Kyllen rubbed the back of his neck. “Ghata may be gone at some point and time. But the bracks who have been crossing over would continue to do so for a while. They would just be coming from the earlier times, from when Ghata was still well and alive, running her menagerie and obtaining the supplies for it.”
He was right. The bracks could still be coming from a more distant past into our future. And when they left here, Ghata would pull them to her across dimensions, back into the time of the menagerie.
“I will need to catch a brack and make him deliver a message…” I thought out loud. “No, it has to be something that doesn’t look like it contains a message but appears to have some value. So Ghata would keep it to display it in her menagerie until Radax can open and read it.”
Kyllen stirred enthusiastically. “I’ll help you make it. It could be a communication box, with the message recorded in your voice for Radax to recognize you. We can commission Wuveus, the master who created the grand clock in the main hall of the palace, to help with the design.”
“A communication box?” The words triggered my memory.
In her menagerie, Ghata had displayed something she called “a communication device from the Wetlands of Lorsan.” And now I wondered if it had been my message box all along.
“I think I know how I want it to look,” I said. “And I’ll ask you to lock it so that no one but Radax could ever open it. Will that be possible?” I held out the tablet with Radax’s engraving. “Can you do that by using this?”
My husband gave me one of his cocky grins that always made me weak in my knees.
“Can I?” He wiggled his shapely eyebrow ridges. “By now you should know, my queen, that when it comes to fulfilling your desires, nothing is impossible for me.”
I leaned over to kiss the tip of his nose. “Well, you go ahead then, my magnificent. Make it happen. Meanwhile.” I rose to my feet and waved to one of the guards nearby to come closer. “Go find Councilor Delahon, please. I need to make a kingdom-wide announcement when we return to the palace.”
The guard left with my order, and I turned back to Kyllen again.
“I want the next brack who crosses into Lorsan captured and brought to the palace. I’ll tell him I have a gift for his goddess and as much lily honey as he can carry for her.”
Wrapping his arms around me, Kyllen drew me to him. “If they deliver the box in the time while you’re still at the menagerie, would you like me to make the lock so you could open it too, not just Radax? Would you like to have known your fate, back before you met me?”
I took a moment to think about that.
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to change anything in the past because I can’t risk inadvertently changing our future.” Now that I knew Radax was happy and free, I didn’t dare spoil it for him, either. “We all suffered for our happiness, my love. We earned it. Now, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
He searched my eyes. “Are you happy, my sweet pea?”
Our son ran to us, slamming against us and hugging our legs.
I laughed, placing one hand on his slim shoulder while keeping the other arm wrapped around my husband’s neck.
“I’m happy, Kyllen. Happier than I’ve ever thought I could be.”