Part 25 (1/2)

”That was a big clue.” Quinton pushed her plate aside. ”Also, that you made no attempt to hide your crime from the guards showed you had no idea you did anything wrong.”

King Terrin reached for the serving bowl of mashed roots.

”You killed and ate in human form. Murder rarely happens like that and cannibalism never.”

Though he craved more of the root dish, Collins put his fork down. He schooled his features. ”I want you to know I'm very very sorry about what I did. I've suffered a lot of recriminations, tears, and soul-searching to deal with it, and I still have moments of heart-wrenching regret. If I had known-”The king raised his hand. ”You would not have done it. I understand.”

”Thank you, Sire,” Collins said, this time without difficulty. If his original companions had forgiven him this easily, they could have spared him and themselves a lot of bickering and discomfort. ”I don't have the words to express how much I appreciate your understanding.”

The king ladled root-mash onto his plate. ”You need say nothing more.”

As it sounded as much a command as a suggestion, Collins obeyed.

The king sat straighter in his chair, steam from the root-mash twining into his beard. ”You have a choice, Ben. You may stay here and become another adviser.”

”A generous offer, Sire,” Quinton inserted, and Collins wished he had had the chance to say that first.

”Or you may show us the way to the portal so that you and Carrie, if she wishes, may return to your home.”

I'm going back. Excitement trembled through Collins. I'm going home. ”Thank you, Sire,” he said, not voicing his choice because his quick decision to leave might offend the king.

Quinton clutched the front of her dress. ”So you know the way to the portal?”

”I-” Collins started, then stopped with nowhere to go from that point. ”I ... don't you ... I mean ...”

No one jumped in to help him.

”The way to the portal?”

Quinton's hands sank to her lap.

Collins shook his head to clear it. ”Shouldn't be that hard to figure out. It's in a set of ruins on a hill not far from Olton. The guards caught me in a field close by. They should know.”

The king and Quinton exchanged glances.

Quinton shook her head. ”We sent guards to where you got caught. I remembered coming in through ruins, too; but the only ones they found that looked right took us nowhere.”

Collins crinkled his eyes as the impossibility of the statement overtook him. ”How can that be? How many ruins are there?”

”A lot.” The king answered before Quinton could. ”Centuries ago, the kingdom sat in that very area, sprawling for miles, with cities and towns at myriad locations. You can't go there without running into the ruins of something.”

Collins' eyes slitted further. ”Maybe if Carrie and I went with your guards, Sire. Taken place to place, surely we'd recognize-”

”Tried that,” Quinton interrupted. ”Amazing how similar a crumbling pile of stone and mortar can look to another crumbling pile of stone and mortar. Over hundreds of years, things get picked through until nothing of value remains for a landmark.”

Collins shook his head, maintaining his confused expression. ”But Zylas uses the portal again and again, so there must be some way to recognize it.” He considered his next utterance, not wis.h.i.+ng to offend. ”Men do have . . . some advantage in the spatial relations realm.”

Quinton adopted a deep, broken caveman speech. ”Girls talk, men logic. Ugh.” She pretended to scratch herself, apelike. ”I got a 780 on my math SAT, I'll have you know. That's about an eyelash from a perfect 800.”

Glad he had not resorted to the word ”superior,” Collins tried to make amends. ”I'm not saying women are dumb, just that their brains are wired different from men's. Not worse,” he added swiftly, ”just different.”

”Differently,” Quinton said.

”Differently.” Collins accepted the correction without comment, especially since it served to make his point. ”Look, women have that extra X chromosome that protects them from hemophilia, color blindness, and a whole host of other deadly diseases. They live longer. They've got an advantage when it comes to verbal and nonverbal communication. Men had to get something.”

”Testosterone?” Quinton suggested.

Collins knew his only hope now lay in self-deprecatory humor. ”I mean besides the drive to kill each another.”

Quinton laughed, opening the way for Collins to finish.”And it just happens to be a better handle on how one object relates to another.”

”Which is why guys never ask directions.”

”Exactly.” Collins grinned. ”To do so would be abdicating our maleness, our one claim to ... to equality.”

The king, who had quietly feasted on the roots while his guests argued the merits of gender, finally spoke. ”I'm afraid I can't let you leave the castle, Ben. At least, not yet.”

Collins' smile wilted. ”I'm a prisoner?”

The king laid aside his fork. ”Not at all. You're free to go anywhere within the fortifications. The guards will politely stop you from going farther.”

Although Collins had no plans to go anywhere, the idea of a restriction bothered him. ”If I'm not a prisoner, then why?”

King Terrin did not bother to consult Quinton this time. ”We've been honest with you. Dangerously so. We can't risk you rejoining the renegades.”

Collins weighed the king's words. The man had a point. He thought of Zylas, picturing the fair skin and soft waves of tangled, snowy hair beneath the ever present broad-brimmed hat. The pale blue eyes had always seemed so wise, so desperately earnest, a strange contrast to the inscrutable red beads he looked through in rat form. They had formed such a swift, strong friends.h.i.+p based on the mortal danger they had shared. Danger, Collins now knew, contrived by the very man he had seen as a savior. He thought of Falima, unable to suppress a smile. That evening in Vernon's cabin when they had finally reached an understanding, that camaraderie could not have been feigned. And Vernon. Collins still had difficulty reconciling the enormous man to the tiny mouse he became. Vernon had mentioned that he remained in mouse form, and Zylas a rat, whenever he visited Collins' world, even if he pa.s.sed his switch time.

Collins wondered if that had something to do with a difference in the physical laws in effect in each world. Thank goodness gravity, at least, works the same.

Realizing his thoughts had rushed off on a tangent, Collins redirected them. He knew the king wanted him to give up as many of the renegades as he could. They already knew about Zylas and Falima, so he did not need to worry about betraying them. He doubted he had any information about those two that the king did not already know. Collins saw no reason not to surrender Ialin, too. The tiny man had treated him with persistent hostility despite the trials he and his friends had deliberately caused for Collins. The realization irritated him. At least Zylas and Falima had the decency to acknowledge their debt to me. Which brought him to Vernon. There, Collins found a real dilemma. The mouse/man clearly dedicated his life to a.s.sisting people of many types, often without explanation or reason. Daily, he put himself in danger to help others, and he apparently did it from innate kindness rather than any expectation of reward.

I thought Zylas was a good guy, too. Collins grimaced at the realization. For reasons he could not fully explain, he believed Vernon truly had no ulterior motives. And then there was Prinivere. He realized how important knowing about her would be to the king, yet he also liked her. His vow to Vernon, though a sham, ached inside him. He had promised to keep her existence a secret, and his word meant more to him than he realized. Though the ceremony of spitting and shaking had no real significance, the fact that Vernon believed it did brought it to a whole new level. And Korfius was completely innocent. These thoughts rushed through Collins' mind faster than he expected. ”I need time to sort all of this out before I make an irreversible decision.”

”Understood.” The king seemed unperturbed by this response. ”And until then, you must see why we need to keep you here.”

Collins did understand. ”Yes, Sire.” Politeness seemed the best policy. ”And I appreciate your hospitality.” Though no one had threatened or even suggested it, Collins realized they held a trump card.

If he refused to cooperate, they could reinstate his death sentence. He appreciated that they made it look like his choice, though, in the end, he truly had none. On the other hand, he saw advantages to leaguing with Barakhai's royalty. Quinton's presence, alive, well, and happy showed the king rewarded loyalty. He and the geneticist had spent time alone together. Even if the king had some way of listening in on their conversation, Quinton had shown that she could switch to English simply by setting aside the stone.Surely she would have warned him of any hidden agendas or cruelties of King Terrin or his staff.

Aside from holding him at sword point and in a cell, both understandable under the circ.u.mstances, they had, thus far, shown Collins nothing but kindness. They also seemed almost brutally honest in their dealings with him. In exchange for some information about people who had lured him into mortal danger and then accepted credit and trust for rescuing him from it, he would get a pardon, a way home, a beautiful companion to corroborate his story and maybe even, through a shared experience no one else could understand, a life partner. That he could pick and choose who he exposed and no one could know that he had done so proved the icing on the cake.

Collins needed time alone to think, and the king of Barakhai happily granted that request.

Chapter 17.

BENTON Collins awakened to the scattered glaze of sunlight through the slit of his window. He sat up and stretched, regretting it immediately as a wave of suffering washed through him. His bruises and strains had stiffened during the night, but time and sleep had erased the sharp edges of pain. He lay in a bed of simple construction, just a wood frame and blanketwrapped straw, but it far exceeded the one in Vernon's cottage. The cloth had warmed to his body through the night, and the idea of leaving the snuggly coc.o.o.n formed by his coverings seemed onerous. He glanced around the room. A chest of drawers filled most of one wall, full of clean clothing he looked forward to pulling over a body too long enmeshed in the same grimy tunic and britches. They had allowed him a bath before bed, a luxury more welcome even than painkillers or sleep. A table sat in the middle of the room, a basin of fresh water on its surface and a chair at its side.