Jessica wailed louder and louder. Once she started, she couldn't stop, such despair gripped her.

Lauren hugged her, but Lauren was distracted. She had been ever since they arrived in this time. What was that she had admitted about really talking to someone as if on some magical telephone?

Katherine burst into the room.

"What's the matter, Jessica? What happened to make Leif so angry? Is that why you're crying?

Abruptly, Lauren got up and pulled the covers off Jessica.

"It's bad, Katherine. Jessica asked me why we couldn't just go back to the druid castle, and Leif heard her.”

Katherine froze.

“Oh no."

Lauren bustled around, finding their huge woolen shawls and Jessica's leine, then holding it up for Jessica as if she were a child.

"I know you’re sick, Jessica, but get up and get dressed. We have to leave, and we have to go now, while the men are still trying to figure out what to do."

It had taken a while for realization to hit Jessica's foggy mind, but now panic set in. Lauren was right!

“But where will we go?”

Jessica lurched to a sitting position and put her hands up so Lauren could pull the thick woolen leine down over Jessica’s night dress. The extra warmth wouldn't hurt at all. These fall nights were getting awfully cold.

The wind whistled down the chimney, punctuating that fact.

Lauren was still a moment with that faraway look in her eyes, and then she tucked the shawl more tightly around Jessica, looking about and lowering her voice as if afraid the walls had ears.

“There’s another castle off to the east close to the shore. Not the druid castle, a different one. The Highlands are dotted with them.”

Katherine perked up.

Lauren raised her finger to Katherine’s lips, warning her to keep her voice down, too.

Katherine nodded and whispered, rather than use her normally quite hearable voice.

“A castle sounds good. Lots of people come and go from castles, especially near the shore. They’re more accustomed to strangers, so we should have less difficulty fitting in.”

Lauren squinted at Katherine.

“You’re right, but how do you know so much about castle lifestyles?”

Katherine put one hand on her hip.

“I took history in college. Just because I use charm most of the time doesn’t mean I’m ignorant, you know.”

Right in between them, Jessica got up on wobbly feet.

It worked. Lauren stopped bickering and lurched to support her.

Jessica pulled on her boots and her shawl, then grabbed her purse, small help it was in these times. She did have a lighter though. She always carried one even though she didn't smoke, for such a time as this.

"I don’t suppose Senga will give us food for the journey."

Katherine shook her head no.

"Nope. When Leif instructed Senga to keep Amena with her, Senga shut the kitchen door and barred it. No one’s going in there until Leif returns."

Lauren took the quilt off the bed and put it on Jessica over the thick woolen leine and shawl, covering Jessica’s head. Then she put her arm around Jessica and helped her down the stairs, with Katherine following down behind them.

"We got here with what we have, and we can get to the next inhabited place with what we have. It's not that far, only an overnight trip. The sooner we leave, the more daylight we’ll have to get as far from here as possible before we need rest."

Jessica's training kicked in at the last moment before they were about to leave.

"We at least need to bring water with us.”

She noticed three packed travel bags stacked in the corner by the front door and started digging through one.

"Help me. There has to be water in here. We'll take it and leave the bags open, so they know they have to replace it. Ah! Got a water skin! No, two!” She strapped the water skins over her neck and shoulder, over the quilt. “I feel bad taking these without permission, but we can't last more than a few days without water, and they can take the time to go get some from the well."

Nodding, Lauren and Katherine found the water skins in the other two bags and looped the straps over their necks and shoulders.

And then they all left Cresh Manor behind them.

Without any indecision, Lauren started up the hill behind the house. There was a trail, but it was so faint as to not be much help. The way was steep.

Jessica couldn’t help looking over her shoulder at the town she had helped reshape. The streets sure smelled better. More people were healthy. Part of her hoped they wouldn't make it up over the crest before Leif came home and saw them, but only a small part of her. Most of her said it was hopeless, that he would never speak to her even if he did see her leaving.

"How are we going to avoid this happening again?" Katherine asked Lauren emphatically. "We need to have rules about what we can and can't say, and we need to keep to them. If one of us is delirious, the others need to prevent her from making trouble."

Lauren bristled under Katherine’s stare and angry words, but she nodded.

"Yeah, you’re right. Okay, the first rule is we do not discuss time travel where anyone from this time can hear us. I cannot believe you told them we were from the future, Katherine. What were you thinking? Do not do that with any of the people we meet in the next place.”

She gave Katherine just as scathing a stare as she'd been given, and then looked at Jessica.

"Along with not telling anybody we’re from the future comes not telling anybody knowledge from the future. No improvements in the next place. No cleanliness instructions. No tending the sick, Jessica."

The rest of it Jessica nodded along with, but not tending the sick? No. This she could not go along with.

"I can't agree to that, Lauren. It may seem like I'm just another corporate employee, but I took an oath when I became a nurse. If I'm able to help someone who's ill, I have to do it."

They were climbing in earnest now, just about like walking up an endless set of stairs. It was strenuous, and Jessica soon was out of breath. Her poor sick lungs were having a hard time.

Katherine put a hand on her shoulder.

"Jessica, save your breath for the climb. We can take this discussion up later when we’re resting."

Jessica was huffing. She stopped and took a long drink from one of her water skins.

"Right. The saying is ‘ration your sweat, not your water,’ and I daresay I'm sweating more from the conversation than from the climb. But as soon as we reach the top, we’ll talk about this more."

The others nodded and took long drinks from their own water skins, and then they resumed the long climb up the mountain

Jessica was tempted to open the quilt and her shawl so that the icy breeze would cool her off, but she knew she wasn't really hot. It was just her fever. Inside where it was warm it was safe to cool a fever, but out here where she might freeze to death? No. So she kept herself bundled up.

Going down was just as difficult as up had been, so Jessica get didn't get a chance to ask any of the questions that were burning up her mind.

But Katherine did. She barked them out like a teacher grilling a student.

“Do you know yet what artifact we need to find, Lauren? What are we doing here? What’s our objective?"

Lauren didn't turn to look at Katherine, though she certainly could have. The downhill trek was strenuous but not treacherous. They were amid rocks and grass, not trees which might have thwacked her in the face.

"We’re running away from people who think we’re in league with those who caused their parents’ fatal illness. You know that."

What! Jessica took in a laboring breath, readying herself to give Lauren a good what for.

But Katherine assured her with a look that she was on it and Jessica could concentrate on walking, which was difficult enough, with her illness.

“Come on, Lauren. We’re better friends than this."

Lauren still wasn't looking at them. Her tone was tentative, as if speaking in front of her parents or something, afraid she'd say something they didn't approve of.

"We’re looking for— We’re scouting for a —"

Katherine persisted.

"How long are we going to be here looking for it?"

Lauren was fighting to get words out, struggling with each and every one. Some words made it out of her mouth and others got choked back.

"We’ll be here until the event happens that leads to the discovery of the— of the object we’ve been sent to find."

Katherine's sales techniques were kicking in. Her face grew animated.

"What sort of event?"

"A famous— a conflict," said Lauren.

"Does this famous conflict have a name?" Katherine demanded.

"Yes, it’s—" Lauren’s mouth just wouldn’t form the words.

"Do you know the date it happened?"

"The—" Lauren rolled her eyes heavenwards when the words failed her.

Lauren struggled to say more, but she just couldn't. Whenever she tried to speak, she sounded like she'd been gagged. So her story of being prevented from speaking seemed true enough.

Maybe tonight would be the night Kelsey finally came into their dreams so that Lauren could speak freely. One could only hope.

Lauren went relentlessly down the hill. Once they got down to the bottom of the canyon, she turned down the trail while at the same time grabbing Jessica's hand and Katherine's hand.

As soon as she did, the three of them became invisible.