Part 7 (1/2)
”Is there a circus in town?”
”Not that I'm aware of, your lords.h.i.+p.”
”Too bad. Might have added to the Mid-Summer Festival, what?” He frowned at me, then noticed Debreban. ”h.e.l.lo, Captain. What are you doing here?”
”Just visiting with my friend, your lords.h.i.+p.” Debreban nodded at Shankey.
”Good to see everyone getting along. And howis Lord Cadmus?”
”He's very well, your lords.h.i.+p.”
”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 yousee his face?”
”Thatwas funny.”
”Not to me it wasn't,” I put in. Just to remind them I was there. Neither chose to respond. Maybe Icould get a job here as wallpaper.
”Why ishe here, though?” wondered Shankey.
”Who knows?”
”Overduke Anton. He'll have word about this little encounter ten minutes from now. Perdle repeats everything to him.”
”Why should the overduke bother about me?” asked Debreban. ”I told the truth. Iam visiting.”
”He'll figure Lord Cadmus sent you over, then think up ten good reasons why, even if they aren't true.”
”The first one will be. Everyone knows my lord's interest in your lady. I wish she'd accept his suit and they'd both settle down.”
”Don't worry, we'll hatch out some kind of plan. Come on, let's get 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 room beyond had a blue theme all through it, but not in such a way as to bore you. Tall windows allowed in plenty of light and air. The floor was a large-scale mosaic in a hundred shades of polished blue stone; the ceiling was always summer with a painted sky full of fluffy clouds. Very oddly, smack in the center of the room, was a circular pavilion-style tent made of black velvet. The top was suspended from a ceiling rafter like some kind of fabric chandelier. Maybe it was a bed chamber of some sort.
Then I noticedher and the whole room just melted away.
I didn'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 feminine phenomenon.
Eyes, the kind that grab you, beat you up, yet you keep coming back for more. They were a pale crystal blue that made the blues of the room look like so much sludge. To call them living gems leaned toward insult.
Her skin was like honey on cinnamon. I wanted to taste it, to find out whether that smooth-looking texture was as sweet and spicy as it appeared.
And her figure . . . it was seven or eight miles beyondwow . I could have written symphonies just on her breathing 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't start thinking baseball scores soon she'd be able to tell whether or not I'd been circ.u.mcised.
”Captain Shankey?” she said.
Ohh, I could float to Tahiti on that voice. ”My lady,” he responded briskly, bowing.
Howcould the guy act like nothing extraordinary was in front of him?
”My lady”-he straightened-”here is the . . . theperson 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 seemed painted on, hugging her every move.
Rowhr-rowhr. And then some.
Shankey looked at me. ”This is the Lady Filima Botello Darmo of House Darmo.”
I had just enough brains still working to know what was expected and swept into a low bow. ”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 shot me a narrow-eyed warning. ”My lady, he's not wearing a mask.
That's hisface .”
She stared for a full minute. It seemed that long. No one else moved the whole time, either. ”You're kidding.” Her dulcet tones jarred with abruptly informal speech.
”Uh . . . no, my lady.”
Then she stepped close enough so I could feel her breath and inhale it for my own. She'd been eating fruit. Strawberries. Sweet ones. Mmmm.
”You'renot kidding.” She reached up and yanked on my nose, jolting me from my Strawberry Fields Forever fog.
”Ow!” I said, backing away. ”That's attached, if you don't mind.”
”You're. Not. Kidding!” She drew back as well. ”Whatare you?”
I flared my lip whiskers, annoyed. ”I'm a who, not a what, and the name has been mentioned. Myhr.
Rhymes withpurr .”
”Show respect,” Shankey muttered through his teeth.
”Where are you from?” Filima went on, oblivious to him.
”Dallas.” There was no recognition of the name from any of them, so I could a.s.sume no equivalent city was in this world. ”Dallas, Texas? As in deep-in-the-heart-of?”
”Texas? Where's that?” she demanded.
”It's a long way from here, a whole other country if you can believe the tourist hype.”
”Are all those from Texas like you?” ”I don't know. I haven't met everyone who lives there yet.” Her eyes blazed, sapphires catching the sun.
Amazing. But I couldn't let them distract me. ”It's my turn. Why did you have me dragged over here?”
”What?”