In which Hera makes an escape

We walked through the front door. Evelyn stuck very close to me. Almost like this was frightening. For me it was just home. The same flowers in the same pots on the same tables. Yet she kept gasping at things.

"I can't believe this is your home," she muttered.

I decided I'd drop her off in one of the sitting rooms till I'd got a chance to introduce the information I'd gleaned. Plus I was worried that she'd be so stunned we'd fail to get a word out of her. Better to let her go somewhere quiet and safe.

Not saying I cared.

The first sitting room was directly to the left. I steered her toward it.

"You can sit here, I'll come get you," I said lightly. "If anyone asks you who you are tell them your waiting for me."

I hoped Penny didn't find her.

She sat down on a bench still gazing around. I started to walk away.

"Wait-" she said, I turned.

"What?"

"I just wanted to thank you," she said, "for helping me." Then she smiled, it was a legitimate thank you. I didn't get those often.

I walked down the hall, headed for the throne room. Hopefully Notch was there.

"Hera!"

I turned around, Ender was walking toward me. He looked flustered.

"Oh thank goodness," he said.

"Sparky," I said with a smile. I closed the distance between us. He ruffled my hair a little bit.

"Your vitals, they keep dropping, but when I tried to locate you I couldn't find you." He shook his head, "what happened out there?"

He didn't know that Hero had deactivated any tracers we had. I definitely didn't feel like telling Ender that. At best he'd be disappointed.

"Hera? Are you alright?"

I cleared my throat, and in my best not-to-worry voice replied, "perfectly fine, I ran into some trouble. However I need to speak with my father immediately."

Ender didn't relax at all, "Notch is really busy right now."

"It's important," I said.

"We're having a lot of problems right now." He said shortly.

That was news to me, "what sort of problems?"

But he wasn't really listening anymore. "I've got to go Hera." I watched him scroll something on paper, then he handed it to me. "I'm sending you to rest for a few days, you've been through a lot."

That would of been sweet. If I hadn't left Evelyn waiting for me.

"I'm fine!" I said, my arms crossed over my chest.

Now Ender was watching me, a look of disapproval on his face. "I really must insist that you rest. Your clearly tired, when your time is up then we can talk."

"I really don't need to," I tried another line of attack, "I had some potions and I feel perfectly fine. Now tell me what's going on!"

Ender just looked at me. When he saw I wasn't budging he turned to face away from me.

"Penelope!"

The assistant appeared. "How can I help you Ender?"

"Take Hera to see Tyson, make sure she gets there."

Oh great.

Ender turned back to me. "I'll see you in a few days, try to get some rest. It'll all be okay."

I'm not six!

Penny stood at my side. I started to walk with her, at least till Ender couldn't see us.

"A five day break!" She tittered, "I wish I had that! Everyone is so busy around here these days!"

I saw an opportunity, "what's keeping them busy?"

"All sorts of things! It's all just Penny do this, Penny get that! I want to put my feet up for a few days."

For the first time I felt pity. Neither Jenny or Penny had much personality. They were mostly just workers. At least I could do things for myself.

"Your very lucky Ender trusts you so much! It must be hard though finding all those problems. Very dangerous would you say?" She looked at me expectantly.

Maybe I'd have some fun. We were almost far enough away now. "Oh extremely."

Penny looked even more excited. "Nothing ever gets exciting around here. All I do is work in here all day long!"

I smiled a tiny bit, "hey Penny."

"Yes?"

"How'd you like that break today?"