Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel

by P. S. Power

  Gwen was ready to fight, argue and even leave, if she had to, over the matter, but Ethyl moved in and gave Clara a hug at least as nice as the one that Beth had gotten. Considering that they'd never met, and that Gwen had figured Ethyl to be prudish and more than a little snooty about the whole thing, it was surprising.

  "Winslow, would you set up the third guest room for Miss Samberg, please? Don't you worry about a thing, dear. Everyone here will be most discreet. You just rest, after your ordeal. It's so fortunate that Gwen and Bethany were there to stop those awful people from harming you." She didn't know what the story was, but everything she said was close enough to reality to work.

  The bad guys had probably meant well, after a fashion, but they were still in the wrong. Even the people in with Debussey had deluded themselves into thinking that the Elder Gods would bring back all of the sacrifices, once they were free of their eternal imprisonment. They were wrong, because, duh. Gwen had seen that one instantly, and so did the vast majority of people in the world. They'd really believed it though, which was better than what these new people had been doing. They were killing, just to try and save themselves.

  That pretty much painted them with the brush used for the bad guys.

  "Great! Let's hit that first. I have a lot to do, and don't know how long I'm going to have. There are things." She didn't know what to say, but Ethyl gave her a rather curt nod.

  "I know that dear. I heard that you yelled at the King? For about an hour. From him. He called to complain about you. It was actually very funny, in a horrible way. The poor dear has so few people he can talk to about things like that. Matters of state, and finance certainly, but he needs an ear to simply listen at times. He was afraid that if he'd complained to his people they would have taken it upon themselves to have you killed, which would be a large political and social mess, right now. I personally suggested he wait this out, and then think about killing you. He said he'd take it under advisement." She was playing, but Clara looked at her as if scandalized. That and scared. Beth patted the thirty-something woman's arm.

  "Don't worry, Ferdinand loves Gwen. He'd go to his own death before ordering hers. Ethyl was just showing her support for him, since, well you were there. Gwen was rather hard on the man."

  That got a nod, and a relieved look.

  "True that. She read him the riot for sure. I didn't get that it was really him, at first, until Sally told me that she recognized the voice from the Telesar." She refocused on Ethyl. "Sally, she's one of the ones that were going to kill me. She pretended to be my friend. She wasn't." It was a statement, and held an innocent purity, even though the woman could have been angry about it all still. She'd been a little mean to the woman when she was a prisoner, but only with words. Even that had probably been kinder than Gwen would have been, if they'd been planning to sacrifice her for their own purposes like that.

  When she'd caught up with the man that had stabbed her in the heart, she'd kidnapped him, and then had his head cut off. By Groundling, who worked on the Peregrine. Smiling she decided to invite the crew to the party too. He was also the King's Uncle, as it turned out, and the rest of them, well... screw it. They deserved to have to suffer along with their shipmate, didn't they? Stuffed into monkey suits and made to act like proper ladies and gentlemen.

  It was totally fair.

  Besides, she liked them.

  The men were all standing around, waiting, with bags in hand, so Gwen took charge and waved them all on. It was nearly dinner time, and Ethyl called out to them to be ready, in half an hour. It meant she wasn't going to get an early nap, but what the heck? It wasn't like sitting at the table would be all that hard, was it? Thinking that, she wondered if something horrible was going to happen, but if it were the case, she wasn't picking that up.

  So she was just being a tired little grump? That was survivable.

  The meal was fine, to start with, and they had a special guest, being that her cousin Reginald had come to visit. She stopped herself when she saw him, having just thought that and smiled. He wasn't her cousin, but Katherine's. Not that he was someone she could date. That would just be icky. The boy was, well, he was nearly Katherine's age, so about twenty now, and off at University full time. What he was studying she didn't know. Or, for that matter, where he was attending. She assumed he was a Western man, but only because it was the big school in the area. She hadn't really asked, had she?

  "Reggie!" She moved in and gave him a warm, but family appropriate, hug. The guy stiffened though and looked at her with more than a little hostility. She put her hand to her mouth and whispered at him, trying to be funny. "I don't have bad breath, do I?"

  He glared a bit and then shook his head, seriously. "No, you're fine that way. You also lied to me. To me! Tricking me into believing that you were my cousin. Father said that it was to save the family, but you didn't have to lie to me, did you?" The words held a quality to them that she hadn't been prepared for at all. Stung and legitimately hurt, rather than angry.

  Like she knew how to deal with that? It was hardly fair of him, dumping that on her. She'd been trying to help the Vernors, and hadn't known who she could trust at all. That wasn't going to fly as an excuse though, was it? She couldn't just admit that, as an unknown, he'd been too much of a risk, could she? They'd only met twice, as it was, this being the third time. She looked down at her feet and sighed, realizing that running away wasn't an option.

  She was wearing heels, and had a full dress on. The best she could really manage was a quick mince, at best.

  "Right. Sorry about that. I..." She didn't know what to say and unhelpfully, no one stepped in to rescue her at all. It was like they didn't get how awkward this was for her. Or they did, but were letting her deal with it herself, since she was a big girl? "Really, Reggie, I didn't know if I could tell you or not, so I didn't. That's all it was. I didn't think it would harm you, because I thought that I'd be faking being your cousin for the rest of my life. I should have been in touch right away, after the radio broadcast. I mean the Telesar thing, with Debussey, but..."

  Honestly, until that moment it had never occurred to her at all that Reggie was someone that she was supposed to have been in touch with at all. He and Katherine had been close, but not enough that he was involved in the stupid shit that she'd gotten into.

  It wasn't like they'd been lovers or something, being related and all.

  That thought got an embarrassed flash from girl in her head, about something which took place seven years before, when the two had locked themselves in the attic and done...

  Thankfully it wasn't that much. Enough that they'd been a lot closer than they should have been, no doubt. Not enough that therapy was really in order. For some reason, thinking that, there was a flash of gratitude, as if her not judging them too harshly was her being kind. It wasn't that at all. Kids experimented. The normal ones did at least. It wasn't that big of a deal.

  It also didn't get her out of the little emotional confrontation she was having. She was at a loss for words and her redheaded cousin wasn't helping, just standing there, looking hurt.

  Finally she shrugged at him and patted his arm, once, which was nearly a slap.

  "Stop being a little girl, Reg. We can be friends, but if you insist that the woman from another world instantly be responsible for everything here, you're in for some disappointment. I did what I had to, based on too little knowledge and information, making things up as I went along. I messed a lot of things up. You can blame me for it, if it makes you feel better, but that doesn't really fix anything." She waited for him to snoot at her, which wasn't a thing in her world, but needed to be a word here. They all did it so well. It wasn't really even derision, being more of a sign of social bafflement, and the hiding of that fact, if in an obvious way that was sort of useful, now that she actually knew what it meant. He just seemed sad and looked away.

  "At least you managed to do a good turn for the Westmorlands. I've been studying up on them, for my politics class
es. Their history isn't a good one. Well... you know. I didn't think anyone would stand up for them. Then, not many knew about how they're trained, before you spoke of it. I..." He froze and looked across the room, where Beth was standing near Peter, and then he swallowed. "Do you think I could see that training you were speaking about, first hand? The one for children?"

  She raised her eyebrows and snorted. Then she looked across the room, at little Peter, who was standing there proudly, but off in the corner, with Clara and Beth. They all looked a bit out of place, dressed in different styles, and not exactly part of the world around them, if all for different reasons. Shaking her head she waved.

  "Beth, Peter, over here." That would leave her new maid just standing there however, so she kept signaling. "You too, Clara."

  Reggie went stiff, and seemed very ashamed suddenly. She understood, she thought, given the way people did things in this world. He figured that she was going to torture one of those others, to give him the show he'd just requested. Which had Beth nodding at her, since she was clearly on high alert, reading minds exactly like she wasn't supposed to.

  "Reggie here wanted to know if we could set up a demonstration of the lower level training protocols. The ones that you grew up with, Pete. I'm betting he has some friends from school that will want to try it too. Can you set that up with Manly and some of the others? I need to go over Teletransport myself, if a week is enough time to get that started? I don't know what these others will want. I figure something like Curse breaking? That wasn't too miserable really and seems like a potentially useful skill. At least if we're dealing with people pushy enough to actually try training like this."

  Bethany looked at the redheaded man and smiled, glancing down his firm and trim body in a way that held far more calculation than it should have.

  "Or they could learn to resist mesmerism? That's useful for many occupations. How many will be attending? I need a number for Manly."

  This all went to Reggie, who, credit to him, didn't proclaim that he only wanted to see someone else tortured.

  "I don't know, do you think I could borrow the Telestator, Kate? I won't be but a minute." He didn't seem to realize what he'd just called her, so she let it go. That had to be hard, just taking other people's word for something like a different person being in a body you knew well.

  "Go to. I think we'll be sitting soon though, so hurry." She smiled as if they were discussing some treat, or a pleasant outing. It got him to smile a tiny bit in return, which was less than normal, from what she had seen of the boy before. He was normally all big smiles and witty remarks. This he was taking seriously. Probably not enough. Then again, the more people that tried this out, the more that could tell others about how ugly it was. Especially when used on children.

  That was, as far as she knew, still happening, too. A few words on the Telesar and a chat with the King didn't stop it all. There were kids, as young as Pete, or even younger, that were being strapped into pain devices as she stood there thinking. Others had probably been in them for days on end, teaching them the fastest and surest way that the people here knew how to do.

  Reggie got back before the Vernors got there, and Admiral Welk, Reggie's father came in with both of them. They'd clearly been in some kind of meeting, and it had to be serious, if they hadn't included her and Reg. That made her slightly curious, but she didn't ask, since it wasn't the time or place. They might not want her to know anyway. That last bit seemed like the most likely thing, since they all just took their places around the table. Clara was placed between her and Bethany, as if they were there to guard her. Peter was directly across from the woman, presenting her with a now familiar-ish face, as well as a safe one.

  At least if you didn't know how much Westmorlands still freaked the woman out. Then, it was good for her to be around different people. Maybe she'd see that they weren't all that scary? That or she'd drop from a heart attack. Right now she seemed to be handling the two in the room with her pretty well.

  Cousin Reg looked over at Bethany, and then down the table at Pete.

  "Six of us? If that isn't too much? There were ten in all, but some people need to study for tests, so we set four of them aside for now. That's just in my immediate group. There are others willing to try it." He held his head high, and Gwen cleared her throat.

  "Good. We can probably set that up too, for the rest of those that want to try it out."

  It was the unfortunate part of being in a large crowd like they were, since Robert Vernor looked at them all, smiled winningly, which he was good at, and then spoke comfortably, as if it were his table or something.

  "Oh? Some kind of event in the offing?" This was addressed to his nephew, but Peter did the talking, his voice going very serious.

  "Yes, sir. Some University people are coming to try out the first level protocol training techniques. If we're doing that here, we'll want to isolate them. Screaming, you know. It can become distracting. At Central we have a second building, just for that. Maybe if we cleared out the large shed in the back? If that's allowed, I mean." For all the world he seemed like a little angel, sitting there, politely discussing torture with the head of the household.

  Robert gave him a look that was distasteful, to say the least.

  "That kind of thing? Well, having seen it done, I can't imagine volunteering for it. We can do that though, clean out some space for it. Brave of you to try it, Reginald. I wouldn't. Gwen's screams still haunt me, in the night. It's enough for me."

  They haunted her too, but normally got drowned out by the thoughts of tentacles wrapping her up and smothering her in fear and dread.

  Because the social order was different that day, clearly, Clara spoke, her voice slightly wistful.

  "I wonder if I could try that, to learn to be a better charger? Then..."

  Peter nodded. "Yes, that's part of our training too. Not as intense really. I can get you a practice unit for that. I'll put the word in with Central. I bet Adam is going to love us stripping all these trainers away for this. Still, maybe we can find more people willing to volunteer? No one thinks that will happen at all."

  Beth nodded, since she agreed with her young compatriot. To them, being people that knew the score, the idea of anyone doing that kind of training on purpose was insane. That was the real point though, wasn't it? It didn't matter if anyone made it through the whole treatment or not, as long as they experienced it enough to know that they never wanted anyone to go through that again.

  Gwen smiled, keeping her opinions to herself. After all, she was just putting things together for these people, after being asked. They might all stop in the first minutes. She wasn't going to be allowed that, she knew. In fact, she'd have to make certain she couldn't get out of it. If she had the ability to do that, she'd use it and that wouldn't help her friends at all. She'd avoid pain like a coward, even knowing that Beth and the others would have to pay for her weakness with other pain that was even worse.

  So, that had to be handled. Luckily it was part of the process. After a while everyone tried to get out of it, she bet. They weren't allowed to, under threat of more torture. At least at the levels she'd seen. By the end point, she didn't doubt they just strapped people down.

  After thinking about it, Gwen shrugged and waited for the soup to come. It was served in a very tiny bowl, and had enough of the thin broth for about ten little spoonfuls. Everyone used the right utensils for it, though both Peter and Clara watched her to see what she was picking up each time. Luckily for them she'd actually had lessons in that, as well as spent most of a year learning the ins and outs of it. This was a simple meal however, so it was just starting at the inside on the right, and moving out, alternating with each course, right, then left.

  Simple. The really complex meals required you to actually recognize which utensil was needed for each course and could change, depending on what you asked for, when the cart came around. You had to know the difference between a sorbet spoon and an ice-cream spoil. That last was kind
of like a flat paddle, and like everything they used here, was so small that you only used two fingers to hold it.

  She managed to avoid having to speak, personally, until the last course came, being served by Winslow himself. He did the first and last dishes of the night. Though technically there would be brandy after the meal too, for those that drank. She looked at Reggie when it was being suggested, and shook her head, which got a soft smile from Beth and a slightly evil sounding chuckle from Peter.

  The boy cleared his throat. "No drinking, and I recommend you get a full night's sleep, if you can. After all, you have an adventure in the morning."

  His voice was mature and sounded like someone telling a little boy that the dentist wouldn't hurt them, knowing full well that it was a lie the entire time.

  It didn't take a big discussion as to why though. Either her cousin got the idea, or he was just going to trust the professionals. It was just that it could lower pain response, making things not work as well. That and dehydrate a person faster than was healthy.

  Beth excused herself, to go and use the Telestator. That was both to set up the thing with Manly and the rest from Central, as well as get in touch with her fiancé. Which, Gwen realized, she should do as well, when the line was cleared. It was later back on the East coast however, so she decided to do that in the morning. Before the torture fest started. Hopefully that would work out. She wondered if anyone would finish what they started?

  Reg was nice, and funny at times, fun. And in a fight, even without training, she'd be willing to bet every met she had on Peter, to take him inside a minute. All the Westmorlands had to be tough. It wasn't something they got a choice in. University kids however, that was a different story. For half a minute she considered suggesting to them before they start that they let themselves be hooked up in a way that meant they couldn't get out of it either. After all, it was one thing to sit there with horrible pain coursing through you, weeping and sobbing, knowing that you were in control, and could end it all with a word. It was something very different to be there, hurting at that level, knowing that no amount of begging, pleading, or even dying, would help you.