“It’s beautiful,” said Saskia. “Can you hear music?”
“Don’t listen to it,” Maurice said. “Tune it out. The Watcher is insidious. It can use music to reprogram you…”
Saskia ignored him. The tinkling tune was so pretty, so suitable to the winter’s scene. The way it seemed to slip back and forth between time signatures…
“Hey!” she said as the music clicked off. “That was you, wasn’t it, Maurice?”
“Yes, it was,” Maurice snapped. “I told you to tune it out. Don’t be so silly.”
Judy and Constantine were speaking to a group of men in the thick black coats and the fur-lined hats that seemed to be the fashion in this place. The men had seen them come out of the lift; they resumed their gazing up at the great curved underside of the
“…never seen a ship like it. You say it’s a trading ship?”
“Yes, they are quite common out in the Enemy Domain,” Judy replied.
“Really? I worked there myself some years ago. I don’t recall seeing that type….”
There was a slight accent to their speech, Saskia noted, but nothing more than that. English was now the common language of the Earth Domain. After the arrival of the Dark Seeds, the Watcher had finally succeeded in eradicating the stubborn nationalism that had persisted for so long.
“And why are you here on Earth?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Judy said. “I need to get to somewhere: a place called DIANA. Have you heard of it?”
The men shook their heads. “No, but try the Lite train station. Here, Vanya and I will show you the way.”
“That’s very kind of you, but—”
“I insist, we will take you! But first, it is cold out here! So you will come and drink tea with us? Look, over there, Nadyezhda has a stand with a samovar. You have come so far, you will sit with us? And you too, my metal friend?”
The big man slapped Constantine on the shoulder, his hand making an odd thud as it encountered the robot’s fractal skin.
“I do not need to drink, but thank you for the offer.”
“And sadly we are in a hurry,” Maurice interrupted, “but I thank you anyway. Now, if you could show our friend here the way to the Lite station, we can be off.”
“No,” said Edward, “we are going with Judy. You can stay here if you want to, Maurice.”
Maurice’s active suit was a deep green, and its hood made it difficult to make out his expression, but Saskia could tell by the way that he slumped his shoulders that he would give in and accompany them. The man introduced as Vanya led them away from under the great white curve of the
They passed stand after stand selling varieties of food and drink. Through her active suit senses, Saskia could smell tea, fresh and bubbling in the samovar, the rich aroma of chocolate, and the spiciness of mulled wine. As they walked by stalls selling fruit dipped in chocolate, she saw a woman in a head scarf sliding ripe strawberries fixed on a skewer into a pool of bubbling chocolate, then pulling them out in a rich cloud of steam. She hung the dipped fruit from a shelf to cool and harden, then took down another to give to a pretty blond-haired girl who smiled her thanks. Saskia watched as the girl accepted the skewer and took a bite; Saskia could almost taste the warm chocolate and the sweet juiciness of strawberries exploding in her own mouth.
She wanted something to eat so much.
Then came the smell of frying onions and griddled meat, sharp and savory in the cold air.
“Would you like a hot dog, dear?”
A man with a salt-and-pepper mustache held it out to her, thick and fat and glistening, yellow mustard dripping onto his sleeve.
“No, thank you,” said Maurice firmly, as he guided Saskia and Miss Rose onwards. Saskia felt her stomach
