least, the ravages would have shown on his emaciated body. As it was, he

appeared severely dehydrated. His eyes were deeply sunken and his breathing

was

shallow. He smelled terrible. And there was a jewel set into his chest,

directly

over his heart. A dark blood-red ruby. Her eyes gleamed at the sight of it.

"Wa... ter..." he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

She shook her head. She had none to give him. And then she heard the dripping

sound. She went over to where a trickle of water was seeping down through a

fissure in the wall, and pressed her scarf into it, dabbing at the damp wall

until the scarf was wet. Then she went back to his side, stood up on tiptoe,

and

stretched out the wet scarf. She could just barely reach his mouth. She

pressed

the scarf against his lips, and he nuzzled at it weakly. She couldn't take

her

eyes off the jewel in his chest.

"Who are you?" she said.

He did not respond. He was having a hard time swallowing. His eyelids

twitched,

as if they were too heavy for him to open. His tongue came out to lick the

drops

of moisture off his lips. She repeated the process with the wet scarf.

"Easy, take it easy," she said, dabbing at his lips with the scarf. "Why are

you

chained up down here?"

"Help... me..."

"Why is he hiding you down here?" she persisted. "Who are you? What's this

all

about?"

"Help..."

"Yes, that's right, I'll help you. But first you've got to tell me who you

are

and why he's done this. What's this? With her forefinger she lightly traced

an

outline on the skin of his chest around the ruby. "That's a real ruby, isn't

it?

It must be worth a fortune. Why didn't he take this off you?"

She touched it lightly and stiffened with a jerk. It felt as if a small

charge

of electricity had passed through her, up her finger and into her arm,

through

her chest and... no, down her arm and through her finger, into... She

recoiled

and backed away from him, feeling alarmed and slightly light-headed. The

jewel

set into his chest started to emit a soft glow.

"You're just like him, aren't you?" she said softly. "You've got the power

too."