The walk through the park was still no walk in the park.  Oh, it was easier with Daisy taking the lead, but at a certain point she felt the push, and the further she walked, the harder it was to concentrate.  It didn’t help that the trees in the centre were just a dark shadow against the western horizon.  Even Daisy seemed to shimmer and verge towards disappearing, just a metre in front of her.  Would it have been easier if she hadn’t learnt how to fight against the king’s injunction?  Probably, because the thought of facing him, even with Daisy safe, was not a prospect she relished.  But she had to do it.  Somehow it rested on her shoulders to apologise for what had happened, and hope the apology was enough.
 
Daisy had gone.  Damn it, I’m a daughter of Gaia.  Bloody concentrate, girl.  She refocused.  There was Daisy, several metres off to her right.  She corrected her course and pushed forward, fighting the repulsion she felt, throwing away the distractions and wool-gatherings that tried to break her concentration.
 
Eventually she broke through.  Despite the chill of the night Ess’ clothes clung to her sweat-drenched body.  Daisy stood, waiting for her.  Ess put her hands on her knees and breathed in hard gulps.
 
“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.  Just give me –“
 
A body slammed into her, lifting her off her feet and suspending her clear of the ground.  She looked down into a face filled with fury.  He looked vaguely familiar.  One of her brothers?
 
“Told you I’d bring her back,” she said, smiling weakly.  He barked something in a strange language, and the world went away.
 
---
 
It was a wooded clearing at night, but details stood out as clear as day.  Ess looked up.  Once, when she was a girl, her parents had taken her to rural Portugal and she’d seen the Milky Way.  It was nothing like the stars above her now.  Millions upon millions of stars stretched across the sky, visible even through clouds, each star individual with its own unique colour.  She tried to turn, but her feet felt as though they were embedded in treacle.
 
I’m dreaming, she thought.
 
“Witch!”
 
In the centre of the clearing a convoluted tangle of trunks had grown into a magnificent throne.  The king sat there, leaning forward, eyes fixed on her.  He was the most beautiful and terrifying creature she’d ever seen.  As Ess looked at him he seemed to grow in stature, filling her vision.  Around him the clearing darkened, as though a thunder storm grew, born from his anger.
 
Next to him stood Daisy.  It was Daisy, but she looked totally different, even though Ess couldn’t put her finger on why.  She seemed more real than she ever had in the waking world.  The silent storm grew, and Ess could see that it came from Daisy as well as her father.
 
Their wrath was a solid thing, engendered by the treatment Daisy had suffered at the hands of Ess’ people.  She could feel the horror of captivity to a free creature like Daisy, the desperation to escape, the helplessness suddenly visited on someone who had always been in control before.  The king’s fury was the wrath a father feels when his daughter has been harmed, multiplied by all the stars above.  And it was all focused on her, humanity’s representative.
 
In the way of dreams, she knew all this without a word having to be said.
 
“It wasn’t me,” she said, but the storm wind whipped the words away, even though she couldn’t feel so much as a breeze on her face.  They knew it wasn’t her, but that wasn’t the point.
 
“We’re not like that.  Well, not all of us.  Most of us are good people.  At least, we try to be.  Whitmarsh, he’s an aberration, an exception.  What he did was wrong, absolutely and unconditionally.  Look, Martin loves Daisy.”  She glanced at Daisy.  “You know he does.”  Despite herself, her eyes were drawn back to the terrible face of the king.  “And I did all I could to find her.  Not just me, my friends too.  We looked and looked and then rescued her.  You tried to make me come back, but I broke that.”  Even to herself she sounded as though she were whining.  She stood straighter.  “I’m a daughter of Gaia.  I know what you did to my mind, and I broke it.  But I still came back, because it was the right thing to do.  We’re not perfect, the Mother knows that, but then who is?  The point is, we try.”
 
Their anger was unappeased.  The clouds grew thicker.  The copse was no longer visible, the stars blotted out.  The only thing in the world was the fury of the king, hot enough to melt diamond.
 
“Okay, I give in.  What do you want me to say?  Sorry?  Of course I am, but what can I do?  I can’t make it all go away like it never happened.  Yes, you have every right to be angry at him.  I’m bloody furious, and I didn’t suffer a fraction of what Daisy did, but I’m not taking it out on all and sundry.  You think that’s going to make it better?  I told you I’d get her back.  I was getting her back before ever you whispered in my ear.  I got her back after I broke your spell.  And I’m here now, not as Whitmarsh’s representative, not as the human race on trial, not even as a daughter of Gaia.  I’m here, me, Vanessa Williams, a human being who gives a damn and fought bloody hard just to get your daughter back.  You’re welcome.”
 
Anger, Dorothy had said.  That and a good scrub.  Well, if that was all it needed she was just one shower away from being invulnerable to the Gentle Folk.  She glared at the king, daring him to judge her after all she’d done, trying to match his anger, even though it was just shining a penlight at the sun.
 
“Ess.”
 
His lips didn’t move, but she could hear his voice.
 
“Ess.”
 
But the voice didn’t match his face.  Something wasn’t right.
 
“Ess!”
 
She closed her eyes.  She felt so tired.  The anger drained out of her.  Let him do whatever he wanted, she was through.  When she opened her eyes the king’s expression had changed.
 
“Ess?  Gorgeous?  Are you with us?”
 
“What?”
 
“Come on, wakey-wakey.  Don’t give your uncle Oz an anxiety attack.”
 
“Oz?”  She looked around.  She was standing at the edge of the park, being held upright by Oz, his face a picture of concern.  “Did I fall asleep?”
 
“Oh, Ess!”  He pulled her into his chest and crushed her to him.  “You cow.  You had me worried.  Don’t do that to an old man.”  He released her.  “What happened?”
 
“Um, I’m not sure.  Wait, Daisy.  Did we rescue her?”
 
“Yes.  Well, you did.  The car crash, remember?”
 
“Oh, right, the crash.”  Slivers of memory, like images in a shattered mirror, pushed their way to the forefront of her mind.  “We’ve got to return her to her dad.”
 
“Already done, old girl.”  He looked worried.  “An hour or so ago.  You took her there.  Don’t you remember?”
 
“I did?”  There had been a dream.  Something about trees.  And stars.  There had been stars.  She looked up.  The sun had risen and the sky, studded with cotton wool clouds, hid them.  “Oh, no stars.”  Disappointment filled her voice.
 
“Never mind.”  Oz started to gently lead her back to the car.  “I expect they’ll be back tonight.  In the meantime, let’s get you back home.”  He opened the rear door of the car.  “In you get.”
 
She fell into the back seat, already occupied by a still body.  “Shades!”  She snuggled up to him.  “Sleepy head.  You’re missing all the fun.”  She closed her eyes and nestled against his shoulder.  “And the stars.”  She yawned so hard she heard her jaw crack.  “You missed the stars.  Sleepy head.”