“Maybe the loss will be good for your character.”
“Ha! Were you ever beaten? Was it good for your character?”
For a moment he seemed to be actually casting about for a response. Then he said, “You were going to show me the Crown.”
She stalked coldly out of the room. Tal waited. He stationed himself near the window, not that that would do a lot of good if a dozen guards started pouring in.
In a moment she was back. She was carrying another stuffed toy—a teddy bear. She handed it to Tal.
It was ice-cold. He said, “Thanks, but I’d prefer the Crown,”
She put a finger on the bear’s stomach. “It’s in there.”
“The space isn’t big enough.”
“You don’t know anything about it,” she stated, and there was truth in that. “It’s in his tummy. Hyram put it there.”
“Why would Hyram put the Sawyer Crown in a teddy bear?”
She looked disgusted with his stupidity, rolled her eyes and stamped a foot. “Listen. I said for him to put my bear Totie in the freeze. And he said he would, because that could do two things at once. Nobody’d ever believe there was anything valuable in it.”
This story seemed to be veering off into unreality. “Why would you want to put your bear into a freezer?”
“Because he’d get old and messed up, of course, if I didn’t. Everything does.”
Yes. Of course it does. She said, “I saw other dolls get all dirty and old, and Hyram said it was because of entropy. And I told him entropy wouldn’t get Totie for a long, long time if we put him in the freezer. So I gave him all my best animals—the giraffe and the dragon and the pouncer—and my other two bears—and he put them in the freeze for me. See?”
“But you can’t play with them anymore if they’re in the freezer.”
She stated, “You have to make sacrifices in this world.”
Yes, a six-year-old was explaining this to him. “I see,” he said.
She looked around at the pile of animals she’d pushed onto the floor earlier. “I only keep the ones out here I don’t like.” She made a face at them. “For the rest of my life, I’ll know that my bears and things are safe in the freeze. Except for him,” she pointed at Totie. “He’ll get old and die now, but I promised if you won.”
Tal examined the stuffed toy in his arms. “Actually, he won’t get old.”
“That’s right, I forgot. You’ll have to rip him up.” There was a note of relish in her voice. She seemed to be dealing with the idea without any difficulty, so he said, “Would it bother you if I cut him open here?”
“You don’t believe me!”
“Well, I’d like to open him here.”
“Huh! Go ahead. But it hurts the Crown if you get it warm, that’s why it was in the freeze.”
He considered that. The bear would continue to provide cool insulation, providing he didn’t disembowel it here and now. He took out his knife, made a rift along the belly, and stuck in one finger.
He touched something hard, cold, and metallic. Whatever it was, it didn’t belong in a toy. It would be interesting if this were a bomb, set to go off when the temperature had risen sufficiently—say when he was a certain distance from the house. He imagined a succession of bears, given to presumptuous thieves. He peered through the rift in the bear’s fur and made out a kind of prong. He drew it out slightly. It was marked with a Curosa symbol. He pushed it back into the bear’s belly and pulled the skin closed.
“Very well, Princess, I’ll accept your bear.”
He went to the window and drew the curtain aside slightly. Three guards had met beside a tree nearby for a smoke and a talk. Very lax, these people were. “You might get your Crown back after all, Princess. It looks relatively crowded out there.”
She said, “It wouldn’t be fair to take it away from you. You won the game.”
“I don’t think they’ll care about that.”
“It’s true,” she said, “they’re not very understanding.” Then she smiled. “How about this? It’s been ages since I’ve thrown a tantrum. I’ll go out on the balcony upstairs and start screaming. You have no idea the attention it gets. People come running from all around.”
“I think a balcony on the other side of the house would be even better.”
“Oh. Yes, I guess it would. All right.” She moved for the door, then stopped short. “I forgot,” she said contritely. “I’m Princess Casamara Tonnelly.” She held out her hand in the correct Imperial manner for a formal introduction.
Tal took it, and hesitated. “Tayel Shuan,” he said, and kissed it.
She flew through the door. He heard running footsteps, and very shortly thereafter, the sound of screams rising on the night air. You would think she was being murdered.
He waited another moment, then let himself out the window.
Chapter 47
I hate extremes; yet I had rather stay
With tombs than cradles, to wear out a day.
JOHN DONNE
Tal had recommended to Adrian that he keep the Sawyer Crown (and Tal said there was a seventy percent probability it was the Sawyer Crown) in a below-freezing temperature. So Adrian took the chilly, charcoal-colored links of the rather bizarre chain his demon presented him with, and placed it in a small cold-box. Then he waited for the Oracle from Pearl to come and declare its authenticity.
And waited. He couldn’t say that he wasn’t glad the Oracle was seven hours late; but now that he had the Crown (possibly), the suspense was unbearable.
He walked up and down in one of the anterooms off the Cavern of Audience. He wished he could loose the marble panthers, but today was not a day to indulge himself. Brandon Fischer, Iolanthe, and a handful of advisers and other witnesses huddled uncomfortably in the room, murmuring to each other from time to time and looking as nervous as Adrian.
At last Adrian went
