Harald inhaled sharply at Thork’s insult, then said softly, almost apologetically, ” ‘Tis not true, Thork. I did care, and I promise you this, if you should die, Eric will never harm your sons.”
Thork grew agitated then and tried to sit up. “Do not think of taking either of my sons back with you. Stay out of their lives. I will not allow you to ruin their lives as you did mine.”
Harald stood, leaning angrily over his son, and appeared about to argue with him, then stopped suddenly. “So be it. You have my word. I will also let it be known throughout the Viking world that any who harm the boys will answer to me and my armies.”
Thork’s eyes turned to Ruby as he sank back down to the bed. He held out his hand to her. Ruby sat down on the mattress next to him and caressed the back of his hand.
“The boys will be safe now, sweetling. I can rest now. Whatever else he does, my father honors his word.”
* * *
Unfortunately, King Harald’s personal healer was unable to help Thork. Most of the time now, he lay in delirious fever, his lips cracked and bleeding, his eyes closed. At dusk on the twentieth day, Ruby stood near the window, staring ahead sightlessly. She looked down at the dragon brooch she held in her hand, caressing the pin fondly. Absently she stuck it in the pocket of her jeans, which she’d taken to wearing again while King Harald was in residence, just to infuriate him.
Thork suddenly sat up in bed with a shout and opened his eyes wide, looking straight at Ruby. “I saw us, Rube. I saw it all,” he exclaimed. “There was a long tunnel and at the end nothing but beautiful brightness. Then I saw you… and me. At least it looked like me… but somehow different.”
Perspiration beaded on his furrowed forehead, and Ruby tried to get him to lie back. He refused, having somehow regained his strength.
“Thork, lie down. It was just a dream,” Ruby soothed, trying to push him gently back.
“Nay, listen to me, Rube. ‘Tis important,” he rasped out, as if it hurt him to speak. He clutched her hand in an iron grasp. “The images I saw at the end of the passageway… you and that other me… together. ‘Twas so precious. It made my heart swell with happiness. Do not lose it, Rube. Whatever you do, do… not… lose…”
He fell back then, heavily, his hand still clutching hers tightly. Ruby didn’t have to touch his chest to know the truth.
Thork was dead.
Ruby screamed and threw herself over Thork, shaking him, trying desperately to get him to awaken. Then, as if rising outside her own body, Ruby saw Aud, Dar, Tykir and Eirik staring at her and Thork from the other side of the bed—pitifully—with tears streaming down all their faces.
Ruby heard a high-pitched, wailing scream somewhere. It got louder and louder, closer and closer, seemed to move inside her head, swirling, swirling. Then it exploded.
Utter, eternal silence billowed over her like a soft, comforting cloud.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Click! Click! Click!”
Ruby opened her eyes slowly, reluctantly, and looked down. She blinked disbelievingly.
A cassette player lay in her lap, clicking away. The motivational tape had run its course. Ruby pressed the off-button with a dull robotlike movement.
Not sure if she was still dreaming, or finally awake, Ruby put a palm to her chest as if to calm her wildly thudding heart. Goosebumps swept her skin like slow-moving dominoes as awareness crept into her consciousness degree by infinitesimal degree.
She had returned to the twentieth century.
Or had she ever left?
Ruby could no longer separate the dream from reality. Sitting up straight, she put the tape player aside and held a hand to her forehead, trying desperately to understand what had happened to her.
Jack had left her, Ruby remembered with a groan of despair. She’d come into his library and put one of his motivational tapes in the machine, hoping pathetically to come up with some answers to the mess she’d made of her life. The speaker on the tape had promised that anything in life was possible if a person willed it strongly enough, and Ruby had foolishly wished she were twenty years younger and could live her life over knowing what she did today.