Raylee was waiting when they arrived at Ann’s room. “Who is this?” Raylee asked. “Her name is Yilina. She’s a friend of Nim’s,” Andy introduced. He turned to Ruzi. “You better get to class.” Ruzi nodded and transported away. “Yilina? That’s the Ventarian name, isn’t it?” Raylee asked. Yilina nodded. “What caste are you? Are you lower than berries?” Yilina shook her head. “I am berries now.” “Now? Did you grow up lower?” Yilina nodded, clearly puzzled. “Excellent. I can use your help.” “My help?” “What are you talking about?” Ann asked. “You need to get back to your room,” Thailyn reminded her. “We can talk in there,” Raylee offered. “Ann should know. It involves her.” She ushered everyone into the room where Ann had been confined. “Yilina is a unicorn. All unicorns are healers, but they don’t train the lower castes. There are certain healing techniques they are trained not to use so the upper castes won’t use them, no matter what. But Yilina hasn’t had the training so she can help me.” “Help you fix me?” Ann frowned. “No. We can’t fix you. But we should be able to get you to a point where you’ll be allowed to be released.” “How?” Thailyn asked. “Healers can’t heal the mind.” “Unicorns are different. But we won’t be healing anything. I’ll tell you the details later. I thought about asking Cari to help me, but her magic is too underdeveloped. I don’t want to risk stunting its development.” “I want to know what you’re going to do,” Ann insisted. “It’s complicated and technical. You’re not a healer, so I don’t know that you’ll understand.” “You’re hiding something,” Ann accused. “It will be unpleasant.” “I’ve been through unpleasant before,” Ann told her. “Yes, I’ve heard that. That’s what makes me think you can handle this unpleasantness.” “Ann, if it allows you to come home, let them consider it,” Andy encouraged. “Cari needs her mom. And I need you. Thailyn won’t let them do anything to harm you.” Ann nodded. “Andy, why don’t you spend the day with Ann?” Raylee suggested. “You two need time together.” Ann could see there was something Raylee wasn’t telling her. And she knew the dragon wanted Andy with her to keep her from scrying her to find out what it was. Still, she nodded. She missed her husband. *** “What are you planning?” Thailyn asked once they had left. “Something that would likely get us arrested in any kingdom besides troll.” Thailyn growled and Yilina scooted away. “Yilina, most times if a dragon growls, he’s expressing displeasure or it’s a warning. If we were going to attack, we would use magic or claws.” He made one of his hands become a claw briefly. “I’m thirteen hundred years old. In all that time, I’ve never even considered eating a person.” Then he looked down and blushed. “Besides, I’m allergic to horses. I couldn’t eat you if I wanted to.” “A healer as strong as you has an allergy?” Raylee looked surprised. “I can’t heal that without damaging my heart.” “We’ll have to work on that heart of yours,” Raylee decided. “I wish I knew a way.” “There’s a potion the Ertonians have…” Thailyn pulled out a vial. “This?” Raylee examined it. “That.” “It doesn’t help much. It keeps me just enough below a four that I can continue healing.” “What’s wrong with your heart?” Yilina asked. She reached out and read Thailyn before he could react. He was surprised. There was no feedback. “Are you an unreadable?” He asked. “All unicorns are. We have to be. We’re all healers.” “They didn’t even have a term for unreadables until they started interacting with others,” Raylee added. “So what do you have planned?” Thailyn asked. “Let’s wait until we get to a shielded room,” Raylee suggested. “Ann is going to try and find out what we’re doing. And she’s going to refuse if she does. Right now, she’s going along with what people try because she knows she can resist it. She might think she can resist this too, but she’ll have doubts.” “And she’ll fight us,” Thailyn surmised. “Right. This unpleasantness she mentioned. From what I’ve heard, she went through something horrific. Tell me what happened.” “We don’t know. She won’t talk about it,” Thailyn told her. “Does Andy know?” “Only a little. I don’t know if anyone knows all of it, but Morina probably knows the most.” “But she’s gone.” “Can you scry her?” Yilina asked. Thailyn nodded. “We can, though I’d rather she come talk in person. The palace has spies and some are friends with Ann. We would be more secure in person.” “Would it be permissible to go there? It might be even safer,” Yilina guessed. Thailyn nodded. “It might.” *** That evening, they had Cari spend the night at the home. She was excited to have a sleepover and happy her mom might get better. Andy sat with Emeton, Tylan, Remtani, Jaidu, and Pt’this. Thailyn and Shunati were with Raylee and Yilina. They had made Andy block the bond completely. He didn’t like it. “I don’t like that two people we don’t know aren’t in there and won’t tell us what they’re doing,” Remtani said. “Shunati and Thailyn can be trusted. There’s no way Thailyn will let them harm her,” Tylan assured him. “If he’s not incapacitated.” “He says everything is fine,” Jaidu reported. “You contacted him?” Remtani asked. Jaidu nodded. “He said it would be fine, but they haven’t even started yet. Raylee was checking Ann and found something wrong.” “Something’s wrong? But you just said everything was fine.” Emeton said. “What’s going on?” A moment later, Raylee scried them. “There’s nothing to worry about,” she told them. “This is the first time I read Ann. She’s okay. But I need to fix her healing before we can start.” “She’s not a healer,” Emeton protested. “She should’ve been. But it didn’t develop properly because she was born so early. What she did have, burnt itself out trying to help her survive that. It’s amazing that she hasn’t had more mental problems before this.” “When Kith first came to stay with us, we found his healing had burnt out also. Bob asked a special healer to come to help him,” Pt’this said. “He said Kith would have all sorts of problems if we didn’t have it taken care of.” “Could this be the cause of her nightmares as a baby?” Tylan asked. Raylee nodded. “Most likely.” “So if you fix my healing, will that take away my nightmares?” Ann asked. “After all this time, probably not completely. They might lessen though. Why wasn’t this healed when she was born?” “I couldn’t read it,” Shunati admitted. “And we didn’t know healing ran in her family. Thailyn had been injured and the shock of his mate’s death nearly killed him. He couldn’t have let us know before it was too late.” Raylee shrugged. “What’s done is done. We’ll fix it now. It will help us help her.” It was a long night for Andy, not feeling Ann, knowing she was going through something traumatic but having to keep his distance. They tried to distract him, but the lack of bond was a constant reminder. “Get away from me!” Was the yell they heard. “That was Drepal.” Andy jumped up. “Drepal? But she’s gone,” Tylan protested. “That was her. I know her voice.” “They’re the same person. How can they sound different?” Jaidu asked. “They do. I don’t know how. Maybe it’s a different tone.” “Leave us alone,” Drepal shouted. “Where’s Andy? Why can’t I feel him? What did you do?” She demanded. There was silence for a moment and then she shouted, “I want to see him first.” “Thailyn asked Andy to come down,” Jaidu reported. Andy hurried to the room where they were working on Ann. Thailyn met him at the door. “It’s best if you stay calm. Things got drastic,” he warned. “You don’t say?” Andy snapped. Drepal sat huddled behind an overturned table. Tears were in her eyes. “Sweetie?” He crouched beside her. “Andy? I can’t feel you. I thought you were dead. They broke the bond.” Andy shook his head. “They only blocked it. It’ll wear off soon and you’ll feel me again.” Drepal shook her head. “Ann will feel you. They broke us.” “You and I are bonded too, remember? You’ll still feel me.” He reached out his hand. Hers shook as she reached for it. “Where is Ann?” He asked as he led her to the bed to sit. “She hid again. She couldn’t take it this time either.” “This time? What happened?” Andy asked. “Lerjao.” “What do you mean?” “I was in Lerjao again.” “They made her relive what she went through when she was up there,” Thailyn explained. He took Andy aside. “They based it on her injuries and what Morina saw. They broke her again. And they need to remain separate. They need to limit how much time they’re awake together and they need to sleep. A night or two at a time is one thing, but not this long.” “What about Ann?” “She’s in there. It may take a while for her to surface. It will help when she feels the bond again. Give her time. Once she’s had a chance to rest, I’ll take you in there to visit for a bit. It’s going to take time for her to recover. She hasn’t slept in weeks and is feeling the results. And what they did was hard on her physically. They didn’t do any actual damage, but they made her think they did so completely that she feels like she’s been through it all again. To go through three years of abuse in only a few hours is going to take its toll, but she’ll recover physically. Time will tell the mental damage. But we think she should be able to be released.” Andy nodded. He hoped Thailyn was right. “She’s going to need you. Spend the night here with her. Shunati or I will check on you periodically.” While they spoke, the others helped Ann get ready for bed. Andy crawled into bed with her, fully dressed. “We’ll bring up some sleep clothes,” Thailyn offered. Andy nodded but it didn’t matter. He just wanted to care for his wife.