Shield's Lady

reckon. It knocked the breath out of Sariana as it flung her carelessly against a boulder. She clung to the rock, gasping for air as she gazed longingly at the shoreline. Right now it seemed a hundred kilometers away. Lucky made anxious noises from deep inside the wet cloak.
    Sariana glanced downstream and saw that the river sled had been driven against the bank. It was upside down. She decided that, on the whole, she would rather be where she was than underneath the sled. She sought for handholds on the rock and grimly fought her way out of the water.
    Once seated on top of the precarious perch, Sariana ripped open the pocket of her cloak. The scarlet-toe blinked back at her. Lucky was clearly disgruntled but otherwise unhurt.
    “Just hang on a little longer while I figure out how to use this gadget Gryph gave us,” Sariana said bracingly to the skeptical looking lizard.
    Sariana concentrated, remembering Gryph’s terse instructions. She selected the blade with the thin cord wound around its shaft. Then she notched the blade, cocked the bow and aimed it at the dense foliage around the shoreline. Cautiously she released the tension in the small weapon.
    The blade left the bow with a jolt that took Sariana by surprise. She held onto the rock to keep from falling into the raging current. Even as she made a grab for her balance the arrow was thudding into some unseen object in the foliage. The thin line it was trailing went taut in Sariana’s fingers.
    Sariana gingerly tested the line. It felt strong and tightly anchored. She pulled a little harder and it went abruptly slack in her hands as the blade dropped out of its target.
    “Damn it to the Lightstorm!” Sariana’s temper flared, overcoming her fear. Savagely she jerked at the limp line, pulling it back through the water.
    A few minutes later she was holding a lapful of ungainly rope and a blade. She realized she had no idea how to recoil the line and rearm the bow.
    “Of all the stupid, idiotic weapons,” Sariana raged. “Dumb westerners and their gadgets. Arrogant Shields and their silly toys. I tell you, Lucky, I’ve about had it with the western provinces. Nothing is simple and straightforward around here. Nothing is logical and dependable. Do you think an easterner would have designed a crazy weapon like this? Or a useless sled that gets tipped over by the first wave it encounters? Never in a million years.” She glared at the line spilling over her wet skirts.
    It was a good, strong line. If one ignored the overly clever bow and the useless blade, one was still left holding a strong length of rope.
    “I think, Lucky, that the key here is simplicity, not clever gadgetry.” Sariana picked up the end of the rope and reached down to loop it around the rock on which she was sitting. Water splashed over her hands and arms as she worked, but it proved relatively simple to tie a strong knot.
    Sariana regarded her work dubiously for a few seconds and then tied a second knot just to be on the safe side.
    “Ready Lucky? Don’t feel bad. Neither am I.” She resealed the lizard’s pocket. Then, holding onto one end of the line, she coiled it around herself a couple of times. Cautiously she slipped down the side of the rock into the water.
    The rushing river caught her, trying to yank her downstream. It snapped the blade bow from her grasp. Sariana didn’t try to hang on to it. She was too busy clinging to the line she had wrapped around herself. She paid it out slowly and deliberately. It proved stronger than the river. She was able to fight a controlled retreat out of the rough water into a calmer area.
    Finally she felt the river’s grip slacken. With renewed energy Sariana waded toward shore. A few minutes later she was sitting on the bank, the blade in her hand.
    “I’m afraid that Gryph is just going to have to get another blade bow,” Sariana told Lucky as she tossed aside the useless blade. The line to which it was attached was yanked back into the middle of the river by the force of the current and the blade disappeared into the water.
    “Gadgets,” Sariana muttered and started pulling off her soaked clothes.
    Lucky scrambled out of the cloak pocket and headed for a nearby sun-warmed rock. Enroute he treated himself to several mouthfuls of leaves. Sariana looked wistfully at the sled which had snagged on the opposite side of the river and wondered if the food in the storage lockers had survived. Given her present position, it didn’t much