Chapter 36

Connie

I ran through the halls of the palace with Billy and Bob behind me, a worried-looking guard leading the way. We had only a slim chance of saving Laylar, but I had to try.

When I saw how broken Raylon was at the news that his beloved niece would die, I couldn’t just let it happen.

Billy and Bob had at first refused outright to get involved, but after a few threats, and me begging them, they reluctantly agreed.

When we got to the door of Laylar’s room, I paused to catch my breath.

I turned to Billy and Bob and they each gave me a small nod. I knocked on the door and opened it slowly.

The king came marching up to me, but Raylon stepped in his path to stop him.

~Please let this work.~

I turned to Billy and nodded for him to begin. The tall beings went to Laylar’s side, and as they unpacked the strange, three-armed contraption.

I stood at the back of the room biting my nails.

Raylon still held the king back and spoke to him in a hushed voice, trying to calm him.

Billy looked up at me, and I heard his voice in my ear. “We are ready to begin. Perhaps it will be better if the child’s father is not in the room.”

“I don’t think there is anything that would make him leave now.”

Billy nodded and turned back to the machine. He moved his fingers over a holographic screen, then waited.

As the three sharp rods shot out from the contraption and went into Laylar’s chest, I heard the king scream and push Raylon out of his way.

I ran forward and moved in front of him. “Stop! They are trying to save her life!”

He glared down at me with narrowed eyes and a clenched jaw.

I took a calming breath. “I know it looks scary. I know you don’t know these beings, and it looks like they are hurting her, but please, trust me.

“I know them. I trust them. If they can save her, they will.”

“She is my daughter. My first-born baby girl…” The king’s words caught in his tight throat.

“I know. And I can see how much you all love her. But please just give them a chance.”

The king calmed and stepped back as his eyes filled with tears again.

The room fell silent as we watched and waited.

Billy and Bob stood by the machine, silent and unmoving, staring at the hologram on the machine as incoherent letters moved lightning fast.

Raylon paced the room from the window at the far end to the door I stood next to.

The younger children were taken out. As the minutes ticked by, my nerves grew more frayed.

The light outside grew dimmer as evening crept in, and when I couldn’t take it anymore, I walked over to Billy and Bob.

“Father,” a weak voice said from the bed and my heart leaped at the sound. The king ran to Laylar, followed by Raylon.

Billy and Bob came to me and nodded. “The procedure has worked. She has a new heart. But this will only last her for four years. Maybe five.”

“Thank you!” I said and reached my arms out to hug the tall beings. They both stood rigid as I wrapped my arms around their cold forms.

When I released them, they looked at each other and stepped away.

I looked over at the bed and a wide smile broke out on my face when I saw the color returning to Layla’s skin. She met my eyes then and gave me a thankful smile.

Raylon turned to look at me before he got up and came over to me. Without a word he leaned down and placed his lips onto mine.

He held the kiss for a moment, then said, “I don’t have the words to thank you. How did you know they could help her?”

I looked at them with a smile, then replied, “I guess there is a lesson in every mistake. When I first met them, they tried to adapt my lungs to breathe the same air they do.

“It didn’t work, so they had to grow me new lungs. When you said ‘she needs a new heart’, I remembered that.”

Raylon looked past me at Billy and Bob. He went over to them and asked, “How can the kingdom thank you?”

“There is no need. Like Hynlam told you before, our knowledge is free to all.

“We will leave this machine with your healers and teach them how it works, so that this illness will no longer plague your people,” Bob said, and Billy stepped forward.

“There is, however, one thing we will ask. It is a personal request, if you will allow it?”

“Anything,” Raylon said.

“We will request that the king allow us to visit the kingdom, to continue our studies.

Once we return from taking Connie home, there are many things we would like to study within the borders of the kingdom.”

Raylon turned back to his brother, who now stood only a few feet behind him.

“Consider it done,” he said. “You and your people are welcome in my kingdom whenever you wish. I will contact Hynlam and inform him of this.”

For the first time I saw Billy and Bob shift nervously.

“We would ask,” Bob said. “That you do not tell Hynlam what we did here today. It is against our rules.”

I smiled at how much I was rubbing off on these two, but their words made my heart fill with sadness.

~It’s time to go home.~