Chapter 25

Teela waited for Jenkins to stop handing the queen things to sign, but it didn't look likely to happen soon. She had the wind raider ready, she had a guard filling in for her in the communications center, and Jenkins just kept handing Marlena things to sign.

Finally, the queen stood up. "I am coming back, Jenkins," she said firmly. "I am not disappearing into the darkness never to return." She nodded to him and joined Teela by the door. The captain shut the door to the office with an audible thud, and they made their way out to the hangar. The queen was dressed in her armor, and armed to the teeth. Teela had never seen her looking so ferocious as they climbed into the wind raider to head toward Grayskull.

Marlena didn't seem particularly talkative, so Teela remained quiet as she piloted them toward Grayskull, lost in her own thoughts.

Last night's dreams were as ordinary as they could have been, scenes of daily life, nothing unusual or even very memorable. Her father had talked to her for a long while about the utterly meaningless series of dreams she'd had, and then he'd dropped two enormous surprises on her. One was the medical treatment Adam was undergoing today, which had her nervous as a cat. Fury still simmered under the surface of her calm facade at the memory of the other. First Skeletor had sold Adam to the most vile creature imaginable, and now Evil-Lyn knew every detail of the humiliating torment Adam had suffered. Not to mention the misery Raon felt at having betrayed one of his closest friends.

How does Marlena do it? she wondered, glancing briefly aside at the queen. How does she project this air of unruffled calm? She knew that the queen was angry and upset, how could she not be? And it showed sometimes; a glint in her eyes or a set of her jaw revealed the emotions she had locked inside. But for the most part, the only outward sign that the queen was distressed by the recent events was an increased gravity, a deeper solemnity than was her usual wont.

Teela grimaced. The bags under her eyes were a good hint that something was wrong, but they were a sign that even iron control couldn't conceal. Teela didn't think she'd ever be able to smother her reactions that way.

She landed the wind raider outside Grayskull. They were only a few minutes late, tribute to her own impatience to get there and see Adam, but she doubted that the queen had even noticed the speed she was flying at.

Marlena was out of the wind raider and striding across toward the drawbridge before Teela even finished deactivating the engine. Or that she would have objected if she had even noticed, the captain thought with some surprise. Leaping out, she followed her queen, joining her just as the drawbridge began to lower.

They crossed the bridge and entered the building. Once they were out of sight, and the drawbridge had closed, Marlena astonished her by reaching out to take her hand, squeezing it tightly. Responding instinctively, Teela squeezed back, and they walked through the halls together, hand in hand.

Adam worked meticulously on the circuitry of the comlink he had before him. He was so focused that when he sat back, satisfied that he had gotten things back into alignment, he was surprised to see his father sitting across from him.

"That must be very finicky work," he said as Adam laid the tools aside and started to fit the device back together.

"It can be," Adam agreed. "Sometimes you have to rewire the whole thing, though that's actually easier than straightening out what's already there." He slotted the last piece back into position, and then turned the device on. It promptly shorted out completely. For a moment, he stared at it in disbelief. Then, a wave of indignation sweeping through him, he flung it across the room where it smashed against the stone wall.

His father ducked sideways and stared at the destruction. Adam was a little stunned at the strength of his own reaction. Randor turned back toward him and said, "What's wrong?"

Adam looked up at him. "Electronics don't work inside Grayskull," he said, astonished to find his throat choked and his eyes starting to burn with tears. He forced those emotions down, and added, "Duncan knows that!"

"I'm sure he just wasn't thinking, son," his father said, eyes wide with comprehension.

"Neither was I," Adam said in a small voice. "Or I would have remembered before I turned the stupid thing on, and fried everything I've been working on for the past hour."

His father was tactfully silent for a moment, then he said, "Actually, I was wondering if you could pause anyway, and help me out for a bit."

Adam tilted his head curiously, shoveling his frustration aside. "Sure, how?"

The king gestured at a significant stack of papers and parchment. "I need all of the documents in this file to be placed in chronological order, with the most recent on the bottom."

It would be boring, but it was better than sitting around doing nothing, and enormously better than sitting around staring at a task he couldn't do effectively. His father smiled as he set to work, starting out by sorting the items by year. "What are all these things?" he asked, looking at them curiously.

"Past rulings by various courts around Eternia regarding property rights," his father said. "Some problems keep cropping up frequently, and I've been meaning to look into how the law is being applied across the country to make sure it's consistent and fair."

"Oh," Adam said, looking down at them. He continued sorting them, catching bits and snippets of the text as he went. Mostly it was dry, ponderous legal jargon, but there were occasional zingers where the judge had been a little more forthright in his or her opinion. "Wow, some of these date back to the time of the Elders."

"I had them give me a sampling across the past hundred years," his father said. "Unfortunately, the fellow who went to pick them up from the various archives they've been stored in dropped them, and the box he'd been carrying them in broke open, so they wound up a bit jumbled."

Adam nodded and they continued their work in silence until Dorgan appeared. "We're ready for you," he said.

"Marlena's not here yet," his father said.

"She just landed outside a moment ago," Dorgan said. "I expect she'll be here any moment."

Adam stood up. "Okay, let's get started," he said. The needles this morning had been bad enough, and he had a feeling this would be worse. As distressed as his mother was by this whole procedure, he didn't want to have some kind of upsetting reaction in front of her. He followed Dorgan into the room and looked at the apparatus that Sevedra and Orko had contrived.

Then he saw the needles they would be putting in his arm. Far larger than normal needles, they chilled him to the marrow. He froze, staring at the enormous things. "Maybe you should knock me out for this," he said faintly.

His father put a comforting arm around his shoulder. "That would mean another shot, Adam."

The prince shuddered. "No, I meant actually knock me out," he said, eyes glued to the needles. "As in hit me on the head."

"No more of your wisecracks, young –" Dorgan broke off as he turned, but Adam barely noticed.

He reached for his father blindly, still staring. "Seriously, Dad," he said. "Knock me unconscious."

"I couldn't do that, Adam."

"You know how," he said. "I know you do."

"I'm not going to hurt –"

Before his father could finish the sentence, Dorgan had crossed to Adam's side and, taking his shoulders in a solid grip, turned him so that he was no longer facing the needles. His head pivoted as the healer moved him, but Dorgan reached out and took his chin gently but firmly, making him turn his head away, too.

"Adam, you know I would never do anything to hurt you," he said, meeting his eyes. Adam nodded, gulping. "Nor would I allow anyone else to hurt you."

"I know," Adam said slowly. "But . . ."

"No buts, my boy," Dorgan said. "We don't have to do this."

Adam shook his head. "No, we do," he protested. "I can't stand having this stuff in me, and it's making it harder for me to get better, isn't it?"

"It is," Dorgan said. "But it won't make all your problems go away either."

"I know that." Adam looked down at the floor. "But I also know that the longer this stuff is in me, the harder time I'm going to have when we finally do get rid of it."

"That's true," Dorgan replied. "Are you ready?"

He nodded very slowly and walked with Dorgan to the bed, keeping his eyes turned away from the needles. He lay back, closing his eyes, allowing the healer to position him according to his needs. His eyes opened in surprise when he felt his father grip his hand, but then he closed them again quickly so that he wouldn't see the needles.

The sharp pain as the first one entered his flesh tied his stomach into knots, and he heard his father grunt softly beside him. He leaned in closer and put his arm around Adam's shoulders, resting his forehead on the top of Adam's head. "It's all right, son," he said softly.

Then the other needle went in, and Adam couldn't help it, he cried out. He turned his face into his father's chest, and let himself break down.

Randor held his son close, wishing he could do something to calm the shaking, sobbing boy. Gone was the confident young man who had made his decision so solidly yesterday. Carefully coordinating his movements with Dorgan and Sevedra, Randor shifted Adam slightly and lay on the bed beside him, sitting up a little higher than he was. Adam's left arm was straight down from his shoulder and out at a slight angle. The needles protruded from it, leading to the tubes that carried the blood through Orko's spell.

Now Adam leaned against him, face buried in his side, and Randor looked up to see Marlena and Teela standing in the doorway. His wife was white and motionless, and Teela seemed much the same. They were both of them clearly dismayed by Adam's reaction. Marlena walked forward and put her hand on the back of Adam's head.

"Sweetheart?"

His head came up slightly and he said, "Mommy?"

"Yes, it's me," she said, still leaning over them. "It's going to be all right." A moment later, Teela appeared with a low chair that allowed Marlena to sit next to the bed. She herself knelt beside the bed and gazed worriedly on her friend.

Randor stroked Adam's head and murmured encouraging words. His posture was starting to open up slightly, but the king couldn't imagine what this must feel like, especially after all Adam had been through. He'd stiffened up and become very nervous when his blood had been drawn that morning, and had gone white when Dorgan began putting blood into him. This was on an entirely different order of magnitude.

Dorgan kept it going for twenty minutes, then, as Orko sagged to the floor, he rapidly but carefully disconnected Adam from the apparatus.

As soon as his arm was free, Adam rolled over and buried himself in his father's chest, clutching him tightly. "It's over, son," Randor said. "It's done."

After a moment, Adam looked up, eyes red with crying. "Can we go somewhere else?" he asked. Randor glanced over at Dorgan who nodded and made shooing movements. Helping Adam to his feet, the king kept an arm around him as they walked towards the door. Marlena was close beside them, stroking the back of Adam's head. He turned and smiled at her, but seemed to need to focus more heavily on the act of walking.

They were halfway to the sofa in the middle of the sitting room when Adam grabbed at him. "Dizzy," he said, and when Randor looked down into his face, he saw that Adam's eyes were very vague. He scooped him up, and a glance sent Teela running back into the room for Dorgan. Marlena rushed forward and put her hand on Adam's face.

"He's burning up!" she exclaimed.

Randor carried him to the sofa and Marlena brought a throw to cover him with. Then Dorgan pushed them both out of the way, checking Adam's temperature and then his pulse. "You're going to be okay, Adam," he said. "You don't feel too good, but it will pass."

"What's wrong?" Adam asked, staring up. "I feel . . . strange." His mother squatted at the end of the sofa, stroking his hair gently. "No. No sex," he said in a plaintive, pathetic tone. "Please?"

Marlena's eyes widened and she pulled her hands away from him as if she'd been scalded. "Adam, it's me, it's your mother."

He huddled down away from her. Dorgan had turned away for a quiet conference with Sevedra, and now he came back, knelt down and stuck the blood sampling needle in the boy's arm. Adam whimpered, hunching even smaller. Marlena's face was white and pinched, and Teela had put her arms around the queen, her own expression full of horror and distress.

"Should we move him to his bed?" Randor asked quietly.

"Probably," the healer said.

Nodding, Randor gathered Adam into his arms and carried him through into the bedchamber where he sat down on the bed with him. Marlena and Teela followed, as did the healer, and Randor stroked his son's hair. "It's all right Adam, you're with Daddy," he said softly.

Adam snuggled closer. "Daddy," he murmured. "Where'd Mommy go?"

Marlena broke away from Teela and ran to the edge of the bed. "Mommy's here," she said quickly, touching his back tentatively. He turned and threw himself into her arms, sobbing broken-heartedly. Randor bit his lip, pleased that Adam was able to accept comfort from his mother, but desperately worried about that earlier reaction. No sex?

Teela watched helplessly as Adam switched his attention from one parent to the other, clinging tightly to his mother, like a limpet. She felt completely superfluous and out of place, yet she didn't want to leave. She wished there was something she could do to help, but she was lost in a sea of horror and rage. Her hands were clenched at her sides. What happened? she wondered desperately. Why is he suddenly so sick?

Dorgan bustled in with some pills and a cold compress. After giving the pills to Adam and waiting while he took them, the healer positioned the compress against Adam's forehead, and Randor reached up and held it. Teela watched, feeling utterly useless as Dorgan bustled out again.

She had her arms crossed tightly on her chest, gazing at her closest friend, the boy she'd grown up with, as he clutched at his parents, eyes vague and confused. Marlena wrapped a blanket around Adam's shoulders and he smiled at her, a pathetic, almost child-like expression of gratitude. The queen began shedding her armor so she could more easily cuddle her son.

Abruptly, Teela heard a rapping sound. Looking out through the open bedroom door, she wondered what it was. Realizing that it was on the outer door of the suite, she turned and went out into the sitting room. Who is it? Would the Sorceress bother to knock?

She walked over and opened the door. When she saw who it was, she let out a cry of relief and threw herself into her father's arms. Seeing him loosed the dam that had been holding back a flood tide of emotions, and she found herself clinging to him, weeping.

Duncan was deeply alarmed when Teela burst into tears in his arms. What's happened? he thought wildly, half-expecting a reply from the Sorceress. None was forthcoming, which only made him worry more.

He guided his weeping daughter back into the sitting room and closed the door behind them, then stood there, just inside the suite, holding her close, desperate to know what was going on.

The door to Adam and Randor's bedchamber was open, but he wasn't at a good angle to see inside. The door to the exam room was likewise, open but at the wrong angle. After a few minutes, he drew gently back from Teela and said, "Dearheart, what happened?"

She just shook her head and gestured toward the bedroom, so he pulled her back into a close embrace, stroking her hair gently.

At that moment, Dorgan emerged from the exam room. He looked up and saw Duncan across the room. The expression on Duncan's face must have been telling because the healer redirected his steps toward them.

He put a hand on Teela's shoulder. "Adam will be fine," he said firmly. Teela stiffened and started trying to regain control of herself.

"What happened?" Duncan asked.

The healer sighed. "He had a predictably bad reaction to the needles, but insisted on going forward, and the procedure went off without a hitch."

Teela turned her head and gave him a watery but incredulous glare. "Without a hitch?" she asked, an almost contemptuous tone in her voice.

"As I said," Dorgan replied calmly, disregarding both the glare and her tone. "Unfortunately, his body is having a profound reaction to the 'introduction,' so to speak, of foreign matter in his bloodstream and is trying to eject it."

"Foreign matter? What –"

"The drug, newly separated from his blood cells," Dorgan said. "His body accepted it as part of his blood until that magical linkage was severed."

"So he's got a fever," Duncan said slowly.

"A very high one, in fact," the healer confirmed. "I've already given him a febrifuge and a cold compress to try to bring it down. It's not serving any useful purpose, there's nothing to kill."

"Why's he gone so strange?" Teela's words burst forth suddenly, as if she'd been holding them back. "You heard what he said to his mother. Why is he . . . what's wrong?"

"He's fevered," Dorgan reiterated. "I'm terribly afraid its making him delirious."

"What did he say?" Duncan asked.

"His mother was stroking his hair," Teela said, her face contorting in an effort not to cry. "And he said, 'no sex.' Why would he say that? Why would he even think that?"

Duncan sighed. "Poor Adam," he said. "It's probably feeling all too distressingly familiar."

"Familiar?" Teela repeated in perplexity.

"Well, how do you feel when you have a high fever?" he asked. "Sort of vague and disconnected from your body. Actions you intend to make don't quite happen the way they should, and you feel easily confused. Much of that mirrors the effects of some of those drugs."

Dorgan's eyes narrowed. "Flashbacks?" he asked worriedly.

"All too likely," Duncan said, nodding. "Is there anything needed?"

"More books, I suspect, but I get the feeling that the Sorceress has been supplying some of those."

Duncan bit his lip. "I'll find something to help keep them entertained."

There was a thump and then a cry. "Let me go!" Adam screamed, and all three of them turned and ran into the bedroom to find Randor struggling with his son, who was trying to get off the bed. "Don't! I don't want to! Please don't make me!"

"Adam," his father exclaimed, holding him firmly. Marlena was sitting on the floor beside the bed looking startled. "No one is going to make you do anything."

Duncan walked forward and helped the queen to her feet.

"I don't care what you say, my father will come for me," Adam said with conviction as he struggled in his father's arms. "He would never leave me here."

"Adam, you're safe, you're with me," Randor said, trying to pull him into a close embrace. The boy wouldn't stop struggling, though, and his eyes had an expression that reminded Duncan strongly of the way he had looked when being led around and handled by Daviona's guards.

"He's having a flashback, Randor," Duncan said. "You're not getting through."

The king shook his head in bewilderment. "How could I remind him of Daviona?" he asked.

"Not Daviona, the guards."

Randor's eyes widened in surprised comprehension, but he didn't release his hold on Adam. There was no knowing what the boy might do in his present state.

Something shoved against the back of Duncan's legs, pushing him hard enough that he stumbled forward, then he saw that Cringer had come into the room. The great cat stared at the scene, then he climbed gingerly on the bed. Teela started forward, looking as if she wanted to pull Cringer away, but Duncan shook his head and caught her arm. "Let him try," he said softly.

Cringer paced up to where Adam was struggling against his father's control and rubbed his head against Adam's shoulder. The boy stiffened in surprise, turning his head to see his pet so close beside him. Cringer rubbed his shoulder again, then licked his cheek. This contact seemed to break Adam out of the nightmare world he was trapped in, and he turned his head back to look at his father. "Daddy?" he said.

"Yes, Adam," Randor said. "It's me." He loosened his hold and Adam leaned forward to pet his cat. Duncan closed his eyes, heaving a sigh of relief.

Marlena moved back toward the bed and tentatively reached out her hand to fondle Cringer's ears. Adam smiled up at her and kept giving the cat long strokes down his back, though his energy seemed to be waning. Sensitive to the vagaries of his mood, Cringer gave Marlena's hand a quick, affectionate rub, then turned toward Adam, rubbing against his shoulder and leaning. After a few moments, Adam yawned and stretched out, leaning up against his father. Cringer, seeming satisfied, stretched out along his master's full length and nuzzled in against his side. Within a few moments, Adam was breathing deeply and evenly, clearly asleep.

Marlena sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to stroke his face. "He's still so hot," she said. "Where's that compress?" Randor picked it up and handed it to her, and she put it on Adam's cheek.

Dorgan took the opportunity to explain what was wrong with Adam to Marlena and Randor. "It should pass off in a couple of days."

"Days?" Marlena exclaimed. "He'll be like that for days?" Teela had gone around to the other side of the bed to pet Cringer, and she looked up at that, her eyes wide.

"He'll be getting better the whole time. I doubt he'll be this badly off tomorrow." Dorgan sighed at their dubious looks. "As the residue of the drugs leaves his system, his body will stop trying to fight off what it perceives as an infection." Looking pensive, he added, "I'll need to make certain that he's actually getting rid of it . . . that it's not lodging in one of his organs . . ."

Marlena looked distinctly worried at this prospect. "Is that likely?"

"I don't think so," Dorgan said. "But I'll need to take samples to be sure."

"More poking and prodding," Randor said softly, looking down at his son.

"Unfortunately, yes," the healer said. "I need to go check on Orko. He's been unconscious since he finished the spell."

"Did we expect that reaction?" Randor asked. "Did he overextend himself?"

"No, and I think he may have," Dorgan said. "Fortunately, glop is even better for him than it is for us, so we should have him up and zooming around in no time."

"Good," Randor said. Duncan took a close look at his king and he didn't like what he saw. Both the king and the queen were clearly having trouble getting enough sleep at night, and with Randor keeping watch on Adam, he couldn't afford to take anything to help him sleep. Duncan wondered how often the prince woke his father up with nightmares.

"Duncan, you look better rested than you did yesterday," Marlena said suddenly. "I'm glad to see that."

"I can't say the same for either of you," he said, drawing a chair closer to the bed and sitting down. "How's he sleeping?" he asked, nodding towards Adam.

"I don't know what he dreams about, because he doesn't seem to be remembering them," Randor said. "But he wakes me up nearly every night at least once or twice."

Marlena leaned down again and stroked his hair. "That vile woman deserves to have her innards dragged out through her bellybutton!"

Duncan hid a smile at the amazed look on Teela's face. He didn't think she'd ever heard the queen speak so forthrightly before. "Well, I don't promise that, my dear," Randor said, "but she will not survive the month if I have anything to say about it."

Pursing his lips, Duncan looked down at his hands. He certainly knew how to put the pressure on. Not that the thought of two young men in her control didn't put plenty of pressure on him. But so far that was all they'd found. The trails had gone cold within ten miles of the last sightings of her, and no one could scent her beyond that. It was making them all crazy, because there was no pattern to the locations where her scent simply vanished. They had plotted them on a map. If it hadn't been for the Andrenids in their party, Duncan would have suspected that she flew, but Buzz Off had assured him that, even if she took to the air, they would have been able to follow her.

Randor reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, and Duncan looked up. "I'm sorry, sire, we really haven't come very close to finding her."

"This is only the third day of intensive searching, my friend," the king said. "Tell me what you've done."

He unfolded the whole of the operation to the king and they discussed options for a long while, both Teela and Marlena joining in periodically with their own insights. Eventually, Adam pushed himself upright and looked at them. "Is there something innately interesting about a sleeping prince?" he asked grumpily. "I wouldn't have thought so, myself."

"I'm sorry, Adam," Randor said. "We'll –"

"Why don't you and Man-at-Arms go out into the sitting room and have a nice long talk?" Adam suggested. "And take Teela."

"Adam!" Teela exclaimed, reaching out and seizing his hand. "It's been days. Do I have to go?"

He looked over at her and gave her a weary kind of grin. "Nice to see you, too," he said. "Come back later, when I'm less . . . awake." His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "No, more awake." He snorted. "We can talk later, 'kay?"

Teela nodded, then she impulsively threw her arms around him. Adam returned the hug, and, although Duncan couldn't see his face, he thought he seemed pleased. He certainly didn't seem panicked. Then Teela got up and ran out of the room. Adam sort of half-grinned after her, then turned to his father. "Go, Dad."

"I don't want to leave you alone, son," Randor said.

Adam tilted his head perplexedly. "Mommy's here," he replied, reaching out for Marlena, who cupped his face with her hand, then immediately started seeking for the compress in the blankets.

"Oh, right, of course," the king said, standing up.

Adam turned and looked at his mentor. "Go, Duncan," he said firmly.

Duncan stood up. "I know when I'm not wanted," he said, smiling down.

Nodding, the prince leaned up against his mother, who took Randor's place. "I'll stay," she said. "You two go talk."

Randor rested his hand on each of their cheeks in turn, then walked out of the room, Duncan right behind him.

Marlena snuggled up beside her son, who smiled at her. "Is that better?" she asked him, pressing her hand against his cheek. He was still so hot.

He nodded. "I love you, Mommy," he said, cuddling in close. "I missed you."

Her heart melted. "I love you, too, Adam," she said.

"I'm sorry I'm acting so weirdly."

"There's nothing to apologize for." Pushing his hair back from his face, she added, "Don't worry about it."

Adam's eyes narrowed with concentration. "Did I knock you off the bed?"

Marlena shook her head. "It doesn't matter, Adam. It was an accident."

"So I did!" he said, looking very alarmed. "Did I hurt you? Are you bruised? Is Father going to be angry with me?"

"No, to all of those questions," she said as reassuringly as she knew how. "I'm fine, and your father isn't angry."

"I hurt you before," he said, looking at the long sleeves she wore to conceal the still healing cuts from his suicide attempt. "I don't want to hurt you."

She bit her lip. She didn't want to tell him it was all right, not when he was in this state. It might prove confusing later. "Don't worry about it, Adam. I'm fine, and I'm here, and I love you."

He sighed and most of the tension left him. "I want to go home," he said softly after a few minutes.

"You can't, not yet, sweetheart," she replied, her heart aching. "It's still too dangerous."

Adam nodded. "She might attack me again," he said unhappily. "Are you going to have to go home tonight?"

Marlena opened her mouth, looking into her son's guileless blue eyes. "No, I'm staying here with you," she said. "It's all arranged." Adam smiled and, giving a small sigh, fell fast asleep, leaving Marlena to wonder just who was going to get the unenviable task of telling Jenkins that she had, in fact, disappeared into the darkness.

She lay back, keeping an eye on Adam, and contemplated the woman who was responsible for putting her son in this state. How can such callous disregard for other human beings develop? she wondered. What nurtures it? Or is it inborn?

It didn't much matter which, she decided. Daviona's remorseless, relentless self-indulgence would be cut short. Marlena snorted softly. If one can call a life that has spanned several centuries 'cut short,' that is.

Gradually, she felt herself relax and realized that she was falling asleep.

Teela stood over Orko who was lying on the bed in the exam room. Sevedra was nearby, cleaning the equipment, and she wasn't sure where Dorgan had gone.

Orko looked so flat when he wasn't floating. She sat down on the edge of the bed and lifted one of his hands. Who knew he had this in him? she thought wonderingly. For so many years, everyone had discounted their little alien guest as a buffoon. It occurred to her suddenly to wonder if magic was different on Trolla, and if that's why his spells so often backfired.

Yet this one worked fine, she thought, looking over at the apparatus that Sevedra was cleaning. I wonder why.

He seemed almost like an empty set of clothes when he lay unconscious like this. I wish I could help him somehow. She grimaced. I can't do anything for Adam. She gazed at the magician, willing him to get up, to awaken. Maybe he could take energy from me, she thought, stroking the back of his hand lightly. On a whim, she closed her eyes and started to concentrate.

After a few moments, she thought she felt a sort of outflow. I'm probably imagining things, she thought dryly as she continued to hold Orko's hand.