The minute Dani turned her back on Theo’s prison she met Maddie striding from the other direction, her mate and the Captain of the guard, Brandyn with her and by the expression on both their faces, Dani knew she was in serious trouble. What did she care? In a day or so these people would take Theo away from her – permanently, if all went as they hoped. The most galling thing was the not knowing the details of what Theo had done to illicit such deep seated animosity.

Dani walked right past Maddie.She twisted her body to pull her arm out of Maddie’s reach. She needed no escort. She knew the way to Maddie’s tent well enough. With midday fast approaching she wanted to get back to the tent and down to her second skin before the heat intensified. Already Dani’s breathing was labored, but she was determined never to admit it had anything to do with Theo’s kiss.

It was a physical impossibility, but when she thought about Theo looking at her the way he had just before the kiss, her heart beat quickened. Where was her ich response? All her life the ich factor had been her barometer for deciding who made a qualified mate and she had never met a boy or man who had passed the ich test. Well except for those brief three months when she started crushing on Jordon but she had gotten over that seemingly overnight. The whole thing had embarrassed her and had made Jordon uncomfortable – he had a girlfriend, for one thing and Dani had been dating Emily – but one day she actually tried to imagine where a rendezvous with Jordon might lead and her ich barometer kicked in with a vengeance and her brief infatuation with him came to an abrupt end, saving her reputation and their friendship from an inglorious end.

Dani was not ever going to think of Theo in intimate terms, but she was sure if she did the ich factor would not let her down.

Maddie’s tent was not far. Dani pushed her way through the front layers of the entrance and stopped, momentarily overcome by blindness. Her pupils, contracted from the bright midday light, took a few moments to dilate. Maddie followed. Her eyes adjusted more quickly than Dani’s. Captain Brandyn followed Maddie and stood to one side his feet planted apart and his arms crossed over his chest. He was tall, lean and had the slanted eyes of an Asian – they were green –and the same tawny skin color as everyone, but on the lighter side. His long course black hair was braided multiple times with a bunch of feathers jutting (including one Gillie Hawk wing feather). By his expression he was as angry as Maddie about something.

Maddie took Dani by the arm and walked her to the center of the parlor.

Dani shook her off.

“Let go.”

“What did you mean by going over there? “

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I needed Theo’s advice.”

“Sister, you can come to me for advice.”

“I needed Theo’s advice.” Dani repeated. She turned to make for the privacy of the bed chamber but Maddie held her arm in such a tight grip she came up short. Wrenching her arm did no good.

“Needed or wanted?”

Dani shucked her shirt, pulling it over her head one handed and pushing it to puddle over Maddie’s hand. She was so hot. She unbuttoned her jeans – again one handed. At least she could wriggle out of the heavy fabric and use her legs to kick them all the way off. She did not want to strip in front of Brandyn, but she had no choice and there was her cobalt blue second skin to save her modesty. Again she tried to free her arm to no avail.

“Answer me.” Maddie fairly shook her.

“What is the difference?”

Maddie took Dani’s chin in hand and turned her face for a closer look. When Dani tried to free herself, Maddie’s grip tightened. Her attention seemed to be focused on Dani’s mouth.

Dani grabbed Maddie’s wrist. “Let me go.”

“Did he touch you?” The anger in Maddie’s voice was pronounced.

“That is none of your business.”

“It is my business. You are under my protection until the King and Queen arrive and it is up to me to keep you safe from whatever manipulations that scoundrel would use in order to secure his own release.”

Dani let out a wordless cry of outrage and frustration. “How dare you!”

She gave Maddie a two handed shove that only made the Amazon sway back a little.

“Never speak ill of him again.”

“When will you see him for what he is?”

“I am very clear about who Theo is. And maybe, just maybe, if someone on this insufferable planet would tell me what he has done I might be able to formulate an opinion about what he is.”

“He is a villain, Danielle. Make no mistake, he is a dangerous man and you risk everything trusting him.”

“What concern is that of yours?”

“My concern is for you, Little Sister, can you not see that?”

“What I see is the woman who promised me that Theo would be treated well, that he would be left alone. What? Did you let Georg have at him? Your promises are worth nothing.”

Maddie paused and took a slow calming breath before she pulled Dani to the divan and forced her to sit down.

“Please calm down.”

A cup was pushed into her hand; it was filled with cold water. Where had it come from? A flicker of movement revealed Brandyn who had accompanied them into the tent. Why was he here? Instead of drinking the water, Dani drained the small bit of water down the front of her second skin; the coolness spread out across her chest. Maddie grabbed the cup and handed it to the man and he returned shortly with another cup.

“Drink slowly.” Maddie said, tipping the cup to Dani’s lips. “Help me out here, Little Sister. Give me your faith. If he has your heart, he will expect you to beg the King and Queen for leniency and on your behalf, who knows, they may consider it.”

“With every word you reveal how little you know of Theo.”

“And you, Little Sister, will have a new view of things very soon.

“You must prepare yourself, because this time tomorrow he will feel the wrath of the Hill People. When you are free of his influence you will see that your faith in him is as indecent as the acts of which he is accused.”

“I will not hear another word against him.”

“Very well,” Maddie said. “You disobeyed us and fraternized with the criminal. In order to carry out this undisciplined behavior you attacked and injured two Royal guards without provocation. As a result of your actions you will be placed under house arrest and will remain confined to this tent through the duration of tomorrow’s trial and execution of punishment on the criminal, after which you will be consigned to the King’s custody to face his discipline.”

Maddie leaned in close, bending at the waist so that they were nose to nose. “Believe me, Little Sister, your peculiar circumstances and your relationship to the Queen will not soften the King’s discipline.”

Dani got the distinct impression that Maddie spoke from experience. She left Captain Brandyn in charge and departed.

Dani remained recalcitrant. Without permission she lifted the rug that covered the hatch (a wooden trap door) in the ground that led to the stairs that led belowground to winter quarters and the privy. The stairs let out into an arched passage lit at intervals with wall torches that had stained the ceiling black. She passed several doors and two side passages, passed the narrow passage that led directly to the privy and went directly to the shower room.

She was still super-heated and had to cool down. Brandyn followed and watched her every move. The shower room was a wide circular chamber with a slightly concave tiled floor with a grate at the center. Spaced at regular intervals, at about six feet above the floor, ceramic pipes protruded from the wall. Dani chose one and pulled on the lever releasing water from the pipe. Delicious cold water poured over her head and soaked her second skin until the sponge-like fibers could no longer suck in more moisture and still she allowed the water to gush over her.

When she was chilled through Dani released the lever and swept her hair back with her hands pressing out the excess water. Her hair was getting shaggy. She backed up to the cool stone wall and slid down until she was seated on the cool tiles, her arms braced loosely across her knee caps. There were no towels so she sat and stared at Brandyn while she waited for the excess water to drain away and her thoughts drifted back to those last few moments with Theo.

Dani had to admit she cared for Theo deeply and no matter what he had done, even in spite of his lies and his theft of her sapphire, she wanted him to come out of this alive. She could not bear to think of losing him. She had left her life behind in search of her mother, but what she had found was friendship with a man who made her feel safe and terrified by turns, a man of faith who stood accused of unspeakable things, who had not once -- in spite of Maddie’s assertions that he was a villain -- attempted to excuse his own guilt. He had in fact submitted to the brute abuse of the Lowlandians without complaint. Sure, Maddie would only say that meekness was all part of his grand plan to manipulate Dani and position himself to receive some boon from the King on her behalf, but Dani did not believe it was humanly possible to feign that level of humility. She thought the greater the transgression, the stronger the desire to excuse oneself. Yet Theo had confessed nothing to her but guilt.

She wished she could get inside Theo’s head for just one moment, just long enough to see once and for all the villainy of which he was accused and so far had not denied.

Cooled by the shower, Dani slept deeply. Two Lowlandians woke her on the cusp of afternoon with two bushel baskets filled with black pea pods – at least they looked like pea pods -- and instructed her to shell them and delivered a wide shallow basket in which to keep the shelled peas. Unfortunately, no sooner had Dani wakened from another repeat of that relentless prairie dress dream when another memory slammed into her. She barely noticed the two Lowlandians, nor did she comprehend their instructions concerning the heavy bushels of peapods. The thrum-thrum-thrum of her heart pressed at the base of her throat. She pressed her fingertips to the spot, so hard she felt the too quick pulse leap against her fingertips right through the silver medal bearing Mary’s image while she tried in vain to repress the memory – this one Theo’s memory, as sharp a memory as any of her own – but the effort was useless.

He ran through the forest with speed and silence the destination not far now, just a little further and they would overtake the native trail that snaked around three Fughari to the south and at the western perimeter of the Lowlandian outpost. Near enough. He held Ruby’s limp body high against his chest. The bottom half of the right broken leg bumped rhythmically into his hip, the broken left arm had slipped free of the cloak and spun in a lazy circle. The girl was as weightless and lifeless as a gangly flesh and bone marionette.

Theo’s mind was frozen. He had no feeling for anything. His body moved on automatic, his brain had long passed the boundary of human kindness, of hate and fear leaving only the resultant shock of the night’s doings to pierce his heart with cold empty dread.

The only thing left was to put Ruby back, or as near as he dared take her without risking capture, and leave the body where her people would find it. It was the only thing he could think to do to make it up. With another few strides he found the best location, about a foot from the path where the grass was lightly trampled but where brush screened the path from view.

Theo went down on one knee and lowered Ruby’s body to the ground unwinding the cloak. He did not like to leave her naked body exposed, but Theo needed the cloak; his survival depended on it and Ruby was beyond such basic needs. The black night of Anress running new saved Theo a detailed view of Ruby’s mangled body and her bloodied, disfigured face or the gaping wound across the curve of her throat. Just the same he averted his eyes. He waited for guilt to manifest, for shame, remorse or any emotion that might indicate his soul still harbored a spark of decency, but nothing.

It did not seem right to leave Ruby and not say something…”Goodbye”… “I am sorry”…. Nothing could be said without feeling and inside Theo there was only cold nothing, but still he lingered until finally, full of uncertainty, he brought his hand to rest on the crown of Ruby’s head and smoothed his thumb over her crushed brow. A second later he was up and running, his cloak wadded up under his arm determined to return to Anthony before first light and be gone.

The only thing left that mattered was their survival; survival and nothing else. If it had been Theo alone, he would have delivered the girl to the compound, returned her to her family and submitted to whatever punishment they chose to mete out, but he was not alone. Another life hung in the balance and he had to think of that, as much as he wanted his long ordeal to be finished, he had to think of Anthony.

The whole thing happened in a flash while the Lowlandian women instructed Dani on what Maddie expected her to accomplish in two hours’ time. Before they could finish Dani scooped up one bushel and heaved it at the women and repeated the same with the second basket screaming at them to get out amidst a shower of peapods and wicker baskets crumbling under the force of her outburst. Emotion flooded through her in response to that cold hearted drive to survive.

She was hardly aware of her actions, yet she was acutely aware of Theo standing stock still in the center of his prison facing in her direction with his fingers curved around the medallion while tears streamed down his cheeks. Her tears. Maddie was in his face cursing him for thinking he would garner her sympathy with tears. Without looking at Maddie Theo spoke forcefully.

“Danielle!”

When Maddie failed to respond he turned and shouted in her face.

“Danielle!”

Maddie leaned back her tirade instantly silenced. Her head snapped around. Shouts outside the tent called for Maddie to come quickly and she disappeared from Theo’s line of sight. A moment later Dani slammed a mental door but to no avail, they were meshed together in their thoughts. She could feel Theo struggling to dispossess her, tried again unsuccessfully to close a mental curtain between them aware that her thoughts were getting through and his were impeding on her giving her the answers she had so longed for, answers she suddenly did not care to address, did not want to know. Answers that made her heart break.

Let me go, Danielle. Let me go.

The connection severed with a burst of white static and left Dani alone again.

Next Chapter: Chapter 21