by Speer, Flora
“What difference does that make?” Commander Drum snarled, displaying a remarkable lack of respect for his Leader. “I recognize trouble when I encounter it and I tell you, I have twice in two days smelled trouble in that square.”
“And I tell you, we can easily handle any problem that may arise. Now, will you kindly allow me to attend the party being given in my honor? Really, Drum, you are worse than those womanish priests. The people are well subdued and will remain where they belong— at the bottom of our social ladder. They have their little entertainments and I have done my part on their behalf on this day. Now I want to relax.”
“If you are wise,” said Commander Drum, “you will never relax your vigilance.”
“No, no, Drum,” Fal corrected him. “Vigilance is your task. Mine is to lead.”
Still grumbling at each other, the two men climbed the steps, where the guards stood at stiff attention until they entered the house. They left Carol desperate with fear, for she had finally recognized Commander Drum. It was little wonder she had not done so before. His face was greatly changed from that of the man she had once known and, in her youthful innocence, believed she loved. But in his cold and disrespectful attitude toward Leader Fal and in the flat blankness of his eyes, Carol had just seen the spirit of the man she had hoped never to meet again.
Robert Drummond. She did not think he had seen her just now, but all the same, Carol began to tremble as if the man were deliberately pursuing her across the centuries.
She now had serious cause to fear for Nik and for her friends at Marlowe House. She was not surprised to hear from his own lips confirmation that she had been noticed by Commander Drum, but she was deeply disturbed to learn that there were rumors circulating about trouble in the immediate future. She did not think anyone in Nik’s group would betray him by accident or by deliberate plan, but she did not know the people in the other groups who were to join Nik and his friends. It was possible that someone, having taken too much strong drink during the Solstice celebrations, had let slip a word too much about the scheduled uprising.
Carol knew she ought to leave the square at once and try to locate Marlowe House as quickly as possible so she could warn Nik. But first she wanted to see if she might learn anything more. Carefully she worked her way forward until she crouched behind the car nearest to the windows of the mansion. Another pair of late arrivals was at the door, diverting the attention of the guards, and the men at the far side of the square were paying no heed at all to the partygoers. Carol stood up and craned her neck to see inside the house.
In the warm, gilt-decorated room a band of musicians was playing a tune she could not hear. There were flowers everywhere, huge vases of them set on the floor and towering six feet high and other, smaller vases placed on tables or on chests. In one corner of the room potted palms and miniature trees were arranged around a splashing fountain of white marble. Within this artificial bower a few guests strolled, talking and laughing and, occasionally, pausing to exchange lengthy kisses and the sort of caresses that are usually reserved for more private places.
“And Marlowe House gets one hour per day of running water,” Carol growled angrily, glaring at the fountain.
Elsewhere in the large room guests were helping themselves from a long buffet table set against one wall. It was this table that next caught and held Carol’s attention. Staring at it, she swore under her breath at what she beheld.
The cloth was made from some glittering, gold-colored fabric and most of the dishes were gold or silver. There was a giant haunch of roasted meat, which a servant was carving. There were baskets of fine white bread, and bowls of salads and vegetables, and platters of various meats already sliced for the taking. Entire poached fishes lay on nests of shredded green leaves. The centerpiece of this display of culinary splendor was a huge golden compote piled high with oranges, grapes, pomegranates, and peaches, the whole extravagant design stuck through at intervals with long branches of fresh purple orchids and topped with the largest pineapple Carol had ever seen.
It was the fruit that did it, that made her so angry she wanted to throw a rock through the window. The unfairness of the scene before her struck Carol like a blow to the stomach. While Jo was forced to bargain for a bony chicken that was meant to feed no more than two or three people at most but that had to be stretched to fill a dozen hungry stomachs for a Solstice feast, while Bas made soup out of the leftovers and spoke of having eaten only one orange in his life, in a world in which Lin could not afford to buy even a single holiday treat for her child, these people, the so-called Leaders, were living in decadent luxury. And denying it to others. Refusing to share what they had. They even rationed the water supply to ordinary folk.
No wonder they needed squads of civil guards to keep the peace. No wonder Nik and others of like mind were planning to revolt.
“I will do everything I can to help them,” Carol vowed.
“Hey, you! What are you doing there?” One of the guards at the far side of the square had seen her. His voice rang out with absolute assurance that he would be obeyed. “Come over here at once.”
For the space of a heartbeat Carol did not move. She stood frozen where she was, not looking toward the guard who’d ordered her to present herself to him, but still with her gaze fixed on the scene inside the mansion.
“I said, come here!” The guard raised his voice a notch. The two guards standing at the mansion entrance turned their attention toward the rows of parked limousines, searching for a view of the miscreant who did not jump in instant response to an order from one of their comrades.
Inside the brightly lit house Commander Drum paused on his way to the buffet table, turned, and headed for the wide front window as if a sound from outside had penetrated the luxurious warmth of the party. He stopped by the window to peer out into the square.
Carol thought he saw her. She was still standing upright with one hand resting on the hood of the limousine behind which she had been sheltering. Across the darkness she looked right into Drum’s eyes. Cold possessed her, a chill more bitter and heart-numbing even than Lady Augusta’s embrace. In that moment Carol knew how a trapped rabbit felt, paralyzed, terrified, unable to do anything but wait for the hunter to pounce.
And then a noisy group of revelers surged into the square, half a dozen of them, laughing and singing. Some carried wine bottles. All were well dressed. They headed for the mansion where the party was being held and demanded entrance of the guards at the door.
With the arrival of these newcomers the terrifying spell holding Carol in her place was broken. She could move again, and she did so. Down behind the cars she went and, keeping her head low, ran out of the square by the way she had come into it.
Once in the narrower side streets, she no longer worried about discovery or about which direction she took. Pursued by the sound of booted feet, she simply fled as fast as she could, turning corners so she would be out of sight, squeezing herself into tiny spaces between buildings, slipping into dark alleys. When she suddenly found herself at the brink of a narrow canal, she jumped over it without a thought and kept running. Once she disturbed a little knot of people in ragged clothes who huddled in a lightless arcade.
“Help me,” she gasped, risking her life on the chance that they were no more fond of her pursuers than she was. “The civil guards are after me.”
“Hah! Them. Come this way.” Without questioning her they handed her along from person to person in the dark, finally pushing her through a gate into an alley at the rear of the arcade. The gate closed behind her and she was alone again.
Here all was silence and, freed of the requirements of haste, caution returned. Her way was darker now, and from what Carol could distinguish of it, the area where she found herself was in a sorry state. There were no electric street lamps burning, nor well-kept houses. In a black quietness disturbed only by the scurrying of the occasional rat or the snarls of a pair of fighting cats, she crept along, not knowing where she was, but to
o frightened to stop lest she be discovered and taken by the civil guards.
She would never be able to explain by what route she arrived—perhaps there was some supernatural hand in it—but suddenly she walked into an open space and saw before her the World Tree with its empty, grasping fingers and, directly across the way, Marlowe House.
Carol came to an abrupt halt. Commander Drum had spoken to Leader Fal about having seen her here, so it was possible that he had sent some of his guards to watch for her. But she had to get home—for Marlowe House was home and it represented all that existed of security and warmth in this hideous future world.
And Nik was there, in Marlowe House. She could not lead Drum’s men to him, but she had to get to Nik, to warn him. At this point she scarcely knew anymore what it was she wanted to warn him about, but the need to feel his arms around her was a burning ache in both her mind and her heart. Perhaps, if she went very carefully, and if she were lucky, she could reach the house without being seen.
She slipped into the deeper shadows of a broken stone wall, all that remained of an elegant old building. Slowly she began to edge her way around the square toward Marlowe House. She was half frozen from the cold, worn out after a night without sleep, and so frightened that her wits were as numb as her hands and feet. Which was why she did nothing when she first heard the soft step behind her.
It was the lightest, faintest crunch of a foot upon broken stonework and mortar ground into dust. Then silence. Nothing. Not even a breath came out of the darkness. All the same, Carol was certain that someone was standing directly behind her. She could not turn around. She could not move at all—or breathe—and her heart had stopped beating.
A wool-covered hand clamped down over her mouth, stifling the scream she was unable, from sheer terror, to utter. An arm wrapped around her chest, pinning her hands at her sides before she could raise them to fight off her attacker. Carol felt her knees begin to buckle. Her stomach lurched. She knew she was going to faint. Blackness swirled around her as she crumpled against the person who was holding her.
Chapter 15
“Where in the name of all the worlds have you been?” demanded a low, harsh voice in her ear. Made frantic by fear, Carol gasped, struggling against restraining arms, trying to get her feet down on the ground so she would have more leverage to push away from the man who held her. Blind terror gripped her. Though she could not see him, she was certain he was a member of the civil guards, sent by Commander Drum to lie in wait for her.
“Stop fighting and answer me, damn it. We’ve all been sick with worry looking for you. Where were you?”
“Nik.” Recognizing him at last, she went weak and limp with relief. But only for a moment. There was no time to indulge herself in weeping or hysterics. There was too much that she ought to tell Nik at once, lest he inadvertently betray his friends and his cause by carrying her directly home.
“The guards commander—Commander Drum—Nik, he saw me again and he recognized me. His men chased me. I tried to lose them, but I’m not sure I did. He talked about having seen me here, in this square, during the ceremonies. He may have sent guards to look for me in case I return, and if they find us together you will be in trouble, too.”
“All the more reason to get you safe inside.” Nik did not seem to be the least bit disturbed by Carol’s information.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she cried. When she tried to wriggle out of his arms so she could stand up and confront him, he only held her more tightly. “Nik, you could be in serious danger.”
“I don’t think so. Car, surely you know that we have our own watchmen, and our own system of monitoring the movements of the civil guards. There is no one in this square who should not be here.”
“Oh.” Of course he would have sent out his own people to stand watch. Nik was not a careless planner and he held many lives in his hands. She felt foolish for her nearly hysterical warning. “I was so frightened,” she whispered, her face pressed hard against the coarse cloth of his outdoor coat.
“You are safe now.” He carried her across the square to the broken steps at the side of Marlowe House, then past the barricade that Bas moved aside at his call, and on into the servants’ kitchen. There he set her down in one of the chairs at the table.
“She’s over-chilled,” Nik said to Jo. To Bas he added, “Call the others back. They’ll be glad of a hot drink and their beds.”
“You have all been out looking for me, when you should have been safe here, planning for tomorrow. I am so sorry for the trouble I’ve caused you.” Carol felt like crying. Now that she had reached her destination, she was weak and trembling all over again, and her hands and feet began to ache as they warmed from a state of near frostbite.
“Drink this and stop apologizing.” Jo thrust a cup into her hands. Carol tasted brandy mixed with hot water and herbs. “We’d have done the same for any other member of our group. You were trying to divert the guards’ attention away from our headquarters, and we appreciate the risk you were running for our sakes.”
“I learned something that may be of use to you,” Carol said, her eyes on Nik. Quickly she recounted the conversation she had overheard between Commander Drum and Leader Fal. She did not, however, mention what she believed about Commander Drum’s real identity. That particular piece of information was important only to her and, possibly, to Nik and Lady Augusta. To her other friends, the most important news of the evening was what she had learned that might affect their plans for the following day.
“I don’t think Leader Fal is particularly intelligent,” Carol said, finishing her report on her activities since leaving the square that afternoon, “but Drum is sharp as the proverbial tack, and I do not imagine for a minute that he is the kind of man to take chances when it comes to security. And he did see me outside that house where the party was being held. I’m sure of it, Nik. Drum will probably send extra guards to this area just in case I show up here once more.”
“It won’t matter,” Nik told her, “because we will all stay indoors until it is time for the uprising to begin.”
“They could make a house-to-house search,” Carol insisted, recalling the history of her own century with frightening accuracy. “They could arrest everyone they find in any house on this square and hold all of us for days—or for years. From what I’ve seen of this time, the authorities don’t worry too much about civil liberties for ordinary people.”
“We will be safe until tomorrow,” Nik repeated.
“How can you be so certain?” Carol cried.
“Because Aug has returned with news of the other groups she has contacted. And when Aug is here, she protects us.”
“Where is she?” Carol wasn’t sure she wanted to see Lady Augusta again. Not yet. She was afraid of what the ghost’s presence would mean to her. She wasn’t ready to return to her own time, not even to escape Commander Drum. And the prospect of being forced to leave Nik was unbearable.
“Aug is with Al and Pen and the others, searching for you.” Jo refilled Carol’s cup with more brandy and hot water. “She will return soon. Meanwhile, you ought to get out of those clothes and into something like a blanket or a robe that has been warmed by the fire. And from the look of you, a few hours of sleep would be in order, too.”
“How can I sleep, knowing my presence here may put all of you in danger?” Carol demanded. “Or knowing what we are going to begin in just a few hours?”
“Jo is right, Car.” Nik lifted her out of the chair where she still sat. “You need to rest and so do I. I will take care of her, Jo. When the others return, tell them to go to bed, and you go, too. There is no need for any of us to rise until mid-morning. We are less likely to become nervous and get into trouble if we are all asleep. Of course, some of us manage to get into a fair amount of trouble while in bed.” With a chuckle worthy of a man who had no more on his mind than a few free hours ahead of him to spend as he pleased, Nik carried Carol up the steps and along the hall to his own room.
&nb
sp; “I don’t think you understand what is going on here,” Carol warned. “You are in danger because of me.”
“No,” he corrected her. “I am in danger because of what I and my friends plan for later today, but we planned the revolt, and its timing, long before you came to me. What you have done, Car, is make these last few days both beautiful and precious. I will never forget them. Or you.” He set her down on her feet and stood holding her with his hands at her waist. Carol leaned against him, loving him, wanting his touch.
“Take off these cold clothes,” he whispered, working at the buttons on her raincoat. “I have a robe you can use until you are warm again— until I remove that garment, too.”
He had to take off her shoes for her. Carol’s fingers were still too numb to untie the laces for herself. She sat on the edge of his mattress, wrapped in the scratchy woolen robe he’d found for her to wear, and let him chafe heat and feeling back into her feet. And her ankles. And her calves and knees and thighs.
“I want something of you,” he murmured, his mouth against her right knee.
“Anything.” She was ready to sink down on his bed and let him take her there and then, in any manner he chose, so long as he stayed with her. She was afraid to let him out of her sight.
“Dance with me.” Amazingly, when he lifted his head to see her reaction there was mischief in his eyes.
“Dance,” she repeated blankly. Then, understanding. “As in waltz?”
“Wait here.” He was gone only a moment, just long enough to give her reason to begin to panic for fear he would not return. She told herself her nerves were playing tricks on her. Here with Nik she was safe. Commander Drum would not find her. Lady Augusta was still away from the house. All the same, she sighed with relief when Nik reappeared, his eyes on the portable disk player, his fingers working the controls. He set it for the tune he wanted. When the music started he held out his hand to her. Carol rose from his bed.
