Cole whispered, “I stil don’t understand what we’re supposed to be doing.”
“We’re like landmarks,” Cassandra explained. “Dave is traveling a long way in his head. He needs to be able to find his way back. Even with Astral acting as a filter, he could get lost. You and I, standing right here along his route, can actual y be seen and latched on to when he tries to find his way back.”
Cole glanced back over his shoulder, wincing as Bergman groaned. “How long?” Cassandra nodded. “I know what you’re thinking. We have to be here until he comes al the way back.”
“Both of us, though? I mean, we’re standing three feet apart!”
“In this world. But in that one we might be hundreds of miles away from each other, we don’t know. Which is why we have to stay. But only just until Dave is done. Then”—she pointed at Bergman —“we run for him.”
Dave cracked open his left eye. “People? I’m trying to home in on a traveling soul while a robot tries to take root in my col arbone and you guys are gabbing like a couple of beauty shop regulars.
Could we concentrate here? That would help a lot.”
Cole and Cassandra traded guilty looks. “Sorry,” said Cole. “I talk when I’m nervous. Sometimes I have to pee. Like right now, I could whiz clear over that fence, bounce it off that tree, and sink it into that hol ow stump, that’s how bad I have to go.”
A laugh, so dry and cracked it could’ve been confused for a smoker’s cough, interrupted them.
Except it had come from Bergman, so everyone knew what it meant.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
In the end, Queen Marie had to admit we’d come up with a plan that might just work. So she caled in a couple of her best Dogs and demanded that they switch their uniforms for something a little less bow-wow and a little more Brude-rocks. While they turned the camp upside down looking for a couple of outfits that didn’t scream trained cavalryman, the queen took us behind her house to a fine brick patio surrounded by blooms. In the center sat a birdbath whose water looked like it hadn’t been changed for at least a mil ennium. My nose, stil physical y intact thanks to Raoul’s ability to transport us al in the flesh, wrinkled as I walked past it and stood next to Vayl under an arched trel is covered with yel ow roses.
“I didn’t know water could turn that shade of brown and stil stay liquid,” I said.
“I think you are being generous in referring to it as water,” he replied.
I had to agree when the center of it bubbled up, stretching the edges toward it as if the entire surface were made of rubber. When it popped I had to cover my mouth; the stench was so oily that it felt like it was trying to crawl down my throat and nest in my stomach.
Aaron, who’d chosen that moment to walk past it, moaned, “Oh, God,” and ran to some bushes to his right, where he spent the next few minutes gagging and spitting. Raoul, stil standing at the entrance to the garden, stared first at the birdbath, and then at the queen, who sat comfortably between him and us on an intricately tooled metal bench while her ladies-in-waiting arranged the skirts of her dress as if they were flowers that had just been added to the garden.
She waved the women away when Raoul said, “Wel disguised,” as he gestured to the infested water. “The last one I saw was in the Eminent Museum of Enlightenment.”
“It is a classic piece,” she agreed. “However it has its advantages, even now. For instance, it can transport entire regiments of my men into areas of the Thin that are not currently guarded by Brude’s hordes. We like to cal them avoidance jumps. Or it can shoot a single person directly to the site he wishes to visit.” She rose, reached into the birdbath, and completely grossed me out when she pul ed free a gerbil-sized handful of shit-colored goo that smel ed like a neglected zoo. When she threw it at Raoul he sidestepped, and I thought he was going to let it fal into the bushes behind him.
But he caught it between his fingertips, his lips turning down at the corners when the impact let loose a fresh barrage of odor. He let go of the sphere with one hand, and I was pretty sure he was going to throw it down with disgust when the queen ripped into him.
“Hold on to that!” she snapped, the command in her voice automatical y straightening his spine.
He renewed his grip on the slippery bal as I asked, “What’s the idea?” afraid that whatever Raoul had touched might foul him permanently. When he tried to protest I waved him off. “I should have that. Or Vayl.”
“No.” Her reply felt more like the passing of a law than conversation. “Raoul is the senior Eldhayr here. He has the sense that the Sniffer”—she nodded to the bal —“needs in order for it to find Brude’s realm. You didn’t think it stayed in one place, did you? If it had, I would have razed his castle and fed his minions to my Dogs ages ago. Speaking of which.” She nodded to Aaron. “Were you planning on leaving this one as payment for your guards and the Sniffer?”
“Luscious!” “Juicy!” screamed her ladies.
I hadn’t seen Aaron so pale since he thought he’d committed vampicide. He looked around wildly, not, I noted proudly, for help. But for something heavy to defend himself with. Unfortunately the only weapon he could find was the fountain, and he didn’t dare get any closer to it. Which meant he actual y looked grateful when Vayl stepped up to face the queen.
He said, “In al the years I have lived, I have learned that nothing is truly required to exist. As a result, I am the best kil er in the world and the Whence. Shal we try for the Thin as wel ?” The queen’s smile never wavered at the threat on her life. Maybe she understood what a hard time Vayl would have actual y snuffing it out here, on her turf. But her eyes, shifting slightly to the left and then to the right, admitted that he meant what he said, and she would probably find herself in a world of hurt before the deed was done, no matter what the outcome.
Raoul stepped forward. “No, Vayl. Aaron may be your son, but this place is more my territory than yours.” He looked steadfastly at the queen. “Your skil at bartering nearly equals your political finesse, Majesty. But you need, and wil receive, nothing more from us than Brude’s destruction, if we succeed. You should remember, as wel , that if you threaten any of mine, you threaten me.” He paused. “And al the Eldhayr.”
The queen smiled happily. “Just as I’d hoped. Barring the boy, every one of you is as fierce as a Romanian
