Ana and the others walked through the enormous arched front door and just stood at the top of the stone steps and deliberately waited to be noticed.
Uncle had been expecting them and noticed them first. The woman who stood at the head of the group towered over his guards, and he felt a momentary twinge of apprehension. She looked like a goddess, both beautiful and dangerous. A sword hilt was just visible over one of her shoulders. He comforted himself with the knowledge that he would never be alone with her, whoever she was. He supposed Olaf must have hired her recently. He could see the freshly shaved guard captain standing just behind the woman wearing a similar costume. The woman was even taller than Olaf who was taller than everyone in the castle.
He couldn’t really see Isabelle. The group of giants surrounded her, hiding her from view. One was her new husband and the other was the man who had spent time with Glory. They apparently did not intend to try to rescue her from her fate. He wondered what she looked like in the little bikini. He knew she’d hate it and it made him smile. The priest punched him in the arm and pointed at the group on the stairs.
“They look great,” the priest said. “I had no idea Olaf was so pretty. I wonder if he would join me in a few sexual exploits? I would love exploring that body.”
Uncle knew that would never happen but he was riveted by the sight of the group that surrounded his niece. They were four of the most beautiful and impressive looking people he had ever seen. They effectively hid Isabelle from view, which frustrated him. He wanted her to feel exposed and helpless. That was the reason for the costume he’d had designed and made for her. He wanted to diminish her and make people view her as inferior and flawed. No one could see her with the group of guards around her.
They glittered and he wondered where the costumes they wore came from. They looked magnificent and they made him feel insignificant by comparison. It annoyed him and he stood and raised his voice to announce to the crowd, “Ah, our entertainment, the main event begins,” he shouted raising his hands and indicating the group that waited on the steps.
The crowd had already noticed them. They gasped in amazement and admiration. A sense of barely controlled power hummed in the courtyard, creating a sense of insecurity in most of the people who could observe what was happening. The air positively shimmered with something no one could identify.
Isabelle pulled nervously at her costume and then started to feel more settled as Evan reached into her mind to help comfort her. He stood close enough behind her that she could feel his warmth. It helped, too. She raised her head and tried to think about swaggering out in front of all those people instead of cowering in fear. She and Doris had decided to put her in high heels to make her seem taller. In four-inch heels she was a couple of inches over six feet. The heels did tend to make her swagger a bit or definitely sway as she walked. Her feet didn’t hurt yet or maybe she was too anxious to feel anything so trivial.
The crowd grew quiet, just looking at them. A couple of Uncle’s guards stood on either side of the door, neither taller than six feet. The group, even Isabelle towered over them, some by a foot or more. A noise started in the crowd, a sigh of anxiety or gasps of admiration or some of both.
The breeze tossed the skirts and scarves of her costume and Ana’s, and Isabelle’s thick, curly hair drew the attention she had always avoided by wearing it up in the tight bun most people had grown to expect. She was different. She looked different. She was both beautiful and compelling to see. Most of all she definitely did not look like a victim.
Ana stepped forward confidently, and the others followed. The gathered crowd was riveted to attention by the group that walked into their midst toward the funeral pyre. They passed Albert just as Doris tucked herself under his arm and he held her to him. He was armed and determined looking, though grim. Doris stretched to whisper in his ear. His wide forehead was wrinkled in concentration and sweat was visible on his dark and smooth baldhead.
The sun was setting and it lit up the metal parts of the costumes the group wore with flashes of random light. Isabelle noticed that tall people, all Terrans appeared around the edges of the crowd, seemingly unnoticed by anyone. She could feel the intensity of Evan’s thoughts, now centered on his plans and strategy more than on her.
No one dared try to reach her through the group surrounding her. She saw supporters, people she worked with who were her friends throughout the crowd, many of them armed if she saw correctly, but also unnoticed by Uncle’s friends. The watchers were unaware of the mass hypnosis they were experiencing. The Terrans were at work. Everyone sensed the change that was underway.
She still felt very apprehensive and worried. The priest reached into a pocket and pulled something out and threw it at her. She barely had time to react before Evan’s sword blocked it with a very expert looking baseball swing with the weapon. The rock the old man had thrown flew straight back at the priest and hit him squarely in the face, knocking him to the floor of the platform where he lay clutching his bleeding nose.
Uncle seemed unaware of what had happened to the priest. He stood on his platform and walked to the steps, descending into the crowd and approaching the podium set up near the pile of flammable materials that he planned to use to burn her alive. Ironically, she felt chilled by the sight of him looking pleased and unruffled. He began to speak, addressing his audience as they drew near.
“Today we rid ourselves of the witch, Isabelle. A fiery death is the sentence of the jury. We have allowed you to see what will happen to her. This is a new beginning for all of us who have resented her influence and power over our lives and wishes,” he said. He continued, “It is necessary for our people that have been struggling to survive that we remove negative influences from our vicinity so that we can all return to the prosperity we all enjoyed before the wars.”
A roar of sound came from the crowd. It was as confused as the feelings of the many people who were there. Some wanted to see it, some wanted to prevent it and some were very angry at how Uncle had handled things.
Uncle seemed to sense the wave of disapproval that was rising. Even some of his friends had objected. He was accustomed to having his wishes followed and did not expect effective opposition.
Restlessness overcame Uncle as he lifted a burning torch and waited, seemingly not quite able to do the deed he’d planned. He motioned for Olaf to tie Isabelle to the stake and then seemed to dither and look conflicted and worried. He did not take it and light the fire that might burn Isabelle.
As he stood there confused and hesitant, golden light flashed like lightning through the crowded courtyard startling the assembled crowd and creating fear and confusion among some of them.
But many who waited were not confused. They knew what they were doing and they did it. Those who wanted a better life than the one they had been living were ready for any change, no matter how bizarre it all seemed.
Ana and Evan’s hands were raised toward the sky in supplication and all around the courtyard and the walls others dressed like them raised their hands, also. Terrans were everywhere, but no one was fighting their invasion. Instead many people followed Olaf’s lead as he raised his arms with them. Earthlings and Terrans who loved Isabelle were all united.
Golden light flashed and wheeled through the throng and from hand to hand among the Terrans and Earthlings who were willing to support Isabelle. Magic was happening and it was electric in the air all around.
People screamed and milled around distracted from the central entertainment and concerned for their own safety.
Isabelle found herself free and loose from the stake. Though she felt nearly drunk with excitement and adrenalin she promptly ran toward Evan. He caught her in his arms and then turned her and raised their clasped hands to join in the magic. She flung her other hand high, too, copying the behavior of her friends and the Terrans.
Two of Uncle’s guards tried to reach her and return her to the stake. Ana’s leg flashed upward to kick one in his chin. The other fell under Br
ian’s fist. Neither moved again. No one else seemed ready to challenge the shift of power that expanded as everyone watched. Not even Uncle’s guests were interested in trying to make the planned entertainment happen. It suddenly seemed like a really stupid thing to go against such strong magic, whether or not the power was witchy.
Albert roared in excitement and hugged Doris.
Isabelle looked back and could see someone standing where Uncle had been vainly trying to decide what he would do. In his place was an old woman who looked…just like Uncle…if he was an old woman. It was not a pretty sight. Uncle made a passable looking man in a world where a man’s attractiveness tended to be measured by the size of his income, but women tended to be judged much more harshly. Money didn’t cure being older and unattractive for women.
Could this be Uncle’s new guise? Was it possible?
The old woman opened her mouth to yell or scream and just that quickly Ana and some others reached over and grabbed her by her scrawny arms. The amazingly unattractive creature screamed in fear and fought ineffectually against the people who had captured it. “This is my place,” she shouted. “You have no right to detain me.”
“I believe the laws of inheritance on most planets do not give you precedence over Isabelle,” Ana pointed out firmly. “You have broken many laws to get where you are. You may spend the rest of your miserable life regretting what you have done.”
“I am in the right,” Isabelle’s former uncle insisted. “A legitimate court condemned her. She should burn,” she shouted.
“If you had lit the funeral pyre, you would have been the one to die,” Ana said calmly, a serene smile on her face. “As it is you will live out your life as you find yourself now. Perhaps you will learn from it, but I doubt it. You seem unable to exist with even a small amount of human decency. Still, you will live and you have a chance.”
Uncle was speechless and very frightened.
At the same moment the priest regained consciousness and he, too, had changed. He was now an amazingly ugly old woman, too, but one with a bloody nose.
Ana urged the two back onto the stage and stood back to see what reaction they might have to their new forms. She was very calm and smiled lightly and looked both beautiful and intimidating.
The two looked at each other in dawning horror. They looked a lot like they had before but they were appalled to be reincarnated feminine. Uncle was in a panic and not too modest to take a feel, trying fruitlessly to find his male privates which were no longer there. He whimpered and continued to grope himself, a futile exercise. She was very different from what he had been before, forever changed from a man with some power to a woman with none.
Ana still stood there looking at them, proving that not all women lacked power and influence. They looked at her in disbelief. Seven feet of a woman with weapons did tend to make an impression.
The former priest caught on immediately to what was worrying Uncle and stuck a hand under the dress he now wore. Pulling it up to his waist proved to him unequivocally that she was no longer male. Shock registered on both faces as the crowd began to boo their show. No one wanted to look at the two old hags dressed, much less exposed.
The two looked around at a totally different reality. The funeral pyre had completely disappeared. They noticed they were the only ones who even remembered what the day was supposed to include…or it seemed so. They shouted and demanded and yelled for attention, but it was a futile effort. They were reminded of the way they had treated others, but their knowledge came too late to save them from the frustration of being too insignificant for anyone to care what they wanted to happen.
They turned and looked at Ana who smiled an evil grin that was reminiscent of Uncle’s at them, enjoying their helplessness that they so richly deserved.
Banquet tables offered lots of food and entertainers sang and danced along with many others.
The crowd milled in confused celebration, the original purpose of the gathering forgotten by people who had come to see Isabelle burn. Now the gathering was simply a carnival or festival, planned to celebrate the wedding of Isabelle and Evan. All the Terrans who had missed the event because Uncle refused to allow them inside the castle were present and as welcome as the other guests.
Gradually the air warmed and flowers sprouted and bloomed. Many people were moving about in small family groups.
Albert and Doris stood with their arms around each other facing the gate. Tears ran down their faces as they watched two of their four missing children, a man and a woman walk toward them.
Olaf realized immediately that they were a family, something he envied and wished for above all things.
Ana turned and looked at him, sensing what he felt. Her attention had been divided and on very important work, but she could see into the essence of this lonely young man. He was somehow related to Terrans and he was also telepathic to some degree…untrained but still capable of some of what most Terrans could do.
She looked right at him until he noticed and walked to her side. He was young, only in his early twenties and untrained, but very interesting. Plus he had been injured in the wars and he knew little of his origins, but that could be remedied.
“Would you like to come with us on our quest here?” she asked him.
He did not really know what he wanted to do now that he was free of Uncle. He had planned to stay at the castle. He really had no other place to go.
Ana could sense his indecision. “You do have an alternative,” she told him. “Two, in fact. You can go with us on our quest or you can go to Terra with Evan and Isabelle to learn our ways and be fully trained before you go out on adventures. Now that I think about it that plan might be best for you. You are very young and you still have so much to learn, plus I think you will like it.”
The hunger woke in him for something productive and the realization that he had a future. His blue eyes warmed with life and passion as he looked at Ana. She smiled and said, “I see you have decided. Evan will make the arrangements.”
The original group of Terrans was gathering together to ready themselves for the monumental task of healing the Earth. No one, not even the Terrans were sure it could happen, but they intended to try. It was a great challenge to think of healing a dying planet and they were all eager to begin.
Brian was still trying to persuade Glory to marry him, but she was still resisting. Finally he asked her if she wanted to participate in the quest with the others. If she was able to accomplish something great it might make her feel worthy of the regard Brian already had for her. Their relationship could not really happen until she decided to accept it. He was ready, but she was not. He intended to stick with her until she was ready. She let him know telepathically that she was ready to go and join them in their quest, but she would make no other promises, certainly not the one he wanted.
Isabelle and Evan would be returning to Terra to begin their life as a couple. They worked their way to Albert and Doris and were introduced to their children, Mark and Alberta who had found their way back to their parents.
“I’m going with Evan,” Isabelle told them. “This place is yours now to turn into something better and more positive if you can bear to stay here. Ana has made my plans and knowledge into books and notes you can use and we will visit occasionally, but I cannot bear to stay here.”
Doris and Albert still remembered all that had happened. They were two of the strongest people Isabelle knew, but in this moment they, and she, too had tears of emotion in their eyes. They stood with their arms around their children and looked at the one they knew they would only see occasionally.
Isabelle walked forward and hugged them and said, “Thank you for everything you did to help me and all the rest of the people here. You don’t have to feel obligated to take on this place, but you could do it. You could make this place better with the help of your family.”
Evan drew her back to him. “Your hearts are in the right. You have the capability. If you wish the Goddess and the G
od will bless your efforts. Isabelle has made the offer with no strings attached. It is your decision. It will be your place. You will not be employees.”
Albert was accustomed to being in command and Doris was no slouch either. They looked at each other and simply nodded.
“We will prepare ownership papers to protect your rights,” Evan said. He knew it was what Isabelle would want without asking.
It freed Isabelle. She had been too unhappy in the castle to go on any longer. It was time for her to move on to her future.
They all had new futures to craft for themselves and the will to do it.
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