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The gate swung open stiffly, as if it did not open often Beyond was a garden with trees weighed down by their late-May green burdens, and crazy paving that stretched on until it was lost from view
They went slowly down the garden path, Nick’s awareness of as going on ebbing and fading with every step The garden was a wild tangle that had clearly been left to decay for years; briars forainst Nick’s eyelids as his eyes closed Alan’s voice cut across his consciousness, saying his naain with an effort
In front of the above thee that it seemed to demand decoration, the decency of pillars and balconies, but here behind the gates there was no such pretense There was only the severe white building, stretching up five floors Above the large door were letters raised in gold
The words swa fish that wanted to escape and would not form a coherent pattern, and then they stilled Nick could feel his body now and it felt heavy, so heavy that he could not hold himself up
The gold letters stayed for a ainst the blackness, when his eyelids dropped and he fell forward
THE HOUSE OF MEZENTIUS, the shining words read, and below that: THEIR NAME IS LEGION
Nick woke in darkness to the sound of screams
The darkness he solved by reaching out and turning on the lamp on the table beside his bed, but the screa with relief that his muscles and sine remembered they were his and obeyed hiled eh ceiling, and little scalloped bits at the corners of said ceiling His bed was big, with a carved oak headboard
The screaed that they were muffled by thick walls, rather than all that far away
The heavy door, also polished oak, slid open Nick reached for a sword that was not there and was glad to see Alan He was also glad to see that Alan had his sword
Alan s out fro better” He threw Nick a little heap of fabric, which Nick unfolded and saas a shirt, the crisp buttoned kind you should ith a suit He was about to refuse it when he glanced down at his T-shirt and saw that it was stained with vomit and blood He didn’t want to know if he’d hacked up blood He just changed shirts
Once he had done so, he gestured around at the room “All this is very posh”
“It’s Merris Cromwell’s house”
Nick supposed that h he hadn’t known she had this much
“Where are the others?”
Alan looked pleased that he’d asked “Nearby Mu to cal how you are We’ve all been put in the north wing, so we’re pretty close to {ret dogether Do you want to go see them?”
Nick shrugged, and Alan led the way The north wing seemed to be mostly corridors so wide they almost qualified as rooms, the walls sleek and white and the wooden floors all dark from years and polish They found Mae and Jamie in a roo bed and crenulated ceiling Ja across a fluffy white rug that looked like a decapitated polar bear
“We should go check on him,” she said as Nick opened the door
Jaht”
Mae looked around and did not blush Nick liked that, the way she felt no need to pretend either indifference or exaggerated concern She just nodded at him
He was not used to big houses like this He was used to small, shabby houses and flats, places with so few rooms and such thin walls that he always knehere Alan was Noas in wide open spaces under vaulted ceilings, and he was noticing too eness of it all ainst the wall and looked deliberately through Mae After a few aze, toward Alan
It didn’t make Nick feel any better He felt restless suddenly, and as he tuned out the others’ voices and wished for soain the sound that had woken hih all the expensive privacy of this house, were faint but unmistakable screams
It was obvious that the rest of them couldn’t hear it He should probably tell Alan
“There is so tortured in this house”
Alan gave a guilty start, and it was clear to Nick that he at least already knew
“That’s not entirely true,” he said hastily
“Tortured?” exclaimed Jamie
Nick shrugged “Sounds like that to me”
“Alan,” Mae said, in a tone of command rather than appeal “Where are we?”
Alan looked defeated already, as if so as i darkness across the sky
“This is the House of Mezentius,” he said
“That’s what it said above the door,” Nick agreed “Who’s Mezentius?”
Alan see trouble with the words “He was an Etruscan king in a legend,” he said slowly “He had living people bound face-to-face with dead bodies and left to starve”
p>
The gate swung open stiffly, as if it did not open often Beyond was a garden with trees weighed down by their late-May green burdens, and crazy paving that stretched on until it was lost from view
They went slowly down the garden path, Nick’s awareness of as going on ebbing and fading with every step The garden was a wild tangle that had clearly been left to decay for years; briars forainst Nick’s eyelids as his eyes closed Alan’s voice cut across his consciousness, saying his naain with an effort
In front of the above thee that it seemed to demand decoration, the decency of pillars and balconies, but here behind the gates there was no such pretense There was only the severe white building, stretching up five floors Above the large door were letters raised in gold
The words swa fish that wanted to escape and would not form a coherent pattern, and then they stilled Nick could feel his body now and it felt heavy, so heavy that he could not hold himself up
The gold letters stayed for a ainst the blackness, when his eyelids dropped and he fell forward
THE HOUSE OF MEZENTIUS, the shining words read, and below that: THEIR NAME IS LEGION
Nick woke in darkness to the sound of screams
The darkness he solved by reaching out and turning on the lamp on the table beside his bed, but the screa with relief that his muscles and sine remembered they were his and obeyed hiled eh ceiling, and little scalloped bits at the corners of said ceiling His bed was big, with a carved oak headboard
The screaed that they were muffled by thick walls, rather than all that far away
The heavy door, also polished oak, slid open Nick reached for a sword that was not there and was glad to see Alan He was also glad to see that Alan had his sword
Alan s out fro better” He threw Nick a little heap of fabric, which Nick unfolded and saas a shirt, the crisp buttoned kind you should ith a suit He was about to refuse it when he glanced down at his T-shirt and saw that it was stained with vomit and blood He didn’t want to know if he’d hacked up blood He just changed shirts
Once he had done so, he gestured around at the room “All this is very posh”
“It’s Merris Cromwell’s house”
Nick supposed that h he hadn’t known she had this much
“Where are the others?”
Alan looked pleased that he’d asked “Nearby Mu to cal how you are We’ve all been put in the north wing, so we’re pretty close to {ret dogether Do you want to go see them?”
Nick shrugged, and Alan led the way The north wing seemed to be mostly corridors so wide they almost qualified as rooms, the walls sleek and white and the wooden floors all dark from years and polish They found Mae and Jamie in a roo bed and crenulated ceiling Ja across a fluffy white rug that looked like a decapitated polar bear