snatched a canteen from the saddle and stalked off down the path.
"It isn't like Li Sung to be so hard," Jane murmured as she stared after him. "I don't understand him."
"I do," Ruel said. "He feels cheated. He was braced for a warrior's battle and now he finds himself acting as nursemaid to his foe's offspring. It's not easy for him to accept."
"Danor doesn't think of him as a foe."
"He can't accept that either." He started down the path. "Stay by the fire and don't let Caleb wander off. I'll be right back"
"What are you going to do?"
"He's not going to be able to walk long. I'm going to find some branches to use as poles and fashion a stretcher I can fasten to my saddle and drag him behind."
"Ruel."
He glanced over his shoulder.
She reached out and gently touched the baby elephant's trunk. "He is going to live, isn't he?"
"You want him to live, he'll live," Ruel stated unequivocally. He strode out of view into the shrubbery.
It was absurd to feel this rush of relief at his words. Yet the mandarin had spoken, and if he had been capable of jerking Ian back from the gates of death, why not this big, clumsy baby?
Nugget made no protest when Ruel attached the two poles to the saddle but went into a bucking fit when Caleb was placed on the stretcher close to his hindquarters. Li Sung's horse and Bedelia had a similar reaction when Ruel tried to attach the stretcher to their saddles.
Ruel swore beneath his breath. "Dammit, I didn't need this."
"What do you expect when you try to put an elephant and a horse in tandem?" Li Sung asked.
Jane frowned worriedly. "What can we do?" Caleb would never be able to make the trip on foot, when he could stand on his feet for only short periods before collapsing.
"We don't seem to have any choice," Ruel said grimly. He unfastened the poles from Bedelia's saddle and began forming a harness with a rope. "You'll have to lead Nugget and I'll be the beast of burden."
"Much as I approve the benefit to your character of such a humbling experience, may I remind you he weighs over a hundred and fifty pounds?" Li Sung said.
"And I'm sure I'll feel every pound before we stop for the night." Ruel slipped the harness over his shoulders. "Let's go."
"Wait." Jane took two shirts from her saddlebag and crossed to Ruel to tuck them under the harness to protect his shoulders from the ropes. "I'm afraid they won't help much, dragging that kind of weight."
He smiled. "Thank you."
"I'm not the one dragging Caleb through the jungle." She got back on Bedelia. "Tell us when you need to stop and rest."
"Don't worry." He made a face as he lurched forward. "I assure you I will."
They stopped to rest twice during the night but did not make camp until just before dawn. Jane reined in at a small clearing near a stream and got down off her horse.
"Li Sung, grab two canteens and get some more water for Caleb while I make a fire."
"I live only to serve," Li Sung said sarcastically as he took the canteens and moved stiffly toward the stream. "Now I am water bearer for an elephant."
"And what task am I assigned, memsahib?" Ruel asked.
"Li Sung and I can do anything that needs doing," she said as she began gathering wood from the side of the path. "Sit down and rest."
"Am I being pampered? How unusual."
"It's hardly pampering to let you rest after you spent the last six hours dragging an elephant behind you."
"I won't argue." He unfastened his harness and sat down on the ground beside Caleb's stretcher. "Pamper me."
Weariness layered the usual mockery in his tone. She turned to look at him, but it was too dark to see his expression. He was only a shadow figure hunched beside Caleb's stretcher. "Did the pads help to cushion the ropes?"
"Well enough." He changed the subject. "We'll have to replace this blanket I stretched over these poles before long. It's wearing thin."
"I'll give you one of mine before we start again." She knelt beside the pile of wood and kindling and lit the fire before glancing over her shoulder. "It's a wonder it lasted this long, pulled over that rough ground with Caleb on—"
There was blood on Ruel's shirt.
She jumped to her feet and hurried to his side. His face was pale in the firelight, his lips set with strain. "I thought you said the pads helped. You lied to me."
He shrugged. "They did as good a job as could be expected."
She fell to her knees beside him and started to unbutton his shirt. "We'll have to double them tomorrow." She unbuttoned his shirt. "And I can help. I can take one pole and help pull."
"You're still weak from that damn fever. I'll manage alone."
"Don't be foolish. I'm getting stronger every day, and there's no reason why I can't—" She broke off as she pulled the shirt off his shoulders and saw the ugly chafing caused by the ropes. His right shoulder was crisscrossed with angry red marks, the flesh cut and bleeding across the collarbone. She whispered, "Good God, this must have been terribly painful."
"It wasn't pleasant."
"You should have told me."
"So that you could weep over me as you did over Caleb?" He smiled. "Doesn't it touch your heart that I've shed my blood for your sake?"
"Don't joke," she said huskily. She fetched a canteen and handkerchief from her saddlebag, knelt again beside him, and began to wash the lacerated flesh. "Why do you always have to joke?"