As the light of day faded, the men in the cavern made preparations for putting the slavegirls to bed. They were fed again -- it angered Sara that Cherise was missing that meal -- and the girls then stood in line, the new ones imitating the veterans, as the men unlocked their wrist cuffs, then relocked them behind their backs. The girls all sat, and the men connected their ankle cuffs together with padlocks -- they would have to hop if they wanted to get away now -- and finally connected the collars of each pair of adjacent girls with chains. The girls lay awkwardly on the floor of the cavern, wriggling to find a comfortable posture. None were attached to anything immovable, but any escape would have to be a group effort that couldn't fail to wake the men no matter how deep their sleep.

As Sara had anticipated, Cherise was left out on the rock pile. The slavegirls would be hearing her distress all through the night. Sara had doubts that any of them would get much sleep. What worried Sara more was having no idea whether any of the men was a light sleeper. She would have to make every effort to be very... very... very... quiet.

The men kept one lantern burning as the natural light vanished. Sara hoped the tiny amount of slightly unsteady light from it would remain through the night. She could hear soft conversations, with occasional laughter, going on inside the cavern, and fervently hoped that wasn't going to go on all night. At least hearing the voices was a helpful sign telling her in no uncertain terms that it was not time to try a rescue yet.

She wished, so much, she could somehow signal to Cherise that she was there. Sara couldn't speak, and Cherise was facing away, so she wouldn't be able to see Sara. Any method Sara considered for making Cherise aware of her presence carried the danger of alerting the men in the cave, not just from any noise Sara herself might make, but from any unpredictable sounds Cherise might make in response. Sara had to let Cherise go on feeling lost, alone, hopeless.

The rain had, at last, slowed to a drizzled and finally stopped. That's good, thought Sara. At least Cherise doesn't have to contend with that anymore.

After an hour, or perhaps a bit more, the voices seemed to quiet. Sara decided to count to a thousand, about fifteen minutes, and then ease up onto the shelf and creep towards Cherise. Halfway through the count, she cursed silently as the light from the lantern vanished. Now she was completely blind.

She looked up to the sky. Nothing there offered any help. There was nothing to do but wait to see if that would change.

She waited. To the point when she couldn't bear waiting longer. And then a little longer past that. She suspected several hours had gone by.

I'll have to just do it by feel, she finally told herself. Except when I get to Cherise, first I'll have to untie a knot that I can't see. Then pick her up and walk with her without being able to see where I'm going -- I'm not about to drag her along the ground. All while trying somehow to keep her quiet, because she won't be able to tell that it's me, she won't know what's about to happen to her, and she'll be scared out of her wits. And because of that, she'll probably be making a lot of noise. And then there's a good chance I'll fall off the edge of the shelf -- even if I feel for it carefully with my foot, the edge might crumble with my weight when I reach it -- and we'll both fall over and crash down to the forest floor, waking up everybody inside the cavern.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Sara closed her eyes, without really being able to detect a difference, and told herself, I have to do it now, there's no other choice, no matter what goes wrong it can't be worse than waiting until morning.

She opened her eyes, and was about to feel her way up onto the shelf, when she suddenly realized something had changed. There was light. Dim, almost unnoticeable, nearly useless, but enough to pick out the outlines of the crest of the mountain ridge above her. Something was shining behind those mountains.

Over the next few minutes, as Sara's heart pounded with excitement, the light grew stronger. Above her, she saw that the edge of a cloud bank was starting to grow silvery. As she continued watching, the clouds slowly moved west, a curtain slowly but steadily withdrawing to reveal the moon behind them, a three-quarter moon, a few days past full, hovering over the ridge.

Sara could make out Cherise now, as Cherise let out her latest gasp of pain. I can't assume I have much time, Sara warned herself. There could be another bank of clouds coming up behind.

She eased out from behind the bush, felt for the edge of the shelf -- it still wasn't that easy to see -- crawled onto the shelf, and crept towards Cherise. Halfway there, she suddenly realized that one of her earlier thoughts was still important: she couldn't afford any sounds of surprise Cherise might make when Cherise figured out someone was right next to her. Someone in clothes.

I have to do it this way, Sara told herself. She'll forgive me later.

Crawling just inches at a time, alert to any movement within the cavern, Sara guessed it must have taken at least five minutes to move across the fifteen feet towards Cherise. Cherise's head was facing straight ahead. Sara came up from behind her on the forest side, so that the moon would shine on her face. If anyone in the cavern was awake, they would see her too, but that couldn't be helped. Holding her breath, Sara let her hands inch forward until her right was below Cherise's face, her left behind Cherise's head. Then she quickly moved to catch Cherise's head between her hands, her right clamping tight over Cherise's mouth and nose, so she couldn't breathe.

Cherise spasmed in panic, still able to make soft sounds at the back of her throat. Sara kept hold, walked farther forward on her knees, and turned Cherise's head towards her own face.

Sara could easily pick out the instant when Cherise recognized her. Cherise went completely still, her eyes widening so suddenly and so far that Sara thought they might fall out of her head. In any other circumstances, Sara might actually have laughed at the degree of Cherise's surprise. Sara put the index finger of her left hand over her own lips. When Cherise nodded that she understood, Sara let go of Cherise's mouth and nose so she could breathe again.

Sara suddenly realized it was the first time, in all the time she'd known Cherise, that Sara had reached out to touch her.

Sara discarded the thought. There was no time for it now. She began picking at the knot of the rope around the chain holding Cherise's hands and feet together.

There was absolutely nothing Sara could do about Cherise's bondage holding her in a hogtie. That was all a matter of chains and padlocks, and Sara had no way to undo it short of going into the cavern and asking Cute Guy politely if she might borrow the key. She'd be able to untie the gag, but that could be saved for later.

It took at least five frustrating minutes, Sara shifting constantly to get the moonlight to reflect off just the right place, before the end of the rope finally slid through the knot. Sara finished untangling it from around the chain. Taking a steadying breath, deciding just how she wanted to do it, she picked Cherise up.

She shifted Cherise two or three different ways, and finally settled on holding Cherise upright against her, keeping her right hand clasped around the chain wrapped around the lock between Cherise's wrists -- it was easy to keep a good grip on it -- using her left arm across Cherise's back to steady her, and letting Cherise's head rest on her shoulder. She could feel Cherise's breasts against her own, with a layer of leather vest in between, and pushed away any thoughts of how arousing that would be if she allowed it.

There was no time, way, or need to explain to Cherise what was going on. Cherise would know Sara was taking her somewhere. That would be enough for now.

Sara walked along the shelf for what she judged to be a mile or so -- it allowed her to move farther, faster, than trying to weave between trees in the forest, and made much better use of the fading light that was left. Then she carefully set Cherise down at the edge of the shelf, hopped down into the forest, and picked her up again. She walked, making sure her surroundings remained heavily treed -- she didn't want to wake in the morning and discover she was in the middle of a farm field -- and finally stopped when the overhead foliage cut off too much light to see.

She set Cherise gently on the ground and sat next to her. Cherise still couldn't talk -- her gag would have to wait until morning. She was beginning to make little choking sounds at the back of her throat, and Sara, almost in a panic, decided she would have to rethink the gag problem, but she realized that it wasn't that Cherise couldn't breathe. It sounded much more as if she was trying not to cry. The dam burst suddenly, and Cherise was crying -- not the way a grown woman cries, but in the full-on way that a small child cries, muffled hardly at all by the gag. Sara lifted Cherise's head into her lap, curled her left arm around it to cradle it, and stroked Cherise's hair, tears running down her own cheeks.

At last Cherise quieted, and seemed to be asleep. Sara lay back on the ground, Cherise's head still in her lap, and drifted off as well.