Just barely.

Sarah's head throbbed and her eyes felt like they were glued shut. Someone helped her raise her head. It was Char Sangley. Sangley's eyes looked grim as she helped scrape away the blood matting Sarah's eyelids. Sarah tried to turn her head and look around, but Sangley held her in place. "Easy, Lieutenant. Slow and steady. Nothing's going down right this minute."

Sarah fought her grasp and was rewarded with a flash of nauseating pain. She settled back to the ground- or rather, someone's lap. She looked up and saw Silva, her sharp-eyed trooper, peering down at her. She tried to give them a smile. "I'll be up in ten minutes, I promise. Who's here?"

Sangley looked grim. "All but James." Sarah guessed what her expression meant. "She's over there. She took a heavier shot to the head than you, chief; nothing we could do. Fought like hell, though; I saw her." She flashed a murderous glare at something out of Sarah's sight. "Evil bastards. We were afraid you'd bought it too."

"How long?" Sarah's mouth felt like she'd been eating sand from the beach like when she was a little girl, but she'd have given just about anything to be able to do even that right now. She never wanted to be back in a stockade again. She'd been lucky to get out the first time; she doubted she would have such luck twice. Even if she did, it wasn't something you quickly forgot. "Help me up."

She couldn't get to her feet yet without headaches tearing her apart. She managed to sit up and look around. The women were huddled together, at least one keeping an eye in every direction. To one side of the circle was the still form of Charlotte James, the last Charlotte, who'd never gone by anything but James. Somewhere someone had found a rag to cover her face with, but otherwise she was stripped naked, the same as the rest. They were in a large square building with high ceilings and concrete floors, and catwalks ran around the inside of the walls. She recognized it; one warehouse was much like another, and they were generally ideal for stockading thralls. She'd used them, and been in one, before.