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I was a little too curious. I rose my gaze and my eyes instantly locked with Hvit’zark’s. His eyes were almost the same color as his skin. Gray, but just a bit lighter. His expression-less face never waned. He searched me with his eyes. His skin seemed to glow with his enchanting ǔre. When I learned the color he possessed—silver—I knew instantly what he was. Death bringer, for sure.

Without saying a word, Hvit’zark rose his gaze above me to look at the King. His eyes fell to me once more and he turned around and walked out of the room. Had I displeased him so much that he couldn’t stand to be at the auction another moment?

I turned around, but the guard caught me by the arm.

“Prepare her at once,” the King said.

“Wait! Your majesty!” From the left side of the room, my nurse, Meriuam, came running up to the podium. “This one is Freya. We are assigned to each other. She is in my care. Your warrior should know. She is without her memories. There is no ill-intent. The others with telepathy at the dorms saw none, but…her warrior should know.”

The King frowned. “Without memories?”

“Did you see her reports?” Meriuam asked. “I recommended that she be given more time to allow her a chance to regain her memories.”

“You must excuse me. I’ve somehow missed this. Her files looked promising. Her work with the children here left me impressed. But this is odd. How did she lose her memories? Was she injured?”

“Yes and no. Not by us. She was found unconscious. Poisoned shortly before the warriors found her. The onboard medic claims that there were trace amounts of the drug in her blood—enough to detect, but not enough to test. Some of the other humans have spoken of Earth drugs like this. It might be temporary memory loss, yet we can’t be so sure. We will not know who she truly is until her memories return, if they return. It’s why I recommended that she be entered in the auction much later with the second group. She has been cooperative. I thought you would approve.”

The King looked down at me. “You cannot remember a thing? Is this true, Freya? That is your name, I hope.”

“Yes. And the name does seem familiar. I do believe it is mine. I’ve answered to it many times. The only other memories I have are the one’s from me being here,” I replied. “I’ve tried to make sense of what I know, but…I can’t. I…” I swallowed and shook my head. “I just can’t.”

“You just meant to say that you don’t want to remember. You feel pain when you think of your past.”

I gasped when the alien king hit the nail right on the head. He was right. My memories—or what little I had—gave me nothing but stress.

“As she should! Her family made our lives a living hell in that place,” a woman screamed from the group.

“Excuse me! Who is that?” the King demanded. When the guard brought the informant forward, he asked her, “Did you personally know this one?”

“No but—”

“Then get back in the line, please.” The King pointed and the informant was taken back to her place. “Can any one of you provide a true statement beyond the rumors woven on Earth?”

No one stirred or spoke.

“As Naomi has said, Freya was very important. The others have said that she was the illegitimate daughter of a royal,” Meriuam said. “I do believe some of that is true. We have no reason to doubt those here, although they do seem to resent her.”

I swallowed my shame and looked down at the floor.

“A royal?” The King shook his head and narrowed his gaze. “Hmmm. I can see now. Her intentions aren’t ill at all. Beyond that, I can’t read her. It’s like trying to look out through a blind man’s eyes. How long do you think it will take for that Earth drug to wear off?”

Meriuam shrugged. “Days. Weeks. Months. With your permission, our cleansing crystals should help some.”

“Then get the crystals for her at once. Freya, you may start fresh here where your new life will begin. In the meantime, get Zark back in here before he disappears.”

Once they had Zark back in the room and told him that I had no memories before I was taken from Earth and that I may have been a royal from Earth, I thought he’d order that they put me back in the line, but he said, “I will wait. I have other missions, of course. I’ll return for her once I succeed. As for her memories, I won’t be any use trying to read her either. That is not my gift. But forgive me for saying this, my King. Your prophecy might not be true after all. She could not have been meant for me. No one of royal blood could have been meant for someone like me.”

“But it is you who have chosen her,” the King stated. “We agree on that, don’t we?”

Hvit’zark started to leave the room again with the King calling after him, “You’ll have maybe a few more weeks as a lone wolf, Zark, but you can’t run from your fate.”

They kept talking bout Zark’s fate, but what were they going to do to me?

As if reading my thoughts again, the King replied, “You will return to the dorms. My reports say that you like reading to our young and that they enjoy your stories. You’ll have some time before your warrior comes for you. I pray that your memories return.”

“Come,” Meriuam exclaimed. When she reached for me, I couldn’t have been any happier to go back with her. She’d been the kindest one here, except for Aurora, who I felt connected to somehow.

But would I care if Hvit’zark never returned for me? Maybe. Maybe not.

I couldn’t deny the pull I had toward him. It felt almost like the connection I felt to Aurora, but only different. Something more intense. Like a longing.

The alien king was right about one thing. I had enjoyed reading all the Earth books to the orphaned Zunatorian children. I even enjoyed spinning stories of my own. But it was too bad that my story was lost forever. Or did I even care?