to curl up. “Here. It’s time for bed.” Nora didn’t move. “I said, it’s time for bed,” Ilissa repeated.
Reluctantly, Nora settled herself onto the mattress. She was already wearing her nightgown, she noticed without caring much.
“Get some sleep, darling,” Ilissa said. “You’ll feel better in the morning.” The room dimmed abruptly, although no one had made a move toward extinguishing the candles.
“I’ll stay with Nora for a while,” Moscelle murmured, edging toward the bed.
“No, you’ll come with me,” Ilissa said smoothly. “Moscelle, I’d like to know what you were thinking—?” The door shut behind them.
Lying rigid in bed, her mind still agitated, Nora hardly expected to sleep. Surprisingly, though, almost immediately she slid into deep, velvet unconsciousness.
Only to wake up, some hours later, with the pressing need to urinate. She got up to relieve herself and then went back to bed, but her capacity for sleep had vanished. For a while she kept hopelessly picturing Raclin and Oon in a series of torrid embraces, until she reflected that Ilissa was right, she should try to be calm for the baby’s sake.
Then she began to worry about how much her anxiety and panic might already have affected the baby, setting its small heart racing, teaching it too soon that there was such a thing as fear in the world. “It’s all right, it’s all right,” she said softly, her hand on her belly. Presently, as though the baby had heard her, she was relieved to sense a flutter deep inside; it was only the second time that she had felt the baby move. Nora lay still so as not to miss a flicker of movement.
Less reassuring were the faint, sharp pains, like pinpricks, that came and went so quickly that Nora would have thought she had imagined them, except that they happened over and over again. She would have to ask Ilissa about them. Perhaps she should see a doctor. It occurred to her that she had not seen a doctor since getting pregnant. Something else to worry about. She sighed and burrowed more deeply under the covers.
The bedroom door opened. Raclin’s broad-shouldered figure was silhouetted in the doorway. “Raclin!” Nora said, sitting up in bed. In spite of everything, the sight of him sent a grateful thrill through her.
He came into the room, and the candles on the mantelpiece flared into luminescence. His handsome face was smiling exactly the way that it had always smiled at her, but somehow it was not reassuring. “I heard about your little exhibition tonight, darling. Did you have to pitch your hysterics where everyone could see you?”
“How many people saw you and Oon?” Nora said, half-surprised at her own boldness.
“One too many, obviously,” he said, laughing to himself. “Moscelle won’t be carrying tales any time soon.”
“Raclin, how could you do this to me? I wanted to die, when Moscelle told me.”
He stopped laughing and came over to sit on the edge of the bed. He stroked her hair, watching her face. “Oon is nothing to me, darling. Just a diversion.”
“Is she the only one?”
“Darling, don’t be silly!”
“Answer me!”
“That’s too ridiculous to even answer.”
“I know you can’t lie to me. Tell me!”
“Where did you hear that?” Raclin’s voice lost some of its controlled, affectionate tone. “Very well, I’ll tell you the truth—see how you like it. Is Oon the only one I’ve kissed and undressed and made love to these past few months? No, she’s not.”
Nora found it hard to breathe. “I love you so much, and you just ignore me and neglect me. I’m your wife, I’m going to have your baby.”
“Yes, very admirable of you. You’ve fulfilled everyone’s expectations beautifully.”
“What does Oon give you that I can’t give you? You think I’m ugly because I’m pregnant?”
“You’re always beautiful, my dear, pregnant or not. Thanks to my mother. No, since you want the truth, I get a little bored sometimes. And Oon, well, she may not have much of a mind, but it is a mind of her own, which makes things a bit more interesting. No offense, darling.”
“What do you mean?” Nora felt suddenly ashamed, without understanding why.
“I thought that might fly right over your pretty head. Well, you can rest assured that you will hear no more reports of my dallying with other women.”
Nora thought hard, trying to understand why his promise didn’t sound completely satisfactory. “Does that mean you’ll stop seeing other women, or you’ll just make sure that I don’t hear about it?”
“Ah, that’s my clever girl! Sometimes you surprise me. Sometimes.”
“Raclin—” She tried to be reasonable. “I wouldn’t mind so much about Oon or anyone, if I could see more of you. We need to be together for the baby’s sake. We’re a family now.”
“Oh, I’ve done my part,” Raclin said. He stood up and moved a few steps away from the bed. “I’ve given Ilissa a grandchild—incidentally, she believes it will be a grandson—and now I’m free to pursue my own interests. You and I will appear together in public when it’s appropriate, naturally.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m moving to other chambers, and I will see somewhat less of you until my son requires a sibling. I’m sure you’ll find ways to keep occupied. I think you’ll be an excellent mother. Ilissa thinks so, too.”
He was talking about a sort of separation, a marriage that was empty except for the begetting of children, and he sounded so casual about it, as though he cared nothing for her. Nora felt suffocating panic sweep through her. Clambering out of bed, she caught hold of Raclin’s arm. “But darling, you don’t understand. I love you. The baby isn’t enough. I need you—you! I’ll die if I can’t be with you.”
“No, you won’t.” Raclin sounded bored. “You just think that. I made you think that.” He walked over to the window and looked out. The sky was a pearly gray. “This conversation is dull, my dear, and I must be going. It’s almost dawn. I suggest you get some sleep before the rest of the house wakes up.”
“Where are you going?” she asked. Raclin only smiled. “You’re going to see Oon, right? That’s what you do every day. You’re with Oon or some other slut!”
“Believe what you like,” he said, turning toward the door.
“You’ve been cheating on me all along,” Nora cried, flinging herself on him. “You stay here with me, with your wife!”
“Let me go,” he said. “It’s late. I lost track of time.” He pushed back, trying to disentangle himself from her embrace. She slid to her knees, locking her arms around his legs. “Nora, this is tiresome. You’ll hurt the baby.”
“I don’t care,” she said, sobbing. “I want you to stay.”
“Let me go, you idiot!”
“Stay with me! Or tell me where you go every day. I want to know the truth.”
“Is that what you really want?”
“Yes, I want to know!” said Nora, gripping his thighs. “Tell me!”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment, and then she felt a fierce shudder run through his body. She looked up. “Darling?” she started to ask.
The first thing she saw was the jagged line of teeth, two separate rows of them in a long narrow jaw. Then there was the yellow eye, crossed by an oval, elongate pupil, looking down at her. Something was unfolding above her, big as a tent but not a tent, it was shaped wrong. Not a man, either, although there was something manlike in the muscled torso and hard, scaly legs that she was still clinging to.
All Nora could do was utter a little moan of disbelief. It was a dragon, a dinosaur, a monster from a nightmare. Raclin was gone—where? The monster had done something to him. A claw raked her cheek. Letting go of the creature’s legs, she scrambled away, crablike, until she came up against the bed. She gripped the bedpost and pulled herself upright.
At first she thought that the creature filled the room, but then she saw that she was mistaken, its body wasn’t much larger than a man’s. It was the leathery wings, brushing the ceiling’s plasterwork, that gave the impression of great size. Snapping its jaws, the thing dropped down to all fours, the joints of its legs protruding into the air, like a lizard’s. Almost lazily, it took a few steps toward Nora, and then reared on its hind legs again. The creature turned its long, vicious head back and forth, fixing her with first one yellow eye, then another.
As she faced it, Nora had a terrible intuition. This outlandish, impossible monster that had made Raclin
