Part 27 (1/2)
”My family have had that dream. Contentment. They're all blissful and silly,” she said. Her voice had a tremor too. ”This is my fault. I was afraid to tell them all how bad it was at the Depot. I didn't want to upset Da. And I kept hoping that Gavin Pinkney was so hopeless because he'd had the dream over and over, and because he was so soggy to begin with.”
Nown didn't respond to this. He wound the scarf to mask his lower face. He was overdressed for the weather, which was still warm. He looked a little sinister-or as sinister as anyone in slippers could. Yet no one would imagine his bundled figure was anything but human.
Laura walked out of the yard. Nown followed her. He didn't ask where they were going, or what they'd do.
As Laura walked, she saw all the things she hadn't noticed before, like how quiet the streets were-a Monday like Sunday. And that none of the people who were out and about were in a hurry, and all looked friendly and happy.
The motorists on Market Bridge were the same as ever, jostling and impatient. Most were from outlying suburbs.They were going about their business and perhaps felt just as baffled as Laura by a choice of only three pastries in their favorite pastry shop, and the Founderston Herald printed, packaged, but not on sale.
Laura and Nown crossed the river to the Isle of the Temple. They made their way to Temple Square. Laura told Nown to wait for her in St. Anthony's Chapel, which was in the northwest corner of the nave and always full of shadows in the morning.
Laura went to the Grand Patriarch's palace and told one of the caped guards at the gate that she wanted to see His Eminence.
After a long time, over an hour, Laura rejoined her gla.s.s man in St. Anthony's Chapel. It was gloomy and uninviting, but Nown wasn't the only one there. There were two women at the altar, silhouetted, heads bowed, in the light of the candles they'd lit.
It turned out that Nown could no longer whisper. His voice had been a deep, dry rasp. It was deep still, but now clear and melodious, and even when he spoke quietly it was like listening to water falling into a stone basin in a still garden. ”St. Anthony is the patron saint of the lost,” he said, informatively.
”We should say a prayer then,” said Laura. ”I couldn't get anywhere near the Grand Patriarch or Father Roy. Apparently they are either out or terribly busy. The people I spoke to wouldn't disturb them just to say a little dreamhunter had come to see them. I'm a person of no consequence, and I've been snubbed by pompous functionaries. I did get to leave a note for Father Roy. I hope he jumps out of his skin when he reads it.”
”It's because you're a girl,” Nown said, matter-of-fact.
”Yes,” said Laura. She put a coin in the donation box, took a candle, lit it, and said a short and not terribly coherent prayer. Then she took her gla.s.s man by his gloved hand and left the Temple.
5.
INUTES AFTER LAURA HAD LEFT HER HOUSE, A CAR PULLED UP IN front of it. Three men got out. Two WERE IN PINSTRIPES AND BOWLER HATS, AND HAD HEAVY, SWINGING BULGES IN THEIR JACKET POCKETS. THE THIRD WAS THE RED-HAIRED, WAXY-SKINNED MAZE PLASIR.
Plasir tugged on the bell chain for several minutes before Chorley opened the door. ”h.e.l.lo!” Chorley said, cheery. ”Visitors! Isn't it a lovely day, visitors?”
Plasir took Chorley's arm and propelled him back indoors. The other men crowded in after them.
”Shall we sit down?” Chorley said. ”My papers are all over the place in the library. Let's go in here.” He threw open the parlor doors and swept into the room ahead of them. He flopped into a chair, draped his legs over one of its arms, and let his slippers drop off his feet to the floor.
The Regulatory Body officials perched together on the edge of a sofa, ramrod straight and ready for action.
”I must go out and buy some more music,” Chorley said. ”I've listened to everything I have here.”
Plasir nodded sympathetically. ”This afternoon, perhaps,” he suggested.
”Isn't it afternoon yet? I'm looking forward to a nice nap later,” Chorley said.
”An excellent idea,” said Plasir.
One of the burly officials sn.i.g.g.e.red.
”I've come to ask about one of your films, Mr. Tiebold,” Plasir said.
Chorley's face lit up. ”That's something else I could do later. Watch my films. That would be fun. Those films are certainly one thing I've done that was worthwhile. I've been thinking a lot about that lately-what was worthwhile.”
”Yes. Taking stock. Very healthy,” said Plasir.
”That's right, humor him,” said an official.
Plasir gave the man a cold, quelling look. ”There's one film in particular that interests me,” Plasir said to Chorley. ”A film of the Place.”
”I have two of those,” Chorley said. ”No one in the world but me has a film of the Place.” He looked thoughtful. ”Except Cousin Erasmus, I suppose.”
”Cousin Erasmus has a film of the Place?”
”Yes.” Chorley swung his legs down, and when his bare feet touched the floor, he looked at them and laughed. ”Why do people bother with shoes indoors?”
”He's full of opinions. True to his character,” said one of the officials.
”Be quiet,” Plasir said. ”Mr. Tiebold, where do you keep that film?”
”It's in my darkroom.”
”Would you get it for me?”
”Do you want the other one too?”
”Cousin Erasmus's copy?”
”No. He has that. I mean the one Tziga took, it's only two or three minutes long, but it's very beautiful in its way.”
The officials were nodding, so Plasir said, ”Yes, I think we'd better have both of them.”
One of the officials got up. ”I'll help you, Mr. Tiebold.”
The other said, ”Is Mr. Hame at home?”
”Yes, is he?” said Plasir. ”And when do you expect your wife back?”
”Tziga was here at breakfast,” Chorley said, vague. He left his slippers and wandered to the door. ”I can't remember what Grace said about when she'd be back. Does it matter? We have the whole day ahead of us. This beautiful day.”
Plasir frowned and shook himself. This dream of Cas's was horrible-incomparably horrible. Cas was making adjustments, moving his loaded dreamhunters around, and making sure that the capital kept on running, that its civil servants and politicians were soothed and full of generosity, but not as lost as this-or as desperately lost as the dosed dreamhunters themselves. The Hame-Tiebold house had been two nights at the intersection of overlapping penumbras, under the spell of no fewer than three vivid dreamhunters. And this was the result. Chorley Tiebold had always sneered at and snubbed Plasir, and yet here he was being good-natured and cooperative without giving his actions a moment's thought.
When Chorley disappeared into his darkroom, Plasir went looking for the house's other inhabitants. He found Tziga upstairs asleep, and smiling. He found Rose in the morning room, playing with one of those toys where a clown climbs a ladder and does flips. She had an empty cookie tin before her, and her robe was speckled with crumbs. She looked up at Plasir and gave a shriek of laughter. ”I wasn't thinking about you,” she said. ”I was daydreaming. I thought my daydream might conjure someone. But not you. Yuck!”
”I'm wounded, Miss Tiebold,” said Plasir. Then, ”Your cousin didn't stay for breakfast at Fallow Hill. Where do you think she is?”
”Um,” said Rose. She squeezed her toy so hard that the little clown flew right off it.
”On such a beautiful day, where might Laura have gotten to?” Plasir coaxed, since Rose was a little more feisty than he had expected.
”She was here shortly after breakfast,” the girl said. Then she grinned. ”Uncle Tziga and I bounced boiled eggs.”