Page 4 (1/2)

One Long Walk Later, at Darmo House

I love how the other half lives You just can&039;t beat it

Lady Filima&039;s ood stuff in life It was bigger than any other building I&039;d seen in Rumpock and cleaner, too,like an art-deco wedding cake Once past the wrought iron gates, we had a quick stroll up a paved, garden-flanked drive to a set of huge doors with gold- leaf tri kind of way People with this kind of erous

Shankey and his friend cut over to a smaller side door on the left I didn&039;t rate the oon squad had stopped carrying me A dozen feet fro routine, allowed me to face forward, then we&039;d walkedaruys norrip Cozy

Shankey gave a yell and sos up We trooped into a diaped at me as he shut the door Shankey told him to take off, then turned to his partner

"Debreban, it was great for you to help like this, but you should keep out of sight I don&039;t want to have to explain you Her nibs can get touchy seeing those colors"

"Then I&039;ll lose theh to shrug clear of his garish cloak and throw it on a table

"She nize you anyway"

"Doubt it She&039;s never noticed h to the delivery My lord will skinto report"

"Buton"

"She&039;ll get her way then, &039;cause neither of us knohat&039;s going on"

"Count otten o see this lady and get it over with My guess is she won&039;t be looking at either of you once I&039; back and play fly on the wall, then everyone will knohat&039;s going on"

Shankey opened his h to object, then clammed up "Okay, why not?"

I relaxed a little, reassured by his show of common sense "Cool Nohere do I freshen up?"

"Freshen up?"

"If I&039;ot a place where I can brush off the dust?"

Debreban shifted on his feet "Sounds like a good idea I&039; a little pressure, myself All that beer"

"Now that youthe way to an indoor facility that was down a flight of stairs in a stuffy baseht here, ground level outside, were for ventilation only No way forbench, with dividers between the holes: a three-seater with no waiting

"This wasn&039;t what I had in ht where I could check the lay ofclothes, so hopefully their flashiness would

Shankey and Debreban were too busy iara Falls - American and Canadian sides - to pay attention to me I waited them out Afterward, they looked a lot less tense We went upstairs again

"Nohat?" I asked Shankey

"Now you shut up and speak when spoken to Show respect"

Well, he didn&039;t make any friends with me for that answer He sent someone ahead, then we all marched upstairs to the more refined areas of the joint

The house looked like abudget I gaped a lot, ads and sculptures, and fiercely wondered what the hell I was doing here

Our hike ended before a set of elegantly tall double doors, painted royal blue Their detailed triive me and Terrin roo forwide just before we reached thee boys inblue tunics Like the kid below, they stared at hten someone&039;s day

A ed, stopped, and ether The fangs tend to alarlimpse of the next rooht bow

Perdle recovered fairly fast "Hello, Captain Ermwho is this person, if I may ask?"

Shankey hesitated, then made a quick introduction, but I doubt if Perdle heard any of it I gave a little boell, but could tell by his eyes he thought I was so nutcase in a mask It seemed best to preserve that illusion, so I kept my smile fixed in place

"Friend of Lady Filima, what?" He spoke to Shankey, not me

"I think so, your lordship"

"Is there a circus in town?"

"Not that I&039;ht have added to the Mid-Summer Festival, what?" He frowned athere?"

"Just visiting with my friend, your lordship" Debreban nodded at Shankey

"Good to see everyone getting along And how is Lord Cadmus?"

"He&039;s very well, your lordship"

"Excellent, excellent Well, carry on, then" He moved out of the way Shankey and Debreban closed ranks next to me

Once Perdle was out of earshot, Debreban snickered "Did you see his face?"

"That was funny"

"Not to me it wasn&039;t," I put in Just to remind theet a job here as wallpaper

"Why is he here, though?" wondered Shankey

"Who knows?"

"Overduke Anton He&039;ll have word about this little encounter tento him"

"Why should the overduke bother about "

"He&039;ll figure Lord Cadood reasons why, even if they aren&039;t true"

"The first one will be Everyone knows my lord&039;s interest in your lady I wish she&039;d accept his suit and they&039;d both settle down"

"Don&039;t worry, we&039;ll hatch out soet this over with" Shankey tapped three times on one of the doors, two quick, one slow, and they opened The pages were still there, now able to have a clear view of the Myhr and Two Stooges show

The big rooh it, but not in such a way as to bore you Tall s allowed in plenty of light and air The floor was a large-scalewas always summer with a painted sky full of fluffy clouds Very oddly, smack in the center of the room, was a circular pavilion-style tentrafter like some kind of fabric chandelier Maybe it was a bed chamber of some sort

Then I noticed her and the whole room just melted away

I didn&039;t know they made them like that any more, sort of an Elizabeth Taylor crossed with Josephine Baker type There was no way to see her all at once; she was a series of quick, intense perceptions that hit me all over I wanted to root myself to the floor and stay for a few years to absorb every nuance of this ferab you, beat you up, yet you keep co back for more They were a pale crystal blue that e To call theems leaned toward insult

Her skin was like honey on cinnamon I wanted to taste it, to find out whether that s texture was as sweet and spicy as it appeared

And her figureit was seven or eight miles beyondI could have written sy alone

Yes, I drooled On the inside Outside, I just stood and gaped a lot My brain had disconnected, the speech centers shut down, but other parts of me were very much up, alive, active, and real happy If I didn&039;t start thinking baseball scores soon she&039;d be able to tell whether or not I&039;d been circumcised

"Captain Shankey?" she said

Ohh, I could float to Tahiti on that voice

"My lady," he responded briskly, bowing

How could the guy act like nothing extraordinary was in front of hihtened - "here is thethe person you wished to see Mr Myhr"

She nodded Man, she could give lessons to queens on how to get it right Regal clothes, too; her long, dark blue gown see her every move

Rowhr-rowhr And then some

Shankey looked at me "This is the Lady Filih brains still working to knoas expected and swept into a lo "An honor, lady" The gesture earned me a small smile Woo hoo

"Thank you," she said "You may remove your mask if you will"

Shankey cleared his throat and shota mask That&039;s his face"

She stared for a fullNo one else " Her dulcet tones jarred with abruptly informal speech

"Uhno, h so I could feel her breath and inhale it forfruit Strawberries Sweet ones M" She reached up and yanked on

"Ow!" I said, backing away "That&039;s attached, if you don&039;t !" She drew back as well "What are you?"

I flared my lip whiskers, annoyed "I&039;m a who, not a what, and the name has been mentioned Myhr Rhyh his teeth

"Where are you from?" Filinition of the name from any of them, so I could assume no equivalent city was in this world "Dallas, Texas? As in deep-in-the-heart-of?"

"Texas? Where&039;s that?" she de way from here, a whole other country if you can believe the tourist hype"

"Are all those from Texas like you?"

"I don&039;t know I haven&039;t met everyone who lives there yet" Her eyes blazed, sapphires catching the sun A But I couldn&039;t let theed over here?"

"What?"

"Where I coo around kidnapping people I&039;ve got nothing against these guys, they&039;re only doing a job, but I&039;d like an explanation of why you wanted to see me How do you even know me? We&039;ve never met" I would have re with her lips, tucking theain I wanted to do wonderful things with thelower-like the possibility of that seee of you all the same"

"Oh, really?"

"And I know that you are connected to the Hell-river" She spoke like a TV lawyer about to crack the star prosecution witness during the cross-examination Raymond Burr would have been proud Shankey and Debreban, in the midst of their fly-on-the-wall opportunity, shifted on their feet as though startled Apparently a large clue had been thrown out on the nice blue floor

But it only got a blank reaction fro about it," she said, withabout that blackReally I&039;ave you the idea that - "

Son must have passed from her to Shankey He cuffed the back of my head "Answer," he snarled

I paused to turn and shoot hiainst the truth? I don&039;t know squat except what I saw last night, and that scared the hell out of me"

Filima smiled, all sexy triumph "You were able to see it"

"Yeah, and I wish I hadn&039;t You guys have a serious pollution problem here"

"Very, very few others are aware it exists; certainly none of the ordinary folk of Rus a resident oing to tell me"

I almost went "hah-whazzat?" then sealed up quick She didn&039;t seenorance for an answer; she ay too nerved I recognized her kind of tension So he owned on the turn of a roulette wheel Filima had that sa the little white ball around the wheel I&039;d left before the ball came to rest on either his salvation or destruction No such freedom for me here But before I could coet rowled It didn&039;t just growl, it put on an extended chorus with curtain calls

Shankey frowned, Debreban tried not to smile, and Filima blinked

"Sorry," I said "Haven&039;t had lunch yet"

She blinked again, see to take me in on a different level It was subtle, but I sensed an easing in her luscious body The blaze in her eyes cooled "How remiss of me not to offer you refresh the bell? Three long and two short"

Shankeyto try for a softer kind of caet infor on an embroidered bell pull I was just able to pick out a distant ringing fro a tubby geezer in for clothes ushered in a small parade of servant-types in identical blue s trays The smells of perfectly cooked food plucked the air like old plates and utensils Within a minute Filima and I were seated opposite each other, and I was invited to pick what I liked froears

I&039;h, and common sense told me to eat up while I could I pointed to dishes that I had no name for, but which appealed to my instincts In the worlds I&039;d been to it&039;s better not to inquire too closely about the strange food, just trust that if the natives survive on it then you will, too Besides, it usually does taste like chicken, even the chicken, which I was sucking down like it would go out of style Fililass was filled to the brim I drank deep to quench my thirst, secure that my weird body chemistry would keep me out of trouble Terrin and I hadout of money before we ran out of sobriety Even Cleiven me a pleasant buzz and then rateful