"No." It came out little more than a tortured whisper.

"Help me," she said, her voice a tortured whisper.

And the girl smiled shyly, and went on in that dry tortured whisper.

He spoke in his tortured whisper.

"I cannot control them all," she said, her voice a tortured whisper.

Pahl's voice came out as a tortured, anguished whisper.

"Your people, Orion," he said, in his tortured whisper.

"He's my son," he said in a tortured whisper.

"I can't hurt you or the child," he breathed in a tortured whisper.

"You look as if you've lost your best friend," she said, her voice a tortured whisper.