Lasair stomps into the cave and blurts out that Baine's been taken by the Niafers. Da slides off me chest. I can breathe again.

"Whaddya say, Las?" I wheeze. "Baine is -"

"Who's this?" Da wants to know. He and Lasair circle each other warily. Of course he wouldn't know her the way she looks now. The last time he seen her, her long hair was tucked away and she was passing for a man. She looks a different person now, with spiral scars all over her sun tan skin, some of them still scabby, and a mass of half braids and half tangled mats hanging down over her shoulders.

"It's the one who called his self Labraid," Faolan chuckles at Da's confusion. "Now called Lasair. See, it was a woman all the time."

For once, Da is at a loss for words. He rubs his mangled ear and belches thoughtfully.

"Ye've got fat!" I give his big, soft belly a poke. "Not much of an outlaw chief now, are ya?"

Nion snarls and makes a lunge for me. Everybody jumps back at once to leave us someplace to fight. I hear mutterings of wagers being taken, what damage will be done, who will win, who might die.