H.E.A.R.T. Saga: The Children

by Linna Drehmel

  On his way down, JorRobert yanked the emitter out of DraDevon’s grasp and swung it around, releasing an energy jolt right next to DraDonna’s head, singeing off a few of her curls. He then slammed the emitter down on her forehead.

  She cried out more from fear than pain, but the sound of her cry made DraDevon feel like he was the one who had been burned with that malicious weapon.

  “STOP!” JorRobert said in a loud dangerous voice. “Just stop. Although I was told that DraDonna was the preferable one to bring in, I have no problem burning off her pretty copper hair as I put a hole in her head; so back off DraDevon.”

  Breathing heavily from the conflict as well as from the cold dread he felt in his soul, DraDevon obediently took a few steps back, watching the big man get up while keeping the emitter trained on his wife’s head.

  “Now get up, DraDonna.” JorRobert ordered after he stood up. “DraDevon, make yourself useful and pick the notebooks up and give them to me,” he demanded, keeping a sharp eye on both of them.

  DraDevon quietly did so, but he did not take his eyes off his wife.

  “Good,” JorRobert said after putting the books in his pocket. He switched the emitter to his left hand and said snidely to DraDonna, “Why don’t you take your precious husband’s hand? It might be the last chance you’ll get.” Keeping the emitter pointed at the downtrodden couple, JorRobert placed his hand on the HEART stone altar. He prayed a special EDU stone number prayer without saying who the message was for.

  “HEART’s greeting. This is JorRobert. I found them.”

  He paused to read the words on the HEART stone altar.

  “I found them at cabin number one of the Second Councilors Mountain.”

  JorRobert stopped to read the message.

  “They were digging a big hole in the ground with that drill thing.”

  Another message that only he saw appeared on the HEART stone altar.

  “I can’t be sure, but I think so. For as much as I hate the two of them they are both pretty smart; so I am fairly sure that they figured it out.”

  JorRobert paused again to read a message.

  “Why not just bring them to the courtyard? I want to be done with them.”

  This time as JorRobert read the message his mask of strength and superiority cracked.

  “NO! You don’t need to do that! I will do as you say. I will bring them to the temple office.” Fear was in his voice. “HEART’s blessing.”

  He looked back at DraDonna and DraDevon. “Looks like I’m bringing you back to the Ambassadors community,” he said with a mixture of fear and rage in his voice, “to face charges of blasphemy, science, and energy madness. But I am to take you to the temple office first. The two of you had better be cooperative. If anything happens to my wife because of the two of you, I will take great pleasure in killing you myself.”

  Those cold fingers of fear gripped DraDonna’s heart again at hearing this, and her own welfare was forgotten.

  “JorRobert, who has my sister?” she asked him.

  “The less you know right now the better. Just don’t cause me any more trouble and she won’t get hurt,” JorRobert warned them with a menacing look in his eyes.

  “You may hate me, JorRobert. You may not care if I live or die. But I love my sister with all that I am and I will do whatever it takes to make sure she’s safe.”

  “Good. The two of you won’t mind putting your right hand on the HEART stone altar and taking out your travel stones so I can take you to face your fate.,” he told to them with mockery in his voice. JorRobert did the same, and then recited the words that would take them to the temple office.

  The blue energy of the HEART took them to their destination, but the energy felt harsher to DraDonna than it had in the past. Maybe it was just because she was so very tired, but whatever the reason, when the energy left her, she could no longer stand and collapsed to the floor.

  “Stand up and give me your travel stone,” JorRobert cruelly commanded her.

  “Leave her alone!” DraDevon yelled, standing protectively over his wife.

  Without any verbal warning, JorRobert hit DraDevon so hard with the emitter that he was thrown across the room. He landed on the floor with a bleeding gash over his right eye.

  “You know I don’t really care if you sit, stand or lay on the floor,” JorRobert said. “All I know is that I was told to bind your hands and feet so you don’t try to get away.” His voice was devoid of all emotion. “Now hand over the travel stones,” he demanded with soulless voice.

  The couple tossed their travel stones across the floor to their captor.

  He picked them up and set them on the desk and then picked up a good deal of rope. Without any more conversation, he cruelly bound them so tightly that their hands and feet tingled from loss of circulation. DraDonna and DraDevon were too beaten and weary to fight him anymore. When JorRobert finished his task, he straightened up and left the office without another word.

  After the door slammed shut, DraDonna began to weep with great sobs that wracked her anguished soul. DraDevon, hearing his wife’s sobs, scooted across the floor so he could offer her some comfort. “It’s okay. We will be alright. I know somehow the HEART will save us.”

  “Why?” DraDonna replied simply between sobs.

  “What do you mean why?”

  “Why would she save us? If the world isn’t real, is she?” she asked her husband, when she had stopped sobbing, not really expecting that he would have an answer.

  “Of course she’s real! But what she is… I can’t really say. Something I do know is that she has been guiding you all your life. You have been given this great mission, and I don’t think that she would have chosen you, then brought you all this way just to get mind wiped by an Ambassador who has gone bad.”

  DraDonna quietly pondered her husband’s wise words for a moment or two drawing comfort in what he said. She took a deep breath to stop her tears and then said, “You’re right; but I’m so scared DraDevon. I don’t want anyone I love to get hurt.”

  “Don’t be scared. No matter what they do to us, DraDonna, I will stay by your side.”

  Jude

  24

  It was very late into the night when the HEART stones in everyone’s homes began to glow. The people, whether awake or asleep, were alerted to an urgent matter by a loud tolling sound that emanated from the HEART stones.

  It did not take long for a large crowd of people from all over to gather in the courtyard at the communities’ center. They all knew from the tolling that came from the HEART stone that it would be a negative energy gathering.

  While the people were assembling in the city center, First Councilor Jude waited outside the door of the temple for the love of her life to come out. She knew that he had been in all of the communities today and that he should be back anytime now. Jude hoped that he would travel to the temple’s HEART stone and not to the HEART stone altar in his office. She wanted to have a chance to explain to him that her plan was all in place and that they could be together now.

  As if in response to her hopes, Ambassador Symon opened the door to the temple.

  “Symon!” Jude called to him.

  Looking at her with a startled look on his face, “Jude what are you doing here? I just came from your community. Why weren’t you there? The Say family had another stillborn and they needed your comfort,” he admonished her.

  “Symon, did you hear the toll of the HEART stones?” she asked him anxiously.

  “Yes,” he answered her with a confused look on his face, “That was going to be my next question. What is going on?”

  “Do you remember when I told you I had a plan for us to be together?” she asked him with a look of excitement in her big blue eyes.

  “Yes, but I also remember telling you I didn’t want to hear about it. We have our duty to do.”

  “Symon please hear me out,” she pleaded, taking the few remaining steps closer to him. Symon could feel the heat emanating from h
er body. He was mesmerized by her eyes.

  “Go ahead,” he said to her, closing his eyes and knowing that it was wrong. Symon reached out with his right hand, his eyes still closed, and tenderly stroked her face. He not only felt the heat that came from her but the intense love that she had for him. He didn’t truly want to deprive himself of that love. There had to be a way for them to be together. Maybe, he thought, he should just listen to what she had to say.

  “I have a plan, and it’s all falling into place. I can’t really get into it now, and you’re going to have to trust me,” she began excitedly. “I need you to go out there and talk to the people. I have captured two criminals who need to be mind wiped. This is a key part in my plan; so no matter what happens you need to trust me,” she said breathlessly.

  “But who…” he started, his hazel eyes filled with concern.

  “That’s not important right now. The most important thing is for you to trust me,” she begged. “If you do this with me, we can be married and no one will keep us apart.”

  No longer able to resist the intense love he felt for her, he placed his other hand on the other side of her face and slowly drew her to him. He gently caressed her lips with his for just a moment, and then pulled only a breath away from her inviting lips. “Hurry my precious one, hurry,” he whispered urgently to her.

  Standing on her toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him close. “I will, this will not take long.” She whispered back excitedly. “I love you so much.” This time it was Jude who kissed him for a tantalizing moment. She then turned, gathered up the ends of the black robes that marked her as a servant of the HEART, and jogged back to the temple office.

  It did not take her long to get to the office door. She opened it and glanced down on the pathetic forms of DraDonna and DraDevon.

  Frozen with dread, DraDonna and DraDevon face with confusion not Ambassador Symon, but First Councilor Jude.

  “By the look on your faces I would say you weren’t expecting me to be here.”

  “But… but it can’t be you,” DraDonna stammered in surprise. “You’ve always been so kind to me. You said you believed I was going to do great things.”

  “And you have, DraDonna! Your public mind wipe— or your deaths— will do something fantastic. You are going to provide the way for an Ambassador to marry a Councilor.”

  “I don’t understand,” DraDevon interrupted. “JorRobert told me it was the Ambassador that had sent him out after us.”

  Jude laughed a little at this. “JorRobert is a small-minded brute with a weak soul. He only knows what I told him and he has to obey me,” she said as she reached into the neck of her shirt and wrapped her delicate fingers around a stone pendant much like the ones they had worn. “You reminded me of something.”

  They saw her close her eyes for moment. They could see through her fingers that the pendant began to gently glow with a yellow light. Then she let go and opened her eyes as the light faded from the stone. Only a moment later JorRobert walked back in the office door.

  “JorRobert, I have decided that I am going to take your necklace off. You have been obedient enough by bringing these two to me. However, you must still obey me or I will burn your wife,” Jude warned him as she motioned for him to come to her.

  “I will do anything, but please don’t hurt my wife,” The big man pleaded as he knelt down in front of her and bowed his head so she could channel her energy and cut the necklace off.

  “Just do as I ask and no harm will come to your wife or your unborn child,” she said as she put the severed necklace into the pocket of her robe. “Please stay JorRobert; I may need your help with these two criminals.”

  JorRobert got to his feet and nodded his head in silent agreement.

  Jude looked down at DraDonna once again. “Well tonight is a night of surprises for you! I’m guessing you didn’t know that your sister is with child again. If you want her to live long enough to give birth to her child you will cooperate with me,” Jude said, her voice sharp with menace.

  “Please don’t hurt my sister,” DraDonna begged, tears sliding down her cheeks. “I will do whatever you ask, but I don’t understand what is going on.”

  Councilor Jude sighed as she crouched down on the floor next to the downtrodden couple. “Listen carefully, you two. Symon, Fredrik, and I all grew up together. We went to school together to learn about how to be servants of the HEART. It was a lot like how the two of you grew up together and went to school together. Only we are taught how to use our gifts to be a servant and how to love all of the HEART’s children.

  “We are also taught that we will never marry. It is forbidden for a servant of the HEART to love someone that way……..except Symon and I fell in love. We tried not to love each other like that, but we couldn’t help it,” she confessed to them, lost in her memory. “And last year when we were ordained as the new servants, we hoped we could stop loving each other that way.” Jude cleared her throat as if embarrassed by the emotion in her voice.

  “It was the day of your wedding. Symon and I were outside the temple door and he kissed me. I felt like my soul was more alive than it had ever been. His kiss filled me with more energy than the HEART ever could. But I knew he felt guilty and left quickly into the temple. I could not help myself, I needed him. So I followed him into the temple, and I discovered the truth about our world and about what the HEART really is.”

  “The world isn’t real,” DraDonna whispered.

  “That’s right,” said Jude. “Once I knew the truth, I came up with a plan. I found a few of my most loyal friends and started them on the Traveler’s Joy.”

  “But how do you know about that?” DraDevon asked, feeling confused.

  “That is another well-kept secret on our little planet. You see, Ambassadors and Councilors have to use so much of the HEART’s energy that the HEART doesn’t want our minds to become impaired, so the servants have always eaten it.”

  “That’s how Tatiana knew,” DraDonna whispered to her husband.

  “I found that my friends had a suppressed gift for science, so I placed the necklaces on them and told them to go out and find the evidence I needed. I will force the HEART to change things so Symon and I can marry. If she doesn’t agree to what I want, I will tell the people the truth about what the world really is.”

  “But why try to kill us?” DraDonna sobbed in fear. “You have told me many times that you love us.”

  “I do love you; but I love Symon more. At first when I discovered what you were up to, it was because I was afraid that you were going to get in the way, and I couldn’t have that. Then I realized I would need to take you in to really make my plan work.

  “You see, I’m going to have you convicted publicly of science and blasphemy, and even more than that, I have all the evidence I need to prove to the people that you were going to try to kill the HEART. The people will beg Symon and me to be joined together so that we can protect her. All the while I will tell the HEART that if she doesn’t cooperate with us, I will expose her secret and cause chaos the likes of which she has never seen.”

  For a few moments all that followed was stunned silence. Councilor Jude straightened up from where she crouched down beside them.

  “JorRobert,” Councilor Jude commanded the big man, “Untie their feet. They need to walk.”

  Once JorRobert freed their feet and roughly forced them to stand, she said, “It’s time for the two of you to face your crimes.” Then without another word, she turned and walked out the door.

  JorRobert pulled out the emitter, jabbing it in each of their backs, saying, “Move it, I want to be done with the two of you.”

  Reluctantly and with fear gripping their souls, they followed Councilor Jude out of the office to the communities’ center.

  As they walked with JorRobert jabbing the emitter in their backs, they began to hear Symon speaking to the crowd and the noise they made in response to what he said: “…and as you know, crimes will not be t
olerated; offenders must be punished. We will all learn from them and then we will rejoice in the HEART’s gift of the special energy!” The crowd of people went wild with cheers in anticipation of the euphoric feeling that the special energy gave them. “I see that First Councilor Jude is coming with the criminals.”

  When DraDonna got close enough to see his face, she expected to see a smug look in his eyes. Instead she was surprised to see a mixture of shock, horror, shame and guilt in Ambassador Symon’s eyes.

  “Trust me,” Jude told Symon in a low voice for his ears only. She then turned to JorRobert and gestured for him to force DraDonna and DraDevon down on their knees in front of Symon.

  Jude looked up into the gathered crowd and said in a high clear voice for all to hear, “Let the HEART judge these two criminals and wash their madness clean with her negative energy. Link up, sons and daughters of the HEART. Let us all feast on the special energy that is a gift of the HEART.”

  She then turned to face Symon, placing one hand firmly on DraDonna and DraDevon each, who were kneeling between them. She said softly, “Trust me Symon, do it for us. So we can be together.”

  She then looked up and called to Second Councilor Fredrik who had been standing behind the Ambassador looking worried and confused, “Come on Fredrik we need to start the link.”

  “Jude, what in the name of the HEART is going on? I have a feeling these two haven’t done anything to deserve being mind wiped,” Fredrik said.

  “Fredrik, please just do this. I will explain later.” She begged her friend. “Please.”

  Still unsure about what was going on, Councilor Fredrik walked around behind Councilor Jude and placed his right hand between her shoulder blades. JorRobert tucked the emitter into his belt, took Second Councilor Fredrik’s hand, and then took the hand of the closest person to him in the pressing throng of people.