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when she was
safely back on Raz. If she got back… There were no guarantees. In
her line of work, there was never any guarantees.
    She sighed. She wished Hathor was
here. She was glad to have Athen, Jaz, and Falon with her. They
were good friends, but she needed Hathor’s strength. She never
realized how much she’d depended on him until that
moment.

Chapter
Seven
     
    In the Wilderness
    Planet: Lone
     
    Ann was having difficulty keeping up
with the Nicals. They walked amazingly fast for a group of people
who wore soft-soled shoes. Her own hard-soled boots should have
been better than their shoes against the rough terrain, but she
reasoned they were used to walking on rocks, twigs and tree
roots.
    Jaz, Falon, and Athen kept up with the
Nicals’ pace without the trouble she had. She was surprised the
Palers could keep up with them because Pale was flat and smooth.
Raz had similar patches of forests like the one they were currently
walking through. Athen, however, often traveled through the forests
in his job of searching for any problems to introduce to Hathor,
who in turn informed her of anything he felt was a concern to
address. Therefore, she had expected Athen to be experienced with
such hard terrain.
    Ann was the first captive in the
single line. One of the male Nicals walked beside her, ensuring
that she would not try to escape. The man wearing white walked in
front of her. When she ventured to look behind her, the Nical would
direct her attention back to the front, obviously wishing to
discourage her from sending any secret messages to her friends. She
sighed and resigned herself to an unpleasant encounter with the
other Nicals who were undoubtedly waiting for their
arrival.
    At mid-afternoon, they stopped to take
a break. Ann and Athen sat on a log. She moved uncomfortably on it,
trying to find a smooth spot, but it was no use. She watched as Jaz
and Falon sat on another log several feet from them. The Nicals
remained standing, their attention directed to the man who wore
white. He spoke softly to them, so Ann couldn’t hear what he was
saying.
    “ I’m sorry I failed you,
Queen Ann,” Athen said, staring at the ground. “Hathor will be
disappointed in me.”
    She looked over at him. “You didn’t
know this was going to happen. Whether or not you were here, we
would have been captured.”
    “ I know, but he trusted me
to protect you. If I hadn’t lost the Book of Spells, then I might
have been able to cast a spell over them to freeze them. Then we
wouldn’t be in this situation.”
    She shifted so she could face him.
“Athen, listen to me. It’s not your fault we’re stuck in this
predicament. Everything happened so fast. I didn’t have time to use
my own magic. I don’t need to use spells to protect myself or
anyone else. But it does neither of us any good to concentrate on
what we should have done. The point is we’re alive.” After a
moment, she added, “To be honest with you, I froze up back there. I
knew how to work a parachute. They have them on Earth, but my mind
went blank when we jumped out of the spaceship. If you hadn’t been
there to help me out, I wouldn’t have made it. You saved my
life.”
    He glanced at her, as if seeing her
for the first time. “Hathor’s right about you. You are
amazing.”
    “ He said that?”
    “ Only all the time,” he
teased.
    She blushed at the thought of Hathor
complimenting her to his friend.
    “ You two are good together.
There are times when I look at you two and wish I had that kind of
love,” he confessed. “It can get lonely working in the palace. I
don’t get many chances to meet women.”
    His words sobered her. “We’ll have to
change that when we get back to Raz. You deserve to have a wife.
You’ll make a good husband.”
    “ Thanks.”
    Someone walked over to them,
interrupting their conversation. Optima, the only female Nical in
the group, stood before them, a key in her hands. Her hair was
still green, which Ann wondered about.