Dani slipped into another mommy dream but it was unlike any mommy dream ever. She was seated in the hull of a ship as the King entered, carrying the Queen into the interior of the transport. It was a simple machine that appeared bigger inside than it looked when you considered the size on the outside. How she knew the look of its exterior she did not know because she had never seen the transport. It was not luxurious as Dani supposed the transport of a king would be but was only the hold of the ship with wide benches affixed to the exterior walls where passengers were to be seated and a whole lot of empty space in between.

The King settled the queen in a prone position on the bench opposite Dani’s perch. He took a blanket from an overhead compartment and shook it out. He was lean but tall, a physically imposing figure in gold trimmed blue tunic with a high collar and belted with a very old yet intriguing belt etched with symbols and buckled with antique silver. His straight blond hair was not long the way she remembered it but cut short and full. His beard was neatly trimmed. A simple gold crown graced his brow. His entrance into the ship’s hold seemed to shrink the space considerably. But as impressive his size, Dani knew had he been a man of average size and height his very presence would have still filled the space.

The Queen was in the process of sitting up. She was older than Dani expected; she was thirty-six by Dani’s count, but looked to be in her mid forties. Her strawberry blond hair, so wispy and fine, fell straight down her back to her waist with several tiny braids framing her face, drawn back and loosely clasped in an ornate gold clip at her nape. She was dressed similarly to the King, her blue gold trimmed hip length tunic showed off her slender build. She wore a gold coronet with an emerald cut sapphire at the apex.

They both looked spent.

“Sarah, lay down.”

She shooed him with a wave of her hand. “I am fine. Stop worrying.”

He sat beside her, folded the blanket in half and arranged it on her lap.

“You are so pale. The sooner we get you home the better."

Four security guards entered the hold each occupying a corner of the plain compartment. The men were dressed in identical gray uniforms with thin twin gold armbands on each arm. They had the bearing of secret service agents, eyes fixed on nothing yet intently aware of everything, their bodies at ease yet ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. None spoke.

Mama held the King’s hand. “Stop fussing; you know I had to see my Dani.”

Her accent reflected her English roots.

“Even so.” He sat beside her, folded his neat long hands over hers and kissed her forehead.

She leaned into him and his arm drew her in.

“Dani was beautiful. She was younger than I expected and too thin. She looked so peaceful I could hardly credit Brandyn’s account of her behavior. Berserk was his word for it. Imagine. They feared she would hurt herself, they claimed. Do you believe it?”

It took Dani a moment to realize Mama was talking about her early visit to Maddie’s tent and not the spectacle on the mound.

“More likely they feared she would cause trouble at the trial and wanted to keep her out of the way.” “A lot of good it did.”

“Isa took me aside between meetings this morning and bawled me out for not informing Dani of the mystical qualities of the Thrithing Stone. So I bawled her out, forcing Dani to choose her Bond under such inadvisable circumstances without first learning the particulars – especially knowing she was dealing with our daughter.”

“You have to agree, Ryan, that Theo is an excellent choice for the job, no matter how the choice was made.”

Dani felt a thrill of nostalgia, hearing Mama call the King, Ryan, instead of using the proper Havenish pronunciation: Rhjion (Ree-own ), still, after all these years when in the good old days he had insistently corrected her again and again. This time he did not correct her.

“A good choice? What good can come of a male-female bond; it is untenable.”

"Theo already cares for Dani and that very human bond was forged well before the Bond was made."

“You learned this when you visited him this morning?"

Dani perked up.

“Mmm-hmm.”

"What else?"

“Theo chose death tonight to sever his bond with Dani because he feels the weight of his crimes and he does not want Dani added to his list of victims.”

“He will do well to see that she is not.” The King stared into the depths of the ship’s hold, a stern expression on his face.

Mama turned his head back with her hand on his chin. "I made every effort to convince him otherwise, but he is stubborn to a fault. There is no doubt in my mind, wherever they are, that Dani is in good hands.”

“As is Theo, apparently”

"As for me," The Queen admitted, “I want nothing to do with Isa or Maddie for a good long while; I am so angry with the way they treated Dani and Theo.”

“This will all blow over soon enough.” The king gave a dismissive gesture.

“Will you tell them about Theo?”

What about Theo? Dani leaned forward.

“Now that it no longer matters?” The king said with a taut expression and a hint of bitterness in his voice that vanished in the next breath. Agony came into his eyes suddenly and he spoke in a strangled voice. “Theo might have died out there!”

“Isa had to offer the Tree as a punishment, it was the only way to satisfy the public outrage; I doubt she expected Theo to choose it.”

“She is not that stupid. She knew very well he would choose it, in fact I warrant she counted on him to choose it. The cruelty of the punishment aside, to use the Tree as an instrument of death is an abomination; I have warned her repeatedly … I believed she was finally done with crucifixions, but the fact that she is still in possession of that crossbeam proves she is still holding it in reserve for special cases. There can be no special cases, Sara. I am not at all pleased with Isa’s handling of this situation. Now I must remain behind and apply diplomacy.”

He sounded supremely put out.

“She may get more than she bargained for. There are plenty here who would not approve of that spectacle or wish to repeat it.”

Her mother’s comment was not in keeping with Dani’s view on the topic. She chalked it up to her usual tendency to put a positive spin on everything evil. When the King spoke again after a few moments of silence, he was all business and matter of fact. “I should be home soon. It all depends on what it takes to get this situation under control – a few days at most.”

“Now you want to step in and take control?” Dani shouted, completely surprised by her sudden vehemence. “Now, after Theo was nearly killed? You are the King. You should have stopped this before it even got started!”

Dani tried to stand up but her body was stuck. No one heard her. She might as well have been in a fish bowl. What kind of dream was this?

At once the King turned his head and looked over his shoulder in Dani’s direction. His hand drifted up and poised near his golden Thrithing’s medallion, but stopped shy of touching it.

“What is it?” The Queen peered in the same direction.

He said nothing at first and Dani stared back mesmerized. Did he see her? Had he heard her after all?

“Dani-girl.” He whispered.

“Dani?” The Queen spoke sharply. “Do you see her? Can you tell where she is?”

Her hand reached for the stone but the King interrupted the gesture, wrapping his long fingers around her slender wrist.

“Do not touch it; better to be safe.”

“But I want to see. The rift cannot still be open.”

“I cannot see her.” But he continued to look to the side of the compartment where Dani sat on the hard bench watching them breathless and intrigued, her anger temporarily forgotten. The king’s expression was thoughtful.

“She is eavesdropping…” His voice trailed off.

“Like always.” The Queen affirmed her eyes bright with hope while a fond smile tugged at her lips.

“Impertinent.” The king commented with a smile of his own and just as Dani knew it would the smile transformed his stern features and tempered the disapproval in his voice.

Terrible longing filled her and on the tail end of it was her anger, just as terrible and far more palatable.

“Theo must be unconscious; he is not blocking the connection.”

What did that mean?

“Can you tell where she is?” The queen asked again, leaning closer.

He pushed his thoughts into Dani’s mind so suddenly she had no time to react properly but sat there and let him, feeling his mental fingers sift through her memories like flipping through file folders until he found the correct one.

“They are in a cave, in a mountain deep.”

“Which mountain?”

“Dani does not know.”

“Bhria?”

“I am on it.” The tips of his fingers touched his sapphire. His attention skipped over Dani, passed through Theo’s unconscious mind and spoke directly to the sapphire around Theo’s neck. He turned and told the Queen in a firm voice, “Lone Mountain.”

“So far? We should redirect Rhany and his team immediately.”

The King shook his head. “By the time Rhany’s team arrived Theo and Dani will have moved on. I doubt Theo will stay in one place for long.”

“Then we will send them on ahead. I will have to back up quite a bit, how many days do you think?” She had a bemused expression Dani was all too familiar with, her lost in a daydream expression.

The King did not answer her question but continued to look in Dani’s direction as if he could see her sitting there. When he answered the Queen he said. “At least now we know why we lost contact with Rhany, why he did not join up with Maddie upon Dani’s and Theo’s capture. He and his team were diverted.” He said this with a sly smile.

Here was another one of those moments when Dani sensed something significant in the conversation but did not fathom what. They continued to converse quietly, aware now of their audience. Clearly the topic was private. They seemed to have forgotten Dani.

After several moments the King and Queen together looked in the direction of the bench on the opposite side of the hold of the ship.

“Dani, your mother wants to know, have you read her letter?”

His hand enfolded his medallion as he connected a route through Theo’s mind and used Dani’s sapphire to project his thoughts into her head. She watched him speak to her from across the cramped chamber, his mouth moving, heard his voice there but at the same time she heard his voice in her head. The bodyguard detail seemed not to think anything unusual about the King speaking to a blank wall.

“You have the sapphire so we can safely deduce you have the box or at least the contents of the box. The letter was with the box. Your limited understanding of the Sapphire’s special properties suggests to us that you have not read the letter. Your mother left the letter and all the contents of the box to help prepare you for your journey here; to make the transition from Earth to Haven safer.

“Please listen to me carefully, Dani. You are asleep and when you awaken you may not remember this, or you may be tempted to ignore us. You must not. It is of utmost importance that you read the letter. To help you remember take this small token of my affection with you when you wake up.”

He opened his hand and breathed on the Sapphire cradled in his wide palm. The hiss of his breath rushed toward her like a wind as it passed from stone to stone into Theo’s mind and out again until it entered her dream and the gentle waft of it stirred the curls resting on her forehead. She sat stiff – arrested - her white knuckled fingers clenched the rim of the bench on which she sat. Carried on the wind was the scent of wet snow, the chilled air that can only be felt when the snow falls deep out of season, the warm golden light of an October sun and deep inside the fullness of this sensual memory wafted a hint of Felder – his scent, the scent of his home world that persisted on him even after many weeks of repeated showers using Irish Spring.

Dani drew one leg up propping her heel on the bench and tucked in as if to take refuge behind it.

A commotion erupted at the entrance to the transport’s bay. Distracted, The King released his sapphire, stood and left the queen with nothing more than a peck on the forehead and a quick squeeze of her hand as he turned away.

The King handed two women up and departed taking two of the guard with him. They were immediately replaced by two new guards. Their uniforms were similar to those of the royal guard, but the new arrivals wore brass armbands, wide and sleek and etched with three vertical wavy lines.

The Queen opened her arms to the younger of the two women. This girl went to the Queen without hesitation. She walked with a pronounced limp favoring her right leg and her left arm was bound to her body with leather binding. Her lithe body was hidden beneath layers of light weight cloth and her face obscured by a veil and the large cowl like hood of her cloak. Only her eyes were visible, a lustrous green brimming with tears. Dani’s breath caught in her throat.

“Queen mother,” Ruby spoke in a harsh whisper as if afraid of the grating sound of her own voice.

The queen enveloped the girl in her arms.

Dani felt a spurt of jealousy, a shameful reaction given the girl’s history, but she could not help it.

Two crates were lifted into the ship under the older woman’s direction and arranged on a set of skids bracketed to the floor between the benches. Other bundles followed, including Theo’s large pack, until the central area was packed and everything secured under a flexible metallic mesh tarp that connected to clamps in the floor. The bodyguard was not employed for this chore but a few locals, young men. When they were gone, the queen looked at the guard to Dani’s left. He was as expressionless as a stone as he pressed his hand to a glowing orange panel situated on the wall next to the opening. The door slid shut with a soft whoosh.

“Here, let us get these out of the way.” The queen lifted and pushed back the hood that hid Ruby’s mass of auburn curls and gently removed the veil that concealed features warped from brow to chin, her flattened nose pointed to the left, a lopsided mouth and a chin that tilted to the right.

The queen kissed the girl’s unnaturally flattened cheek with tenderness. Ruby closed her eyes and two large tears spilled out of each. She leaned her head on the queen’s shoulder. The Queen gathered the girl in her arms and held her close.

“I wish …” Ruby began, but seemed unable to finish, the articulation of some desire beyond her capability.

The other woman retrieved two pillows and two blankets from the overhead compartment. She handed one pillow to the queen, who placed it on her lap. Ruby stretched out on the bench with her head in the queen’s lap. She stared up at the Queen while the Queen smiled looking down upon her tenderly.

“I was glad,” The girl paused struggling with her conscience it seemed. “That he did not tell. It was the part I most dreaded about the trial; learning what happened to me. Does that make me wicked?”

“No, darling. I understand perfectly. The loss of memory is God’s blessing, so you can live your life in peace.”

Ruby’s eyes shimmered with tears.

“The worst is behind you now.” The queen patted her bound arm.

The other woman covered Ruby with the blanket. “Sleep, sweetie. Keeper’s know you have earned it.” Then she said to the queen. “That was the most grueling trial I have ever attended.”

“Sit beside me, Gillian,” the queen patted the bench on her left.

Gillian sat.

The Queen shook her head. “Look, the poor girl, she is asleep already.”

“She is exhausted,” Gillian said. “Already rumors are spreading that you influenced the accused on account of Dani.”

”Then they do not know Theo.”

The queen spoke with an edge in her voice and a spark of steel in her green eyes. "He is not a man who will bend easily to the influence of others.”

Gillian appeared to take the queen’s opinion at face value

“And there was your Dani in the circle, running for all she was worth to rescue her man. They knocked her down but she got up again and climbed the Tree like a native.” Gillian delivered these details in a soft dreamy voice, as if the queen had not been in attendance and witnessed them.

The queen’s expression was pensive but her attention was riveted on the opposite wall. “Yes. My Dani was marvelous. I am as proud of her as I can be.”

“Mommy,” Dani tried to lean forward but was as immovable as before.

A stocky but trim man entered the cargo hold from the front end of the craft through a narrow door. He was clean shaven. Laugh lines radiated out from the corners of his brown eyes. He wore a tan jumpsuit that screamed, Insider.

“Ready?” He said.

Someone in the front of the craft started the engines, or whatever energy source it was that powered the machine. Dani felt a shudder under her feet and it quickly moved up her legs and into her body.

She woke to Theo’s shuddering body.

The fire had died down quite a bit. She touched his forehead. He was feverish. Fearing the worst, Dani looked at the wound under his left eye, but it was fine, in fact the redness and swelling had already gone down. Good, his body was fighting the infection and the healing pooke appeared to be working. At least he was not septic from that source. Unwilling to take anything for granted she decided to check the other wounds. Even the smallest scratch, if infected, could cause trouble.

First she put more wood on the fire, searching through the logs for the largest, after piling several small ones underneath to get the blaze going. Some of the wood was so damp she doubted it would burn at all but she arranged several of the smaller of these near the fire. Perhaps the heat of the fire would dry them enough for use later. Keeping a large blaze going would consume the fuel very quickly as much of what was useful was dry and porous. How to maximize the heat of the smaller fire was crucial.

She squeezed more water between Theo’s lips.

After a slow methodical examination of his other wounds using her flashlight, especially the scratches on his arms neck and shoulders – untold millions of germs could thrive underneath the human fingernail – she satisfied herself that none of his wounds looked infected. That meant there was something internal going on. She could only hope that it was from the shock of his long ordeal and not the result of trauma to his vital organs. Shock, Dani thought, presented another set of worries.

She was woefully inadequate to treat Theo for any injuries he might have sustained from blows, or falls or from being lifted onto the crucifixion tree: joint stress; fractures; internal bruising of the kidneys or the spleen. She had seen plenty of impact injuries as a participant in athletics: pulled hamstrings, snapped tendons, sprained, twisted and broken ankles. A broken right tibia had forced Dani to sit out the entire sophomore basketball season.

But such mundane injuries did not compare to crucifixion, the toll it took on the human body: the agony of nails through the wrists and feet; the flayed back dragged upon the wooden beams; the lax bowels and bladder; exhaustion; heart failure; organ shutdown; and finally asphyxiation. (A trip to Israel with Great Grandma Allen and Grandma McHugh had included a walk along the Via Dolorosa that involved a detailed description of the indignities suffered by Christ during crucifixion, delivered by the reverent tour guide. Sixteen-year-old Dani had not welcomed hearing it, but such knowledge once learned is not easy to forget.) Dani was thankful that Theo’s experience, while torturous, had been nowhere near as barbaric as a Roman crucifixion. Still, he had suffered.

“You are safe now, Theo.” Dani smoothed his hair away from his forehead. In his unguarded state, she saw his features without the affect of hardship, with tension and stress and emotions absent. Without the beard he looked younger than ever. His second skin maintained its liquid appearance, though it was tinged a very pale blue.

The haversack was in easy reach, so Dani got the Psalter and began to read. She kept vigil this way. She was afraid of sleep, afraid she would slip into another weird dreamscape where the Orphan King dared rake his mental fingers through her memories. She was already forgetting details of the dream. Yet, she had to acknowledge that not once in the course of that long eavesdropping session had the King or Queen called Theo “That Criminal” or “Dreyden’s Disciple". They had persistently called him by name. Even Dani had to admit, in defiance of her bitter emotions, that it counted for something.

Next Chapter: Chapter 25