He frowned, thinking as he worked. Playing decoy if the rebels got close had been his idea, and he was still pleased that Tarlac had thought it a good enough one to agree with. It still would be, and it would work, Dave thought, if Tarlac were strong enough to be left alone--and preferably were able to defend himself, just in case. But he'd put Dave in charge precisely because he wasn't able to do for himself! It was scary being responsible for someone else's safety, Dave was realizing. Especially when you were a commoner, the someone else was royalty, and a powerful noble--a crazy, traitorous noble--would stop at nothing to recapture him. Dave glanced across the cave to the small ledge where he'd put the disruptor--out of the way, but easy to get to--and shivered. The only alternative he could see to playing decoy was using the cave as a fort if the rebels found them, and that didn't sound much better now than it had the first time he'd thought of it. One disruptor without even a single spare powerpack wasn't much to build hopes on. He'd do what he could, of course, but he still couldn't help wishing he hadn't ventured into Lord Robert's camp and gotten himself into all this! He sighed. He had gotten himself into it; now, if he could, he'd get both of them out. The first step was to get the Ranger to as much safety as the cave held--which meant the spring. Good thing it wasn't far! Half an hour later he'd filled his emergency containers with a day's worth of drinking water and settled Tarlac as comfortably as possible into the runoff stream. It wasn't ideal, but at least it would keep the fever down and the injuries mostly clean while he did what he could to make the cave defensible. He discovered quickly that he could do very little. Wood from fallen limbs and whatever brush he could cut with the stolen hunting knife would provide little protection from stunner fire, and none at all from the blasters or disruptors he thought the rebels were likelier to use. And there wasn't enough loose rock--in sizes he could move, anyway--to block the cave entrance. He supposed he could use his disruptor to enlarge that crack in the wall just inside the cave mouth, but that would be asking for trouble; the rebels couldn't possibly miss that kind of energy release. And he didn't dare waste his firepower on that; he didn't have much to begin with. He'd just have to hope the rebels didn't find them, and retreat to one of the side passages for shelter if they did.