Decisions, Decisions...

We sat there for a few moments in silence.

“What if I were to take you back to your family in Iraq? Those thugs won’t be after you anymore and Dr. Bernstein will no longer have any interest in you, that I can guarantee.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, streaked down her dirt-smeared cheeks. She looked down at the ground, sobbing, before she gained the strength to speak again. “I...I...I wish that were possible. But those evil men killed my husband and the members of his family that we were staying with after the war.”

I wanted to reach out and offer some form of human comfort, but something stopped me. Instead, I asked, “What about other family members, perhaps any adult children, cousins, your side of the family?”

She looked back up at me, shoulders still wracked with sobs. “I have no children. I have never been able to have any. No, I have no one else left in Iraq. Because of my ties to the former regime, I have enemies who will be glad to make an example of me. My parents died in the Iran/Iraq war. I was an only child, so I have no brothers or sisters. The only living relative I have...is your mortal enemy.”

“Damn, I was afraid of that.”

My choices were not very good. I could take her back to Ravyn’s farm, but there were a great number of problems with that. First, she would come face to face with Daniel again and there was no way of telling what would happen with that! Second, she still had some reasons to hold tight to her loyalty to Drake, so that could be like inviting the fox into the chicken coop. Finally, how happy would Ravyn be with another injured foundling dropped off at her doorstep?

So, taking her to Ravyn’s was pretty much out of the question. I certainly couldn’t leave her here in this place and I couldn’t kill her, it’s just not in my nature to do so.

I ran through all of the other options I could come up with on short notice...

The Professor was taking care of Alexa, so I couldn’t take her there...

The Frau and Cerrydwen were helping the Professor, so they were out...

Everyone else I knew in the ORC’s would be in danger if I left her with them, given Drake’s talent at finding out things you didn’t want him to know...

I couldn’t turn her over to the government, they would see her past involvement in the Baath party and her service in the Mukhbarat as potential threats and probably send her off to Gitmo...

I certainly couldn’t turn her over Drake, even if I could locate him, after using her Talent on me, she knew too many secrets that I didn’t want him to know, and I certainly wasn’t going to turn over this money or these artifacts him either...

She needed to have a chance to heal up, to recover from her wounds and her losses while also being beyond the reach of Drake.

So, after looking at and discarding all of these other options, I decided that it was time to take her on a visit to a place I had been taken when I needed a chance to heal...to the Merlin, if he would take her...