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he called. No answer. "Fin-Kedinn? Wolf?" The rocks threw back the sound of his terror.
He was squashed under a tangle of saplings which had fallen on top of his boulder. A surge of panic. He was trapped. Wildly, he struggled. The saplings shifted. He pushed his way out and greedily gulped air.
    "Renn!" he shouted. "Fin-Kedinn!"
Wolf appeared on the crown of the hill and ran down to
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him, his claws clicking on rock. Torak didn't need to say anything. A terse nose-nudge, and they began to search. Tree trunks shifted and creaked ominously. Someone was whimpering. "No no, not them, please not them." It took Torak a moment to recognize the voice as his own.
    A flurry of wings, and Rek lit onto a branch ten paces away. Wolf raced toward her and barked. Torak wobbled after them.
Through the branches he saw a shock of dark-red hair. "Renn?"
He tore at the branches, dragged saplings out of the way. Thrusting his arm through a gap, he grabbed her sleeve.
She moaned.
"You all right?"
She coughed. Mumbled something that might have been yes.
"There's a gap, I'll make it bigger. Give me your hand--I'll pull you through." Being Renn, she pushed her bow through first--then wriggled out. Her eyes were huge, but apart from scratches, she was unhurt.
    "Fin-Kedinn," she said.
"I can't find him."
The blood drained from her face. "He saved my life. Threw me out of the way."
Wolf stood below them in a wreck of dead spruce, looking down between his forepaws. His ears were
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pricked. Eagerly, he glanced at his pack-brother.
The spruce lay on top of a larger beech, itself aslant more spruce. Under the beech lay Fin-Kedinn.
"Fin-Kedinn?" Renn's voice shook. "Fin-Kedinn!"
The Raven Leader's eyes remained closed.
Frantically, they tugged at branches and tree trunks. There was a creak, and the whole pile shuddered. They didn't speak, for fear of bringing down disaster.
The sun set, and they worked on. At last they cleared a way to the beech. It wouldn't budge. Torak wedged a sapling underneath and pushed with all his might. The beech shifted slightly.
    "We'll have to drag him out," said Renn. It took both of them to haul him free. Still he didn't move. Renn held her wrist to his lips to feel for breath. Torak saw her throat work.
Half carrying, half dragging him, they finally made it to solid rock. On the hill's eastern flank, facing the Deep Forest, Torak found an overhang. The ledge beneath it was big enough to shelter them, although not high enough to stand up in.
     
Renn knelt beside her uncle, twisting her hands. Rip and Rek flapped their wings and cawed. Wolf sniffed the Raven Leader's temple. Then he whined, so high that Torak could hardly hear. He went on whining.
    Fin-Kedinn's eyelids flickered. "Where's Renn?" he murmured.
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***
By taking the weight of the other trees, the beech had saved his life, but it had crushed the left side of his chest.
Renn set to work, pulling off his parka and cutting the laces on his jerkin. She was as gentle as she could be, but the pain was so bad that he nearly passed out. "Three ribs broken," she said as she probed his back with her fingers.
Fin-Kedinn hissed. His eyes were closed, his skin clammy and gray. He was breathing shallowly, and Torak could see that every breath, in and out, was a knife in his side.
     
"Will he live?" Torak said in a low voice. Renn glared at him. "Is he bleeding inside?" he whispered. "I don't know. If he bleeds from his mouth ..." Fin-Kedinn's lips twisted in a wry smile. "Then it's over. Saeunn was right. I won't reach the Deep Forest."
    "Don't talk," warned Renn.
"Hurts less than breathing," said her uncle. "Where are we?"
Torak told him.
He groaned. "Ah, not here! Not the hill!"
"We can't move you, not tonight," said Renn. "This is a bad place," muttered Fin-Kedinn. "Haunted. Evil."
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"No more talk!" admonished Renn, cutting strips from the hem of her jerkin for bandages.
Wolf lay beside her, his muzzle between his paws. Rip and Rek stalked up and down at a stiff raven