“He thinks Claudette may have something to do with it?” I asked.
“Non.” Manon went back to my piles of gifts and picked up another. She tore the paper at a corner. “He would never blame Claudette, and you shouldn’t either. No good will come from it.”
“But I think she did. She was the one who took me away from the guards. She intentionally dropped my hand, leaving me with the crowd.”
Manon shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters now. This will not end well.”
“I’m not afraid of her.” I attempted to force my voice to sound sure, but the words came out shaky.
“You should be.” She slowly put the half-opened gift back on the table. “You should be afraid of Bollard, too.”
“You don’t have to be with my uncle if you don’t want to be. Break up with him. If it’s about money, I am sure you could make the money performing.” I thought of Lothaire’s warning. “We could go together. We could go to my home.”
“No, Waverly. You don’t understand.”
Yelling came from the hallway like a cat screeching at the moon. It was Claudette. “Here fishy, fishy. Minnow, come out and play!”
Manon’s eyes filled with tears. She furiously wiped them away. “I did not sign up for this,” she mumbled. She paced the floor. I knew why she was there then. Sure, she wanted to check up on me, but more than that, today scared her. No, terrified was more like it.
“Fishy, fishy, swim your tank, fishy, fishy, you’re not safe. Fishy, fishy, swim your caves, fishy, fishy, in the grave. Come out, little minnow, I know you’re in this hall somewhere.” Claudette taunted Manon.
“Stay here,” I said.
“Please don’t.” She took my arm. “We will be safe in here. She wouldn’t dare come for me in here.”
I didn’t know if Manon was right. I took a deep breath. I had overcome Claudette’s efforts at controlling me at the restaurant; I could do it in the hallway too. I just had to remember to avoid her eyes.
Out in the hallway, Claudette was barefoot, her hair disheveled, and she had a long gray streak of dirt on her cheek. A liquor bottle swayed in her hands.
“You have a lot of nerve showing up here after today.” I confronted her.
“Ha! Dear cousin, you made it back. No hard feelings, right?” She held out her hand. I didn’t take it.
“Dog has a little bite in her.” She gnashed her teeth. “Growl. You should send the minnow out, I want to play. Ah, there she is.”
Manon stood in my doorway.
“Minnow, I want to introduce you to someone.” Claudette’s arm rested on a giraffe carving.
“This is Ms. Lisa Sanders of Barnbury. She loved lollipops, the poor dear. Lollipops and gold bracelets.”
“And this. This…” Claudette rolled her body along the animals, finally resting on a bear. “This is Mrs. Nancy Marr of New York City. She liked watercress soup and wouldn’t be caught dead eating sugar. She was so bony.”
“And what, the lion’s Sir Francis Diggory? You’ve had too much to drink,” I said.
“Don’t be silly. That is Ms. Doreen Nicholas of New Port.”
I wanted to mention that Ms. Doreen was clearly a male, but I didn’t want to be talking with her. I backed away towards my room.
“You like the Minnow, don’t you? She’ll be gone like the rest, another animal to the wall, and what then?”
“Claudette, you’re drunk.”
“I always am and always will be. Dear, dear Waverly, wait until Bollard‘s done with you. You’ll have to drink to be rid of the shadows, to forgive yourself for what you must do, but here is a secret. They never go away, no matter how much you drink. They will follow you until you die of madness or until they kill you themselves. That’s the way most Merrics die, covered in shadows, screaming for mercy from their damaged souls. You think I am mean? Your death would have been a gift to not only you but to humanity. But look, I’ve said too much. Uncle will be cross. Have you ever seen an angry Rivenor? You don’t even know what a Rivenor is.” Her face lit up with false shock. “You don’t know the first thing about what you are.” She stepped towards Manon. She stared at her, or at least tried to, but she was having a hard time focusing.
Manon put her hand on my shoulder. “Come on, Waverly.”
“Run away.” Claudette took another drink from the bottle. “Not that it will do you much good.”
We rushed into the room, and I slammed the door shut. “What’s that Rivenor thing she mentioned? What is that?”
“I don’t know.” Manon sat by the presents and bit her thumbnail. “I don’t understand half of what she says. Waverly, we are friends, yes?”
I nodded. We hadn’t known each other long, but I cared for her.
“If Bollard asks, will you tell him we are friends?”
“Yeah, sure.”
That made Manon smile. “Good. Good. Can we finish opening the gifts now?”
“Sure, I guess. Why is it so important though?”
“It will make Bollie happy.”
Manon opened gifts with me for an hour. She enjoyed it much more than I did. After that day and the attack, no gifts could make me feel better.
“Manon, do you know if King Lothaire is okay?”
Manon shrugged her shoulders. “I have not heard.”
Chapter 19
A Clear Indication of Mistrust
His shirt untucked, his bowtie loose, Doc staggered into the room. Something was off. He looked tired and his hair stuck to his head with sweat like he’d woken up from a restless sleep or a nightmare.
I ran to his side. “Are you okay, Doc?”
He took a deep breath and sat on my bed, his hands kneading his temples. “I am sorry, Waverly. How are you feeling tonight?”
“Doc, what’s wrong? What happened? You look terrible.”
Eyes dilated, and face flushed, Doc said, “Exodrodinal, otherwise known as The Truth Serum, is the cause.”
“Truth serum is real here?”
“It’s real here as the sky is blue, among several horrifying drugs. Like Lotuslye: it can make you live in a
