A/N: I kinda went on one here. Please review and tell me if it works or not.

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Tamora Pierce, yada, yada, yada.

Chapter 4 – All Through The Night

Numair watched Daine's face as she writhed about under the fever's control. She muttered unknown words under her breath, tears trickling down her cheeks. He had no healing magic that would be of any use and felt completely useless, as if he was failing her. She was plainly having nightmares that tortured her, caused by her high temperature. He racked his brains for ways to give her calm sleep. These nightmare, he knew, were not sent from Gainel, the dream God, but purely the bad, distorted memories being dragged up from the recesses of her mind by the fever so he wouldn't be interfering too much if he could send her some good memories that weren't distorted and that he could do; it was a spell his mother had used on him when he had been a boy.

He tried to take her head gently in his hands, but she wasn't still enough for him to be able to mentally pass on shared memories. He thought briefly about how else he could do this. It is possible to do this through a part of that person, he remembered. He stood up from his perch next to her and went over to his mirror drawer. From inside a small cubby-hole he pulled out a silver pair of scissors and after a second thought he also took out a bracelet and a locket that had belonged to his great-grandfather. He gently clipped a small lock of smoky brown hair that had fallen across the pillow and held it in between his two thumbs. Closing his eyes, he envisioned a tunnel from his mind to hers and filled it with his gift. He then filled the tunnel with what he hoped were happy memories for her; talking to the dolphins, Midwinter gifts… unintentionally he began to fill it with some of his own, from his perspective; seeing her in Carthak after Ozorne's demise, holding her tightly in Dunlath after getting rid of the bloodrain, watching her open her gifts and seeing her in the dress he'd picked for her.

Recalling memories soothed him and for the first time since Midwinter's night the exhausted mage began to fall asleep, the tunnel still connecting their minds. Daine's breathing had become more regular with the pleasant dreams she found herself having, although they were becoming slightly odder. In them she stopped seeing things with her own eyes and saw through someone else's instead. They were looking at her, seeing her in a away Daine though impossible, her skin never looked that radiant to her nor were her eyelashes quite that long. She heard a man's voice, although she couldn't see him and realised that it was Numair, and she was seeing things the way he would. He looked and spoke to her so tenderly Daine wished she could be back in her own body and able to respond to him.

Somewhere above Corus, in a place that Daine and Numair had never imagined, sat a god; only a slight smile that played on his lips showing his amusement as his eyes were filled with shadows. He liked the girl and the mage, he had watched them for some time now and noticed that they needed guidance a little different from what the Badger god was giving them. Gainel's smile grew slightly more as he delved into their dreams.

Numair found himself in a field of long grass and wild flowers. The sun was high in the sky and the day was warm. In the distance he could hear the sound of running water gurgling along a rocky stream that was hidden behind the trees nearby. He had never been here before and had no memory of it, but it was a perfect place. Next to him was Daine, wearing summer breeches and shirt, her hair wild about her head. She rested her head on his shoulder and her found himself pulling her towards him. She lifted her head up for a kiss, which he gave without hesitation.

"Where are we?" she asked him, her pupil's reflecting his own face.

"I'm not sure," he told her, "I think we are in a dream. This place is like none I've ever heard of or seenbefore."

She stood up, looking round her. "I don't hear anything either, there are no animals that I can sense, yet I can hear them with my ears…" She looked at him quizzically. "So if this is a dream I can tell you anything?"

Numair nodded.

"What if I told you I loved you?" she asked him.

"In the sense that you love family…" he began.

"No," Daine shook her head, "Like I want to tell you everyday that I think I'm in love with you."

Numair felt stunned; them remembered that this was a dream, his dream, he could say what he wanted and Daine would never know.

"It would make me the happiest man alive if you told me that," he said.

"Are you in love with me?" Daine asked, tipping her head to one side.

"How do you know?"

"I don't. Onua said that she thought you felt the same way I did. When are you going to tell me?" Numair laughed at Daine's impatience.

"I am madly in love with you, Veralidaine Sarrasri!" He looked into her eyes as he said it and saw the reaction he had imagined over and over in his head.

"But when are you going to tell me properly – when we're awake?" Daine's eyes filled with sadness.

"I don't know if I can. You're so much younger than me; I've been your teacher…I don't want to trap you into something that you're not ready for. I don't want to make you unhappy, I don't know if I deserve you yet," he explained.

They walked down to the stream, the sun peeping through the tall trees enough to warm them gently. The sound of the water running calmed Daine like no medicine ever would, the gentle breeze whispering through the trees easing her mind. They sat on a rock, looking along the river towards where the trees ended and they could see the green fields meet with the horizon, the blazing sun resting in the sky.

"Numair," Daine said softly, not wanting to break the silence. "I have my own mind. That's part of the reason you love me. I have made my own decisions since I was twelve years old; please let me carry on doing that. By not telling me you love me you are making me fair unhappy. I need to be with you."

"Our ages…" he began. Daine looked into the large brown eyes set in the swarthy face she had come to love so much. She touched the side of his face with her hand and drew her face closer to his.

"Our ages will not matter in the end," she told him, and began a kiss, a kiss that in their dreams would never stop.

Numair was asleep next to Daine when Alanna came in to check on her. She paused a moment to check the girl's fever and breathing, noting that she was much cooler and her breath less raspy. Numair had regained some colour to him, she observed, as she looked at the mage lying next to Daine, one arm cast loosely over her.

Thayet popped her head round the door and smothered a giggle at the sight. Alanna smiled at the woman who had been her friend before she had became queen.

"Daine's fever seems to have broken," she whispered.

"Goddess be thanked. But I think Numair's fever has only just started!" Thayet's laugh became louder.

Alanna pulled her out of the room before the volume could rise any more.

"He looks so cute, curled up to her like that!" Thayet giggled, Alanna joined in. This was something they could use as ammunition to tease the lanky mage with, which was always fun.

"I'll check on her again in an hour," Alanna said seriously, "Although I expect she will be well on her way then to recovery."

Daine awoke three hours later to find Numair talking in his sleep next to her. She turned her head towards him, his hair had come loose from its tie and his face showed stubble growth that was more than a few days old.

"Numair," she tried to wake him gently, "Numair! Wake up! What's happened?"

The mage's eyes opened and looked at Daine. "Magelet," he croaked in recognition. "You're awake."

"What happened?" she asked.

"You've had unicorn fever," he told her. His words stirred memories in Daine's brain.

"The horses?" she enquired sharply.

"Are all fine," he sleepily pulled her to him, his mind still full of a dream he had been having. Her head fitted perfectly under his chin as she absent-mindedly nuzzled his chest.

Gainel watched them as they fell back to sleep. The idea that they were loved back was now in their minds. It would be up to them to act upon it.

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