Chapter 22

Kat pasted a smile on her face as she approached the small woman sitting on the exam table. She had on a rumpled robe that was belted tightly around her waist. It was quite obvious that she didn't want to be here. She stared at Kat with distrust. Kat paused and waited for the woman to speak.

"I don't want to be here. I just want to go home," she said defensively.

"I know. I'll make this as quick and painless as possible, Mrs..."

"Eleanora. Call me Elenora." the woman mumbled.

"All right Eleanora, lets get this done." Kat said with a smile as she approached the table.

Elena held her breath. She wasn't sure if the young healer in front of her would be able to detect the spell that protected her or not. She looked to be about the age of her daughter, but she wasn't even sure what her own daughter looked like. She had ran off with that Prince and never looked back. So she assumed that her daughter was still in Trila with the prince and his family. The little bitch didn't deserve to live on this planet. When the healer placed her hands on her shoulders she stiffened with fear.

Kat's touch was a surprise; her touch was gentle and radiated warmth.

"Relax, it will be over in a moment," Kat said softly as she sent warm waves of healing energy from her hands into the trembling woman. She searched out every ache and pain.

Elena sighed in relief as the pain in her rectum disappeared. This healer was indeed talented. It was one of the things that she had missed during her exile. And since her own powers had been stripped from her before she had left Venus, she hadn't even been able to heal herself.

Kat stepped back as she finished the healing. Her muscles trembled from fatigue. Between the mezclar and her sleepless nights, she was ready to explode. She felt like she was ready to jump out of her skin. It was as if she had consumed several espressos. She opened her eyes and glanced back at the woman. She frowned as her mother's image shimmered in front of her eyes.

"Mother?" she whispered. The woman stilled and jerked the robe around her waist even tighter.

"What?" the woman muttered. Kat rubbed her eyes and stared at the woman again. The pretty little blonde woman was in front of her once again. She was surely loosing it.

"I'm sorry, Eleanora. You reminded me of someone."

"Your mother?" the woman asked softly.

"Just for a moment. But it is nothing but fatigue. All this craziness with the planning of the Renewal Festival and my upcoming nuptials are taking their toll on me. I am tired from everything coming all at once.

Elena stared in disbelief as recognition flooded her system. She had read about the Earthling woman that King Charles was planning on marrying. She just hadn't realized that this girl was that woman!

"Oh. I heard something about you on the news!" she said with mock excitement. "You're from Earth?"

"Yes. I met Prince Rand and he brought me back. I met my chosen at his palace. This wasn't what I expected when I left Iowa, but I don't regret it." Kat said as she scribbled down some notes on her clipboard. "That's everything, Eleanora. I'll give this report to the Enforcers and they should be able to obtain a restraining order."

Elena stilled. Her daughter here? The little bitch. Getting everything she, Elenora, had ever wanted. She had seduced that old king of Sandova in hopes of ruling at his side. She had even gotten pregnant with the little bitch who now stood in front of her hoping to gain that reward. Anger flashed and then raged through her system like a wild fire.

"Not everything!" she hissed.

When Kat looked up at the woman she was astonished to see the pure fury radiating from her eyes. She wasn't prepared for the woman to launch herself off the table. Kat grunted as she hit the floor with the woman on top of her. She heard a snap and then there was only darkness.

Charlie took a deep breath. He was restrained in the middle of the palace's training room. In front of him, Master Iason stood wearing the ceremonial robes of a Master Warrior. Just to his right, Jonathan knelt holding a length of material in his hands - one that Charlie had chosen.

Master Iason turned to Jonathan and took the offered material. He frowned down at it. It was not what he had been expecting.

"Are you sure, Charles, that this is the material that you want your power to bind to? - To draw energy from? It is not a common element of our world."

"Yes." Charles said as he flexed his arms in their restraints at the memories that the nylon brought to him. The first time that he touched it was in Kat's room before their journey to Kartic. The whispered words that he had spoken to her the night before their journey began haunted him. To him -the nylon represented everything that Kat was - soft to the touch but stronger than anything he had ever hoped to find.

"All right then. Let us proceed." Jason took the fabric and brought it to his lips and breathed deeply into it.

Charlie could not hear exactly what his master was saying into the cloth, but he could feel the binds that encircled his power loosening. He gasped as they tightened again.

"Relax, Charles. You are fighting it." Jason ordered as he slowly lowered the fabric and walked towards his student. Jonathan followed closely behind him.

"How?" he asked as they stopped in front of him.

"Take deep breaths in and out. Think of something that is important to you. Think of a reason for your power to be free." Jason said as he approached the muscular king. It was quite the sight to see. He was a good two feet shorter than the king.

Charlie tried to relax just as he had been told, but he was wound tighter than an eight-day clock. Maybe it was the mezclar that was keeping him on the ragged edge. Turning his thoughts inwards, he thought about Kat - his brave little Hellkat. She had never once backed down from him. His loins tightened at the thought of his chosen. He was glad that the Renewal Festival was due to start tomorrow. As long as that bastard, who really was his friend, Prince Rand showed up to marry them.

"King Charles, you need to relax. If you want me to be able to release your powers without hurting you, you need to center your spirit." Jason said, breaking into his thoughts.

"I'm sorry. I will try again." He said trying to push his thoughts of Kat to the wayside. Just until his power was released, he reassured himself. Then he planned on taking his chosen for a ride in the desert. Way into the desert - away from prying eyes and interrupting fools.

"That's better," Jason encouraged as he rent the fabric in half. He handed one half to Jonathan, who took it. They approached him. Each of them wrapped their piece of material around his thick wrists. After winding it around his wrists in the intricate pattern that designated his status as a Vindexcis warrior, they each tightly knotted the ends. Not tight enough to bother him but tight enough to remind him of their presence.

"I can feel it," Charlie whispered hoarsely as he felt the bonds holding his magic start to unravel. The cloth along his wrist began to warm.

"Yes. That's good, Charles. You are relaxing. Now, I want you to think of a scent that brings you happiness. A scent that calms your spirit." Jason said as he stepped back from him.

"The mellitus sensus. Kat was wearing one yesterday." He whispered as the sweet smell drifted through the room at his command.

Kat sat on the edge of the examining table. She had broken her wrist when the woman had jumped on her. In the confusion that had ensued after the attack, the woman had escaped. How she wished that Arianna was here to reassure her that everything was going to be all right. Instead she had an unknown healer who was doing his best to heal her. Suddenly she stilled as the delicate smell of the flower that she had meant to ask Charlie about, filled the room.

"Relax, your Highness. This will only take a moment," he assured her. Kat continued to draw in deep breaths filled with the delicious scent of her mystery blossom.

"Can you smell that? I wonder what kind of flower that is? Do you know the name of it?" she whispered as the warmth of the healing caressed her and the wonderful fragrance calmed her.

"What smell, your Highness?" The healer asked, confusion showing on his young face.

"Nothing. It has to be this chosen's business." She muttered before sighing impatiently.

"Wonderful, Charles. Your power over 'scent' is now yours.' Now for the next level -- 'Hearing.' Draw to you a sound and then share it with us," Jason coaxed.

Charlie smiled and thought of Kat's sigh of impatience. He heard it quite often. Even though the sound of it was soft, both Jonathan and Jason could hear it as it filled the room.

"You know I do believe he has Kat on his mind." Jonathan said softly at Jason's side.

"That's to be expected, Jonathan. He is in midst of his mating ceremony. He is the first that I have ever guided through this ceremony with the mezclar in full swing. He is doing remarkably well." Jason said before turning back to Charlie.

"Excellent. The second tier has been achieved. Are you ready for the third?"

Kat sighed impatiently as she waited for the healer to finish his exam. She was a bit shook up but other than her wrist-she was fine. She wished that he would just take her word for it. She tensed as the tugging on her senses increased. What was wrong with her? It felt as if the bindings of the mezclarwere changing-becoming much stronger. She broke out in a light sweat when the unceasing tugging began to burn deep inside of her.

"Your Highness?" The healer's voice faded in her ears as her breath came quicker. She sought the inner power that had protected her in the past. She tried to focus on what the healer was trying to tell her. Spots brightened in front of her before she mercifully slipped closer to the edge. She wasn't even aware of the healer touching her head before he ran to the door and called frantically for help.

Arianna smiled over at Dean as they led the caravan of people and zephti through the gates of Kartic. She waved at the guard, letting him know that she was cleared for entrance. She frowned when the guard ran up to her.

"Healer Arianna! Come quick! There is something wrong with Queen Katrina! She's having convulsions! She is at the main clinic!" The guard stumbled over his words in his rush to get them out.

"What!" Arianna's face drained of color. She turned and called over her shoulder to Philip. "Come on, you're going to meet your half-sister much sooner than you were anticipating."

Philip nodded and urged his zephti after her. Stephan turned to follow them too.

"No Stephan! I need you to go and find that son of mine. My guess is that he's not with Kat. Or the guard wouldn't have tracked me down."

Stephan nodded before he urged his zephti rapidly forward in the direction of the palace.

Arianna turned back to Gracie and Rand. "I'm sorry but I am going to have to ask you to wait for that tour I promised you. Follow this road. It will take you directly to the palace."

"Go, she needs you. We'll be fine." Rand assured her.

She nodded before kicking her zephti into a quick trot. Philip quickly followed her down the busy road.

A few moments later they arrived at the main clinic where they were met by a frantic healer. He was so upset she had to use a 'tranquilizing' spell to calm him before she could obtain any pertinent information from him. Other attendants rapidly filled the entrance hall to the clinic and they were able to give her a few answers.

"Thank you." Arianna said as she slowly released the 'tranq' spell. "Take him to the recovery room." she told the assistant that now accompanied the nervous healer. "He is going to crash from the 'tranq' spell." The assistant nodded her understanding before she led the young healer away.

"All right, lets go and see what is going on with Kat." she told Philip. She strode briskly towards the examining room.

Stephan rushed powerfully up the stairs, taking them two at a time. King Mica had been waiting for him when he had arrived at the palace. When he had questioned him about Charlie's whereabouts, he had been told that Charlie, Jonathan, and Master Iason had sequestered themselves in the training room for the ceremony that would release Charlie's power. They had requested that no one disturb them.

He rapidly moved down the hallway heading towards the training room. He threw the door open and startled the occupants of the large room. Stephan stared in disbelief. On one side of the room, his king was tied upright between two posts, his arms stretched wide and his stance broad. He didn't seem to even be protesting his predicament. He was wearing nothing more than a loin-cloth to preserve his modesty. Around his thick wrists were bindings that were tied in an intricate pattern.

"What in the name of Mica are you doing!" he growled. Jonathan turned around and looked at Stephan in surprise.

"You can't be here." Jonathan protested as he moved to intercept him.

"Does he realize that Kat is in trouble?" Stephan asked Jonathan. "Is that why you had to restrain him?"

"No, it is for his protection. When his power comes together fully he will go into convulsions. It is to keep him from injuring himself." Jonathan explained. "And I shouldn't even be discussing this with you. You are not one of us. I could be severely punished for you even witnessing any of this. So please leave immediately." Jonathan pleaded.

Arianna stared at Kat with concern. She was lying on the exam table trembling profusely. Nothing that she had done yet had helped to revive her. In all her life she had never seen such a thing. She had even tried leaving her own body and entering Kat's mind; but the moment she had tried, she had been forced back into her own body. Something was terribly wrong and for the first time since she had failed with Kat's mother, she felt totally helpless.

Instinctively she reached out for Stephan. She had not yet become completely comfortable with their strong bond, but she was glad in this instance for its presence.

Dean, have you found my son yet?

Yeah I did, and it's not good. He is in the midst of having his powers released. It is the middle of the ceremony and it can't be stopped. What's going on with Kat?

I don't know. She's comatose. I can't get any response out of her. She just is lying there and trembling. Her breathing is rapid and short. It's as if something is going on inside of her. I tried to merge with her to locate the problem, but it's as if she has a shield around her. I can't get in.

Stephan absorbed what Arianna was telling him while he stared again at Charlie. He was in the same state that Kat was - almost unconscious and his body deeply shivering. What in the name of all that is good is going on here?, he wondered,

Ari, I don't know what is going on. I think it has something to do with the mezclar. What you just described about Kat is the same state your son is in. Is it possible that the mezclar is causing these convulsions — indeed the whole issue?

I never even thought of that. Ask Master Iason.

"Master Iason, I need a word with you."

Dean narrowed his eyes when Jason continued to ignore him. He started forward when Jonathan intercepted him.

"Don't!" Jonathan hissed.

"I need answers. And he has them. It's important Jonathan, or I would never have tread where I was not welcome. I care not for your secrets. But his chosen's life hangs in the balance right now."