Iracebeth was oddly quiet that night. The servants in the castles whispered, the courtiers whispered, and she knew it was all about her and that none of it was good. Her depression made her blue-shadowed eyes seem even heavier.

"All the rioters have been arrested, Your Majesty, and everyone else has been ordered to go back to their homes. You have nothing to fear," Stayne told her. He was startled when she looked up at him—crystalline tears were running down her cheeks.

"But I do, Ilosovic…" she choked, "it is only a matter of time before they find a away if they despise me enough…my tiny-headed sister has the Vorpal Sword and Alice and I fear that our time is running out!"

Ordinarily, Stayne would have gone to her, comforted her, but Aurora's presence made it seem wrong. Though he was certain she'd forgive him, he refrained.

"The only two people I can trust in the world are here in this room," Iracebeth lamented, "you and my mute artist with her mutant wings! Everyone else is just waiting to get me!"

The look that passed between Stayne and Aurora went totally unnoticed. It was ironic that the two people that were the most dangerous were right here in this room. All the servants and courtiers had been ordered out earlier. It would be fairly easy…

No. Aurora shook her head. Stayne nearly jumped out of his skin. He had been so deep in thought that he had allowed his thoughts to be exposed to her. It unnerved him.

There is too much blood on your hands as it is. Leave her be, Ilosovic.

Her voice was, once again, in that thick accent she used when she was upset. But she wasn't angry with him…he would have felt it. She seemed sad, regretful almost. She didn't want Stayne to suffer more than he had.

Life is like that sometimes, she thought at Iracebeth, there is a season for everything. A season to be sick, to be healthy…a season to labor and a season to rest…a season to rule and a season to serve…maybe if you stopped trying to make things go the way you want and just let time take its course, you would be happier.

"Who said that?" Iracebeth demanded.

I did.

Stayne did not suppress his look of surprise. He could hear her voice in his head just as clearly as if she'd been speaking out loud. Iracebeth stared at her.

"You can talk?"

I think the word for it is "thought-transference".

She stomped over to Aurora and stared at her hard as if trying to figure out a puzzle.

"It worked…it actually worked! You can control them with your mind! And you can speak! Perhaps all isn't lost after all!"

She whisked out of the room yelling for something.

Don't look at me like that, Aurora scolded Stayne.

"Do you realize what you've just done?" he asked her, "Now she'll never want to let you go. You'll be nothing but a tool to her!"

She can't make me do anything, Aurora told him, she only believes that she can. There's no threat on earth great enough to make me fear her.

Unsure of whether or not Iracebeth was coming back, he decided to try and communicate with Aurora privately since Aurora could only make her thoughts known to the people she wanted.

I wish I felt that way…I'd have stopped this a long time ago, he said.

Here's a riddle for you: why do humans have faces on the front of their bodies instead of the back? Aurora asked.

"That's just the way we are," he responded.

It's so that we can see where we're going rather than where we've been. Otherwise, they'd be on the back of our heads.

She had a way of making him see things differently.

Did your God tell you that? he asked bitterly.

Not exactly…there was a story about a woman escaping a city that was being destroyed and God told her not to look back. She looked back and she turned into a pillar of salt. It was to remind the rest of us not to look back when he wants us to go forward. Sometimes we have to be stripped of everything we have to appreciate what we're going to get.

"He must be a wonderful God if He made you," Stayne whispered. Her cheeks colored rosily and she turned her head. His hand reached out and turned it back. For the first time that he'd seen, she didn't look half-dead. The color that flushed on her cheeks also flushed her lips until they were ruby-colored. His kiss was very light this time, just light enough to taste the new warmth there.

Then, all Hell broke loose.

"Stayne! Arrest that girl and have her executed at once!" Iracebeth snarled.

He stared.

"Why?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"Because I found this. How could you not tell me? I'm beginning to question your motives as well!"

Stayne's gut felt as though it was eroded by acid. His blood turned to ice and the blood drained from his face when he saw the Oraculum in the queen's hand.

"Your Majesty, she doesn't know! She doesn't know about anything! The only person that would have told her never had any contact with her!"

His voice sounded urgent and the pitch began to increase. Aurora felt the cold wave of fear that ran through him.

"I don't care if she knows! I can't take that risk! Do it now!"

He hesitated a tiny fraction of a second before pulling Aurora out of the chair and cuffing her hands behind her back. The color had drained out of Aurora's face again, leaving her as pale as ever.

What's going on? Why am I being arrested? Her thought voice was high and sharp. It would have hurt Stayne's ears if she'd spoken it aloud.

"Because you were born!" Iracebeth said venomously as Stayne steered her out of the room. She squirmed and put up a convincing enough fight that he nearly lost his grip on her. Deciding to handle her roughly enough to convince Iracebeth that he really would take her to the dungeons, he tossed her over his shoulder again and pinned her legs down. Her arms were wrapped backwards around her wings, so she couldn't fly. Iracebeth seemed pleased enough by this. Stayne carried her down the hallway and towards the dungeons.

An odd flutter in his chest made him feel nauseated. It was then that he realized he was feeling the echoes of a second heartbeat: Aurora's. He hadn't known that fear could be so strong, especially from her. It came off of her in sickening waves.

Instead of taking her to the dungeons, he detoured to the stable once they were safely away from Iracebeth or any other prying eyes. He put her down carefully and removed the cuffs. With a whistle, his talking horse had emerged from his stall.

"Take her to Marmoreal to the White Queen and do not stop until you get there," Stayne ordered the stallion, "and speak to no one on your way. Your needs will be taken care of once you arrive."

The horse twitched his ear questioningly, but he didn't protest.

"What about you?" Aurora asked, obviously very upset. The faintest traces of a smile ghosted his face.

"I'll manage," he told her, "but only if I know you're safe."

Unable to speak the words he so desperately wanted to say to her, he allowed her complete access to his thoughts only for a brief second. Tears glistened in her dark eyes. With any luck, he could keep her from spilling more.

He held her in his arms for a few more seconds, kissed her deeply, then sat her on the horse's back. They had so little time that the horse had no saddle or reins. He pitied both of them; it was going to be a rough ride, but his horse knew the way. He walked with them to the gate. Aurora looked back at him as the horse began to gallop away. He watched them vanish into the night.

The horse galloped for what seemed like several miles. He slowed to a trot when he began to sweat and breathe hard. Aurora awkwardly shifted and tried not to pull on his mane.

"Are you sure you don't want to take a break?" she asked him, unused to the idea that animals could talk.

"No. My master said not to stop," he answered, "I will not disappoint him."

"All right," Aurora said reluctantly.

"If I allow anything to happen to his mate, he will never forgive me," the stallion remarked.

"Mate?" Aurora asked, holding on tighter to keep herself from being jolted off as they covered more treacherous ground.

"He did that thing that humans do…the same as when we touch noses," the horse said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Aurora felt warm on the inside.

"He wouldn't have done it if he didn't care so much for you. I've only ever seen him do it to you. He's risking his neck to keep Iracebeth from hurting you."

"I wanted him to come with us," she lamented guiltily.

"You're doing the right thing by doing what he asks," the stallion informed her, "he won't get distracted by worrying about you this way. He'll be able to concentrate in battle."

It took them almost three hours to reach Marmoreal. The stallion told her a little about Stayne's previous life and their moments together. Stayne had acquired him when he was still a weanling foal. As the horse had grown into a young colt, Stayne had trained and cared for the horse himself. No matter how badly things had gone, they had always found comfort in each other. There was a special bond that humans and animals would always have…Aurora listened with quiet fascination. The stallion had known Stayne when he'd still had use of both eyes and had comforted Stayne when he'd been injured and blackmailed.

"Can you imagine it for me?" Aurora asked.

"Why?"

"I want to see it for myself."

An image popped into her head of a much younger Stayne. Aurora gasped…it wasn't that he looked terribly different from what he was now, it was the joy, hope, and curiosity that was in his expression. Time and pain had etched themselves into his features.

"How old was he then?"

"Twenty-five. That was ten years ago when he finished his training as a knight."

Aurora did some mental math. He'd told her that Iracebeth had killed her husband at least ten years ago…that put him at about thirty-five. She was only twenty-three; it was a big difference. Sensing her reluctance, the horse spoke again:

"Twelve human years isn't so many…it's not like you're a child."

"I've always been treated like one," Aurora muttered.

"But not by him."

"No, not by him," she agreed.

"There's the castle," the stallion informed her, "it shouldn't take much longer."

She spotted a tiny white shape that rapidly began to grow. For the first time in ages, she could breathe easily. As they were admitted into the gate, she prayed that God would watch over Ilosovic Stayne.