Author's Note: Thank you to all the new people who have favorited and followed this story since the past couple of updates. There have been a lot more of you than normal lately, and I appreciate the support!
Chapter Twenty-Four: Chasing Dreams
Kimberly stood on the beach, wet sand beneath her bare feet and waves lapping gently around her ankles, and watched the sun rise. She was not normally a morning person, but she had awakened early this morning and been unable to get back to sleep. Rather than bother Tommy, she had slipped out to the beach alone.
It was quiet here, away from the docks and the town's early risers. But although this place was lovely, it had brought her no answers. The town was pleasant enough, if a bit crowded with all the members of her court jammed in, but it was nothing like the wild, overgrown coastline from her dream. And her ancestor had made no further appearances since that first dream. She was at a loss.
The sky faded from pink to blue, and she knew she should go back to the inn. When he woke up and found her missing, Tommy would worry. She turned away from the sea, intending to go back, and saw him coming down the beach toward her. He did not look scared or upset, just resigned.
"Did you have another dream?" he asked when he reached her.
She shook her head. "I just couldn't sleep."
"You'll figure this out eventually," he assured her.
She hugged her arms around her middle. "We're only going to be here for a few more days." It didn't seem like enough time.
"I believe in you."
She was glad someone did; she was really starting to second guess her intuition. She let him hold her for a few moments, drawing emotional strength from his presence. Soon they would have to go back and face their duties, such as they were, but for now they could just enjoy this rare moment alone.
It was over too fast, but she let Tommy convince her that going back to town and playing the part of responsible Queen would be the best option for the day. Aisha met them as they headed back into town.
Kimberly paused at the edge of the road to put her shoes back on. "So, how many people have I upset so far today?" she asked.
"None yet," Aisha told her, sounding proud. "But it's still early."
She was right. Considering this was supposed to be a vacation, the various members of her court still wanted their share of her time, and they became quite irate if she was unwilling to give it to them. And while she understood that the kingdom still needed to be governed, she would have liked a few hours of peace in which to figure out what to do next.
"I'm running out of time," she muttered.
Tommy shot Aisha a pointed look, but got no response.
"There's something here that I'm supposed to find, but I'm not finding it," Kimberly declared in utter frustration.
Her stomach rumbled loudly into the silence that followed her outburst.
"Let's talk about this after breakfast," Tommy suggested, guiding her with a hand at her elbow.
She would have preferred to discuss it now, but let him lead her back to the inn anyway. Being a brat about it wouldn't get her any answers (although it might make her feel better), and she did need to eat. Whatever challenges lay ahead of her today, she would need her energy to face them.
By the time they got back to the inn, she thought she had managed to resign herself to the day's duties. She was wrong.
The Scotts were preparing to depart.
She had known all along that Jason and his parents would not be coming home with the rest of the court, and nor would Dulcea. They would be heading east across the sea, seeking the mythical Sword of Power. Knowing this had not prepared Kimberly for having to actually bid them farewell. She had already lost Trini and Zack to destiny's call. She hated to have to let Jason go, too.
Her appetite disappeared, replaced by a sick feeling. It seemed as if she might soon have no one left but Tommy.
"Kim, you okay?" he asked suddenly.
She nodded, even though she felt anything but okay. The last thing she needed was for some fool to walk by at the wrong moment, see her feeling ill, and start some rumor about her being indisposed or, worse, pregnant.
Seeing how upset she was, Aisha leaned close to assure her, "They'll come back."
And suddenly Kimberly was no longer sure that it was Jason's impending departure, and the possibility that he and his parents wouldn't come back, that was upsetting her so much. It almost felt like the thing that upset her the most... was that she wasn't going with them.
Trying her best to ignore the feeling, she let Tommy lead her upstairs to the suite they were sharing. They bid subdued farewell to Aisha, for now, on the way.
The moment they were alone in their suite, Tommy went on the defensive. "No," he said. "I don't know what you're thinking, but no."
Kimberly glared at him. "If you don't know what I'm thinking, how do you know it's a bad idea?"
He must have seen the change that came over her a few minutes ago when she saw the Scotts getting ready to leave. And while he might not be able to know exactly what she was thinking, he probably had a pretty good idea. And he didn't seem to like it one bit. "You can't just go with them, Kim. Even if I wanted to let you go, you're the Queen now. You have responsibilities."
She looked down at the floor to hide her frown. She knew that. And it wasn't as if she hadn't had responsibilities as a Princess... "I know," she found herself saying. "And you're right. I can't go. But back there... I had the sudden feeling that my dream wasn't pointing me to the end of a journey, but to the beginning."
She knew he had been hoping she would not say that, that she would not be so determined to pursue this, so she gave him a wide-eyed pleading look - and watched his resolve crumble that much further. She could tell that he wanted to help her get to the bottom of all this, but he was also taking his duty as the King seriously. And that meant he was trying to resist her, because according to the court that was the right thing to do. Her pleading look slowly turned into a pout.
"At least eat your breakfast," he said into the gloomy silence that had descended. The breakfast, left forgotten on the small side table in their suite, looked beautiful but totally unappetizing.
Resigned to her fate, at least for the moment, she did as he asked. But she used eating as an excuse to remain silent and think. There had to be something she could do to make this half-formed dream happen, and by the time she finished eating the last morsel of food from her plate, she thought she had it. Without giving Tommy a chance to protest, she bolted for the door. "I'm going to talk to Dulcea and Lord Scott about this!" she told him over her shoulder on her way out.
She did not slow down or look back to see what Tommy's response might be. She had a mission and, now, a plan of action, and nobody was going to stop her.
-x-
"This," Aisha announced cheerfully, "is not going to end well."
Rocky looked over to where Aisha was standing in the doorway and heard Adam sigh. He did not have to look to know Adam was glaring at him as he indulged Aisha. "What happened?"
"I think Kimberly is finally figuring out that dream of hers." She left the doorway to take a seat at the tiny table that had been wedged into the room's far corner, and started lazily peeling an apple. Rocky hoped for her sake that she wasn't intending to eat that; he'd learned the hard way that the apples here tasted roughly as appealing as sand.
"And?" Adam prompted, seeing that Rocky was too busy being horrified on Aisha's behalf to respond himself.
Aisha smirked. "I was right."
"Of course you were," Rocky said automatically.
Adam was not so quick to accept that. "You really think she's going to try to go with Jason?"
Aisha set her apple and knife down. "It wouldn't surprise me, after the way she acted when she saw him and his parents getting ready to leave this morning."
There was something strange about that, but Adam hit on it a moment before Rocky did. "But I thought she was in love with Tommy, not Jason."
Aisha sighed, as if he had just asked a very dumb question. "This has nothing to do with who she loves," she explained. "She is at a crossroads of destiny."
Rocky did not have to ask what she meant by that. She'd explained the concept enough in the past that he thought he could piece together what she was getting at now. The way Aisha told it, destiny was not the fixed thing that Kimberly thought it was. It was fluid and changeable, affected by all the choices she made from one day to the next. Some of those choices just had bigger effects than others, or at least that was how Aisha put it.
"It's not like they're going to let her go," Adam commented. "She's the Queen."
"That didn't stop her before," Aisha pointed out, grinning wickedly.
Rocky groaned. "Please tell me you're not going to help her stow away on the ship or something."
That earned him a laugh from Aisha, while Adam grumbled, "Don't give her any ideas."
Rocky shot him a look. "Like she needs my help."
"Hey, hey," Aisha admonished. "No need to be jealous of my brilliant mind."
"Brilliant, or devious?" Rocky asked. "You know it's not going to end well if you get caught helping the Queen run away."
The mood on the room suddenly went from teasing to completely sober.
"Who says I'd get caught?" Aisha asked. Rocky wondered if she realized that she was fussing with the hem of her sleeve, where Trini's ring was concealed.
"You might," he insisted.
She locked eyes with him and refused to back down. He looked away first, meeting Adam's sympathetic gaze. "The important thing is that I help Kimberly do what she needs to do. Trini asked me to protect her, and that's what I intend to do."
"So protect her," Rocky said. "Don't help her with some crazy scheme."
"I know how to get by," Aisha retorted bitterly. Rocky hated to hear her talk that way; it reminded him of how they'd first met. It had been a chance encounter at a country festival, he the pampered lordling and she the dirt-covered girl in peasant's clothes. At first her blunt and feisty personality, so unlike the noble-born girls he'd known, had taken him aback, but it hadn't taken her long to win her way into his heart.
Oblivious to his reminiscing, Aisha added, "I'm not sure Kimberly does."
"There is a difference between 'getting by' and getting thrown in the castle dungeon," Adam pointed out. Rocky couldn't have agreed more.
Aisha frowned. "I'm not planning for anything bad to happen. I'm not even really planning anything. But if Kimberly needs my help, I'm going to do whatever I can to help her."
-x-
Jason was with his father, supervising the loading of supplies onto their chartered ship, when the Queen found them. He felt a momentary apprehension at the sight of her, a worry that she might have come to tell them that she had changed her mind and would not allow them to go after all. But all she wanted was to speak to Jason and his parents in private.
Frowning even as he obeyed, Jason followed Kimberly and his father back to the inn where the highest-ranking members of the royal court were staying. This must be about something important for Kimberly to have come for them herself and to insist on complete privacy, but at the same time he had a nagging feeling she was up to no good.
A short while later, when his mother, along with Zordon and Dulcea, had been summoned and the six of them were locked away in the Scotts' suite, Kimberly finally told them what was on her mind.
"I was wrong," she said.
"Wrong?" prompted Lady Scott.
"This wasn't the answer," Kimberly went on. "I mean... it wasn't the end of my quest. I think... I think it's just the beginning."
Jason felt his heart sink. Kimberly just couldn't seem to leave well enough alone, and now she was going to try to drag him and his parents into her latest scheme. "Kimberly," he said warningly. She glared at him, undeterred.
Lord Scott remained silent, but exchanged a significant look with Dulcea. Jason wondered what they knew that he did not. They did not seem inclined to clue him in.
"I'm serious!" Kimberly protested, as if that would somehow make everything clear.
"So why are you telling us this?" Jason asked.
Kimberly met his gaze and stared him down. "Take me with you. Whatever I'm looking for, it's not here. It's on the other side of the sea."
"No," Jason said immediately.
At the same time, his father said, "As you wish, your highness."
Jason glared at his father, feeling utterly betrayed. He could think of a hundred reasons why this was a terrible idea, not the least of which was that he did not want to spend his journey babysitting a runaway queen, and why this was not the time to be blinding accepting Kimberly's authority. But his father seemed as untroubled as ever, and Kimberly was not about to question her good luck. Instead, she kept pushing forward.
"Then, Lord Scott, may I ask you to stand as my regent again in my absence?"
"Am I the only one that thinks this is a bad idea?" Jason interjected before his father could answer.
The looks his companions turned on him told him that yes, he was. The only question was why. Jason hated being left in the dark like this and glared at them all, undeterred by their bizarre behavior or his parents' reluctance to explain themselves. If he was going to be a part of this madness, he thought he at least deserved to know why.
Ignoring his son's irritation, Lord Scott told Kimberly, "I am at your command, your highness."
"Wonderful!" Kimberly responded, unable to disguise her glee.
While she and the others gathered around the large table that dominated the suite's sitting room, Jason hung back and refused to take part. He had never felt that his parents were helping him plan this trip with the intention of back out at the last moment, but now he was forced to consider the possibility that this had been their plan all along. Something must have convinced them to allow Kimberly to go in their place, but what? And when?
At least he could venture a guess as to why no one had informed him of this turn of events: he wanted no part of this. He wanted to go in search of his destiny, if that was even what it was, and he had not planned on doing that and having to keep Kimberly safe at the same time.
As his parents continued to work on their plans with the Queen, Jason looked to Dulcea. Her expression was as unreadable as ever, but somehow he knew she was behind his parents' strange actions. She must have been the one that had turned the tables in Kimberly's favor, but he couldn't imagine how she might have done it.
Jason struggled against his rising anger. Although he tried to keep his attention on the changes being made to the plan, he couldn't help but miss Zack and Trini. They had always been his truest allies and closest friends, but they were far away on a quest of their own and could not support him now. He would have to find a way out of this mess on his own.
Protesting had done him no good at all, so he waited until Kimberly and Dulcea had departed and he could confront his parents without their influence.
"What do you know that you're not telling me?" he demanded.
His father gave him a wry look; his mother pretended innocence. "What do we know about what?"
"This. Kimberly." He was not quite sure how to explain it without sounding completely paranoid.
"We don't know anything for certain," his mother assured him. "All we have is a few vague suspicions."
He had a feeling it was more than that, but knew at this point that he wasn't going to get any more information out of them. They had made up their minds to help Kimberly for reasons of their own; he only wished he understood what those reasons were. Even he knew that letting Kimberly leave her kingdom was a huge risk. "This had better be worth it," he muttered.
"It might be, and it might not," his father said with a careless shrug.
Surely they should see that something was very wrong when their son, who was well aware of his reputation for impetuousness, was acting as the voice of reason. But since they did not, Jason took his leave of their suite and went to find Zordon and Dulcea. He doubted that he could make them see things his way, but at least Zordon might be more willing to explain himself to the likes of Jason.
He wished that they had been able to free the sorcerer from his crystal prison, so they could have met without Dulcea being present, but he was willing to take what he could get. So he was quite surprised that, when he asked to speak to Zordon, Dulcea pulled the chain over her head and handed the crystal to him.
"You're not going to stick around?" he asked.
"You wished to speak with him privately, did you not?"
"Yeah," Jason admitted, wondering how she knew. But she was already gone, and he was not sure it would be a good idea to ask anyway.
"Something is troubling you greatly," Zordon observed.
Jason looked at the crystal in his hand and thought he saw Zordon's face in its milky-white depths. "Yeah," he said. "My parents aren't acting like themselves."
"You mean because they agreed to Kimberly's wishes?"
"They didn't even argue with her. They didn't even ask any questions. They just agreed to whatever she wanted," Jason pointed out. They were the ones that had always tried to teach him to think before acting, but now they seemed to be ignoring their own advice. "I don't understand."
"Your parents did not ask questions because I advised them not to."
"But why? And why not say anything to me?" There were a dozen questions he had intended to ask, but in his anger and frustration this was the one that came spurting out first. It seemed like no one was willing to tell him anything anymore.
"This is a question of destiny," Zordon explained after thinking for a while. "Kimberly is propelled by forces she does not yet - and may never - understand."
"Then let me put it bluntly: I don't care what anyone says, I'm not taking Kimberly with me if I don't know why."
"I cannot give you specifics, Jason. Believe me, if I could, I would. But I know little more than what I have told your parents."
"Well, why don't you start by telling me why you say this is a question of destiny for Kimberly," Jason suggested.
"I have long suspected that Kimberly's line, the Harts, is connected to another family of the same name that lived many centuries ago," Zordon began. "It was many, many years ago, but there was a powerful family named Hart that once existed in the land across the sea. But at some point in the distant past, that family disappeared, and now there is a line of Hart monarchs in this land."
Jason frowned. That sounded odd, but he could not make heads or tails of it. "So the whole family just up and moved? But why would they do that?"
"War," was Zordon's simple answer.
"War?" Jason repeated. "But wouldn't we have records of something like that? We have the archives..."
"The archives are unfortunately very incomplete -"
"But if you could help fill in the gaps, why don't you?"
"Because I do not know if the things I remember are true memories. I may be wrong."
"Why don't you know?" Jason pressed. He was pretty sure he knew the answer, but he wanted to hear Zordon own up to it.
"I am old enough to know these things, and to have witnessed them firsthand," Zordon admitted. "But you know the cost of my long lifespan." He paused, waiting for confirmation from Jason.
"Yes. Immortality comes with a price. All immortals must withdraw from the world every few thousand years or so and sleep." He'd been only a child the first time Zordon explained his strange habits to him. He had not forgotten in the meantime. "So you were asleep when this stuff all happened?"
"No. But what is not often revealed is that when we immortals sleep, we forget."
"Forget?"
"Not our magic and not the ways of the gods, but the minor details of the world around us. We exist unchanging for thousands upon thousands of years; it is not necessary for us to remember the small things for very long. They can be protected permanently in our memories, but why?" Zordon seemed determined to answer all of Jason's questions with more questions, but this time he did not seem to expect an answer. "I was not asleep when these things occurred. I lapsed into my sleep a few years later, I think, and when I awoke, the world had changed. Some things had escaped my memory of their own accord, and others had changed so drastically as to be unrecognizable."
"How could you just forget something like the founding of a new kingdom?"
Zordon sighed. "Jason, you have only lived a few years and have only ever known one single, very sheltered reality, but I will tell you this: kingdoms rise and fall. They are not as static and unchanging as your situation and mortal lifespan have led you to believe. You may find that out for yourself in the near future, as this is not only a question of Kimberly's destiny, but yours as well."
Jason did not like the idea that his destiny might be intertwined with Kimberly's, but he did want to know more about what might be lying ahead of him, and Zordon had been quite reluctant to discuss that until now. "So then you mean our destinies are tied together."
"Possibly. But it would be dangerous to assume so."
He was beginning to think he would never get a straight answer out of anyone ever again when something else occurred to him. "Wait, you didn't tell Kimberly any of this either, did you?"
"It is best, for the moment, that Kimberly remain ignorant."
"If you know something about her future, it's not fair not to tell her," Jason pointed out.
"You are correct. It is not fair that I should tell you, and not her, what I know. But Kimberly possesses great power, and it is within her ability to create a self-fulfilling prophecy." Jason did not like the sound of that, a bad feeling that Zordon confirmed when he went on to say, "I must use great care and discretion when dealing with her. If I tell her of all my suspicions, she may accidentally bring destruction down upon the entire world."
Jason stared at him for a moment, speechless. Finally, he managed to make his brain work enough to ask, "She has that kind of power?"
"Yes."
All the other questions he had meant to ask when right out of Jason's head with Zordon's simple affirmation. "She can't," he protested. "If she did have that kind of power, everyone would know about it."
"Everyone does, to an extent," Zordon explained. "It is well known that the Queen protects the realm. Exactly how she protects the realm is less well known, and that is a precaution taken years ago to protect the women of her line. Whether she knows it or not, Kimberly is a sorceress. Every woman in her family going all the way back to the First Queen has been a sorceress, and they have all been very powerful ones, at that."
"But I thought that sorcerers were... like you." Until now, every sorcerer that Jason had heard of had also been immortal. Granted, he had only ever encountered three sorcerers so far, and that number included Zordon. "Does that mean Kimberly's going to end up like you?" Almost immediately, he decided that, "No, she can't. Her mother didn't. And neither did her grandmother or any of her ancestors. They all lived normal lives."
"Kimberly, like her ancestors before her, is a mortal human. And that is why her power puts her in great danger. Mortal sorcerers are exceedingly rare, typically there is less than one in any human generation, but when they exist their power is near limitless. It is for her own good that she not learn what power is in her possession."
"But... why?" Jason wasn't sure he believed what Zordon was telling him about Kimberly. If she had such great power, couldn't she have destroyed Rita Repulsa on her own, without putting herself or anyone else in danger? Couldn't she have done so many things for the good of herself and her people? It seemed that if she had power like this, she should be using it...
But Zordon's voice was cold and resigned. "If she ever fully learns to control her power, she will most likely be hunted down and slain by other sorcerers such as myself. That much power in the hands of one mortal could unbalance the world."
"If it's so dangerous for her to have this power, why are you letting her leave? Wouldn't she be safest back at home?"
"It is her power - and her ancestor - that prompts her to do this. Attempting to keep her from obeying its commands would be futile. The power would find a way."
"You talk as if this power is something that's not actually a part of her..."
"It is not. Kimberly's power is great, but not natural. It is an ability passed down from mother to daughter, not at birth, but upon the death of the mother. It is power that was harnessed centuries ago, that remains bound to this day, but it is not something that Kimberly was born with. Despite what she may believe, it is not a part of her. It is an ability that she has, a skill that she can use which others cannot."
Suddenly Jason realized that he should have suspected all of this from the beginning. "That's why she couldn't use the power until she was married. Because whoever harnessed it built limits into it."
It was hard to tell through the haze of the crystal, but it looked like Zordon was pleased. "Yes." He went on, "At one time I believed that one of those limitations was an inability to pass beyond the borders of her kingdom, but certain recent... events... may have altered that limitation."
"Events?" Jason asked, even as it dawned on him. "She changed the rules of the game when she took those gems out of the crown."
Kimberly had replaced the missing stones in the crown, probably with gems from her own collection, but Zordon had not been fooled. "Exactly. I do not know precisely what she has altered, if she even consciously altered anything, or what the long-term consequences may be. That is why, for the time being, I must allow her to do what her power dictates, and why I must remain close enough to direct and protect her."
In spite of himself and his earlier anger, Jason found that his opinion on the matter of Kimberly had changed. Zordon's explanation had made him wonder: what might happen if they went on this journey and left her alone? He was not sure he wanted to find out. If the things Zordon had told him were true, and he had no doubt that they were, then Kimberly was in far greater danger than she had ever realized, just because of the power her heritage had bestowed on her.
It almost made him feel better to know that he'd be able to keep an eye on her - and look out for her. "Okay, Zordon," he said. "You've changed my mind. How do we make this happen?"
-x-
Tommy spent his morning deep in thought, doing his best to focus on his duties while faintly hoping that Kimberly wasn't getting into too much trouble without him. It wasn't easy to stay focused, not when his duties consisted of more boring law lessons with Billy and Katherine.
Those lessons were proceeding well, or at least that was what Billy told him. It did feel like he was getting a better grasp of the realm's laws and what was required of a ruling monarch, but he was still far from comfortable with his new role as King. On top of that, it felt a bit weird to spend so much time with Katherine after what had happened between them before, but since she seemed to be taking it all in stride, he was attempting to do the same. She was a nice enough girl without Rita's spell controlling her, and he didn't want her to feel awkward or upset because of what that spell had made her do.
In fact, he was hoping that they could be friends. She seemed just as smart and well-read as Billy, but without the tendency to start using lots of long words that Tommy had a hard time understanding. Having her around made life a lot easier for him.
With his mind occupied by these thoughts, he somehow managed to sneak back to the royal suite unnoticed after his morning lesson was done. He had been expecting to be ambushed along the way by someone or another wanting his attention, but nobody seemed to particularly want to talk to him today. And as far as he was concerned, that was a good thing. He'd always been a bit of a loner and had always preferred the solitude of the country to life in the city, so adjusting to life as the King - and being the center of attention - was difficult. He was glad for any peace and quiet he could get.
But it seemed like he had just shut the door to the suite when Kimberly came bursting through it in an excited rush. Tommy barely had time to realize what was going on before she flung herself into his arms and practically showered him with kisses. As much as he enjoyed her boundless enthusiasm, especially when it resulted in this kind of attention, he had to admit he was confused by her behavior. And then he remembered that she'd left him this morning in search of Lord Scott and Zordon.
"Good news?" he asked when she finally gave him a chance to breathe.
"Yes," she said, smiling. "Yes, yes, yes."
"Tell me about it," he said, wanting to share in her excitement.
"They're going to let us go in their place."
It took a moment for that to sink in. "What?"
"I talked with Jason's parents, and they think we should go with him in their place!"
He could only stare at her in shock. He knew she was good at getting her way, but he had not been expecting this at all.
"Stop looking so surprised," she said nervously. "I'm not making it up."
"I didn't think you were," he assured her. "It's just... you're good."
She giggled; it was the happiest he'd seen her in a long time. She didn't even seem to mind the firestorm she was going to stir up when she made the announcement about this, and her enthusiasm was infectious. If it would make her happy - and give him a chance to get away from the city for a while - then he would happily go along with it.
"Have you broken the news to Jason yet?"
She nodded. "He was there. He didn't like it, but he couldn't argue with his Queen and his parents."
"So then I guess my only other question is, how is this going to work? I thought they were supposed to leave this afternoon."
Kimberly was still smiling as she answered him. It would seem that she thrived on creating chaos in her kingdom. "We'll just have to work quickly," she said. "The captain was willing to give us some more time, but we only have a day or so to prepare."
Every day with her was turning out to be an adventure, but he supposed at least this was better than more law lessons. "All right then. Tell me what I need to do."
"Help me figure out a way to tell everyone without getting killed."
He should have known she would ask for something nearly impossible. Tommy sighed. "Let's get this over with, then."
-x-
"I will be giving an announcement in half an hour's time."
Billy watched warily as the Queen headed down the hall to repeat her message at the next room over. It was shocking enough that she had come to deliver the message in person rather than relegating the duty to a servant, but he was a friend and adviser to Kimberly, and could have perhaps expected a more personal approach. But she was delivering her message in person to every member of her court, or at least those that had joined her on her honeymoon.
He could not precisely pinpoint the reason why, but he felt distinctly nervous about this meeting. He was displeased enough at having been forced to leave the royal archives, exposing valuable tomes to all kinds of unforeseen damage, but now he had the feeling that the situation was about to get worse.
He glanced to his right, where Kat was standing with one of the large law books clutched against her chest. She met his gaze and her eyes were as filled with worry as he imagined his own must be. They were in agreement: whatever was about to happen, it could not be good.
Fortunately, although he and Katherine did not rank highly enough to attend the meeting as counselors, they were the only senior archivists that had accompanied Kimberly and Tommy on this journey, and so they would attend openly rather than being forced to observe from some obscure, out of the way corner.
"What do you think the Queen is planning?" Kat asked.
Billy just shook his head. One could never tell with Kimberly. In the past, she had held formal announcements to inform the kingdom at large that she was hunting down an evil sorceress with her best knights, and to announce that she was taking a vacation. With that kind of record, Billy did not even want to speculate.
He and Katherine carefully placed the law books they had been holding, Tommy's curriculum, back into their protective cases within the room at the inn that was serving as a temporary archive, and hastened to the inn's great room, where Kimberly would be giving her announcement formally. It was already crowded by the time the two archivists arrived. From long habit, the first person Billy looked for was Trini, but she was far away on her own journey. He scanned the crowd for friendly faces, and caught sight of Sir Rocky DeSantos and his two squires toward the back of the room. They waved him over; Katherine hurried after.
Aisha pounced the moment they had squeezed into the space beside the trio. "So, what do you think our Queen has up her sleeve this time?" she asked.
"You just want them to tell you you're right," Rocky chided.
Aisha turned momentarily to stick her tongue out at him. "So what if I do?"
"I'm afraid we have no more idea than you do," Billy told them, earning a pout from Aisha.
"Told you," Rocky said triumphantly. "You'll just have to wait and see like everyone else."
They did not have long to wait. Kimberly and Tommy made their grand entrance a few minutes later, with an odd group in tow. Billy had the sudden feeling that he knew exactly what the Queen was going to say, based solely on her chosen companions: the Lord and Lady Scott, Jason, and Dulcea. In short, the group that Jason intended to take across the sea in search of a mythical sword.
Billy had argued against that in the first place, although his attempts had met with little success against Jason's stubbornness, and now he fervently hoped that he was wrong about Kimberly's intentions. Unfortunately, the Queen was predictably impulsive and reckless, and the present situation was no exception. Billy barely heard her as she confirmed his worst fears.
"Tomorrow afternoon," she began, "Sir Jason Lee Scott will depart to attempt a journey not made in living memory. He will cross the sea. And I intend to go with him."
By now the court was somewhat accustomed to Kimberly's dramatics, a fact evidenced when the assembly remained silent rather than descending into chaos. For his part, Billy felt for a moment as if his heart had stopped. No, he thought, for all the good it did him, this is a terrible idea.
Oblivious to Billy's misgivings, Kimberly went on to outline her new plan in greater detail. She explained, briefly, that Tommy would be accompanying her and that Lord Scott had again agreed to act as regent in her absence, and laid out a tentative schedule for the journey, projecting a return date of no later than one year from the present.
That was when the protests began. Billy was glad to hear others speak out against the madness. It was one thing, he thought, to allow an untried Princess to ride off to take down a confirmed threat to her kingdom. It was another thing altogether to let her go off chasing unsubstantiated dreams. Especially when, to allay the fears of her court, she added, "I will not be going alone. I will be taking a hand-picked group of warriors to protect me."
She had already allowed Zack and Trini to leave, so Billy deduced that she intended to take Rocky, Adam, and Aisha with her in addition to Jason and Tommy. Kimberly confirmed his suspicions a moment later, naming her protectors for everyone to hear. That should have made Billy feel a bit better about the whole thing, but while her chosen companions were all skilled warriors, they also had a tendency to encourage Kimberly in her antics, rather than reining her in.
"Your highness," he began with utmost caution, "Perhaps it would be wiser if you did not merely take warriors with you, but..."
To his horror, Kimberly was ready for his hesitant protest. "I agree. That's why I'm planning to take the greatest strategist and smartest man I know along with me."
He stared at her, utterly witless and hoping against hope that she was not referring to him. Unfortunately: "Yes, I mean you."
He had absolutely no desire to go with her, but he could not tell her that. She was the Queen. And she had all but ordered him to accompany her.
Thankfully, Kimberly had moved on to other topics, giving Billy time to collect himself. He did not realize he was quietly vocalizing his horrified thoughts until Aisha leaned close to assure him, "It'll be okay, Billy."
"It most certainly will not," he protested.
"Oh, don't be such a pessimist."
"It's easier just to pretend Aisha's always right," Rocky informed him in a loud whisper that had Aisha whirling to glare at him. He shrugged innocently, and when Aisha turned back to Billy she was rolling her eyes.
"I think I see an opening," Adam piped up, pointing. "Let's get out of here while we can."
Billy had been waiting for a chance to talk to Kimberly, hoping he could find a way to dissuade her from this course of action, but it seemed that such was not meant to be. The Queen could not detach herself from the clusters of concerned courtiers, so he glumly resigned himself to following Rocky and the others when they made their way out of the crowded great room. He followed close behind the knight in the hopes that Rocky's presence would deter anyone wanting to ask him about the Queen's plans, while Katherine and Aisha trailed behind, with Adam bringing up the rear.
As they emerged from the crowd and into the blessedly open air of the hall outside, Billy heard Aisha ask, "What's wrong?"
It took him a moment to realize she was talking to Kat. He had not thought much of it, his mind being fully occupied by other things at the time, but ever since Kimberly announced that she would be taking Billy with her, Katherine had seemed unusually subdued.
"Is something the matter?" he asked.
Hesitantly, she admitted, "I'd like to go with you."
"But Katherine," he protested, horrified by her words, "it will be dangerous! You'd be much safer if you returned to the archives. Who will tend to the books in my absence, if not you?"
To his continued horror and frustration, Aisha immediately stepped in to support Kat. "The Queen is going to need a handmaiden for this trip," she said. Her tone was casual, but it made Billy highly suspicious. "Kat seems like she'd be as good a choice as any."
"I thought that, in Trini's absence, you were serving as Kimberly's handmaiden," Billy pointed out, satisfied that this would put an end to Aisha's mischief.
"I was," Aisha said. "But she's asking Rocky to come along to help protect her, and when Rocky goes into battle, I have to serve as his squire. I swore an oath to help and serve him, and I can't go back on that even for a Queen. I'll help her out when and if I can, but she's going to need someone else. And I have a feeling you could use an assistant on the road, too. Why not solve both problems with one person?"
That woman could be damnably persuasive when she wanted to be. Billy was definitely beginning to see why things always seemed to go her way.
"That still leaves the issue of the archives," Billy pointed out. "They must be tended..."
"Don't you have anyone else that can do it?" Adam asked. "You've got to have an apprentice or something. What if something happened to you?"
"That is why my master trained two apprentices," Billy said. "In case something unforeseen should occur, there would theoretically be at least one of us left."
Aisha smiled sweetly. "And you're trying to tell me you didn't follow his good example?"
Billy resisted the urge to scowl. Of course he had followed his late master's example, and had begun to train a pair of apprentices, he just hated being on the losing end of a debate, and Aisha's words touched a chord of shame deep inside him. The archives had been raided and desecrated, secretly perhaps, but it had happened on his watch. He'd done his best, but he had failed. As loath as he was to admit it, perhaps it was for the best to leave the archives in the hands of another for a time. "I have emulated my master to the best of my abilities," he said stiffly. "If her highness wishes to allow Kat to accompany us on our journey, then I will see to it that one of my apprentices, or hers, will take care of the archives in our absence."
"Great!" Aisha cheered, and as she went on to assure Kat that she would speak to Kimberly on her behalf, Billy recalled Rocky's advice from earlier. Maybe he was onto something with that. If not, this promised to be a long journey, indeed.
-x-
The next day, Jason watched in amusement as the porters hauled Kimberly and Tommy's gear onto the boat. Piles of trunks belonging to Aisha, Rocky, and Adam as well as Billy and Katherine still waited on the dock. The owner of the ship stood on the dock nearby with the captain beside him, both fretting over the sudden addition of royalty to the passenger list.
At first he had been concerned at seeing his plans turned completely upside down at the last minute, no matter that Zordon had convinced him that taking Kimberly was the right thing to do. But now that he was actually aboard the vessel that would take him across the sea and was only waiting for his friends to join him... he felt at peace.
The weather was fair and the ship, which usually served as a fishing vessel, was in good shape. If only Trini and Zack could have been with him, he might have thought everything was perfect.
Trini and Zack might not be there, but he still had a pretty good group of companions, he thought. The journey was sure to be interesting, no matter what they found. What lay ahead of them might be a legendary sword, or a Queen's hidden destiny, or only a dream... but whatever it was, he was looking forward to finding it.