it?'
'No,' Gene said. 'I found it. A long-forgotten race of beings built it.'
'They were indeed great beings, I think.'
'They were pretty remarkable. Unfortunately, their machine doesn't work very well. It ceased to function. That's why we are here. We can't leave. We're stranded.'
'This is very unfortunate in the way of bad luck,' the Ablomabel said. 'Have been attempting to repair the craft?'
'Have been attempting,' Gene said, 'but no luck so far. Our resources are limited. Tell me, can you possibly help?'
'Gene,' Linda scolded. 'Ablomabel's dying.'
'Already have sent message to machine city not far from this place,' the Ablomabel said. 'Alerted to the possible trouble and help to be lending.'
'That's decent of you,' Gene said. 'Machines, you say?'
'Yes, they still live and are active. They say they will come to help. But do not hope this much. Your machine in the nature of strangeness is great, I think.'
'Yeah, you can't get parts. A real lemon. The warranty expired, and everything went.'
'Detecting irony.'
'You're detecting it. I mean to say that the craft has never lived up to expectations as far as successful operation is concerned. It was an experimental design. Do you understand? All the harder to fix, consequently.'
'Understand. But is it permitted to attempt?'
Gene nodded. 'It is permitted, and thank you very much.'
The Ablomabel said, 'I am fatigued. Conversation has depleted my energy reserves. I will, permission granting, rest awhile and not speak, until the machines arrive.'
Linda said, 'By all means. Take a nice nap. Don't tire yourself.'
The wire mesh communications dish folded up, and the rod retracted into the creature's skin. The opening that received the whole affair closed up.
They had a picnic lunch on the beach. Snowclaw had collected an assortment of shellfish. Finding none edible he complained of hunger.
'Try this,' Gene said, handing him a ham salad sandwich.
Snowclaw took it and popped it into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed. 'Great,' he said. 'Now what else can I breathe?'
'Sorry, Snowy. But you ate all the stuff we brought for you.'
'Canned fish. Great, but I need fresh stuff or my fur starts to fall out.'
'There's the ocean,' Gene said. He handed Snowclaw his gun. 'Go out and shoot some fish.'
Linda said, 'Gene, there may be sentient creatures out there. Shellfish are one thing, but Snowy eats whales and like that. But he can't do it here. It wouldn't be ethical.'
'She's right,' Snowclaw said. 'I'd probably get sick eating this stuff. I'm tired. I'm going to sack out.'
Snowclaw stretched out on the sand, crossed his ankles, and closed his eyes.
The long red afternoon wore on. The green sea went on rolling in and out. All was still. No birds flew, no insects buzzed. Nothing crawled on the beach. For the most part, it was a dead world. Yet, in its way, it was beautiful.
'Gene, how come the sun's not going down?'
'The planet's tidally locked. No rotation.'
'You mean it's always like this?'
'Yeah.'
'How sad. How sad to see a world end.'
'Yeah. I think I'll take a nap, too.'
Linda rested her head on Gene's shoulder.
'Gene, do you think we'll ever get back?'
'I don't know. It doesn't look like it.'
She watched a high thin cloud drift toward the sun.
'Gene, I'm glad we're together.'
'Yeah.'
Linda stared at the watercolor sky. Presently, she closed her eyes.
Twenty-two
Peele ? Dining Hall
The lords and ladies had grudgingly assembled, rousted out of their beds in the early morning hours. Vehement protest was still being voiced when Tyrene arrived with Thaxton, Dalton, and Dorcas.
'We've not had our breakfast yet,' complained a bewhiskered and indignant baronet.
'My lords and ladies,' Tyrene announced, 'I humbly beg forgiveness for this inconvenience, but we have arrived at what we think is a solution to the murder of the viscount Oren, and, perforce, to that of Count Damik.'
A hush fell over the assembled nobility.
Tyrene continued: 'We have been up all night with the working out of this solution. Much traffic has passed between the two castles, Perilous and Peele, and between the raindrops, as 'twere. What we would ask you to witness is in the nature of a demonstration. Ordinarily, for any other criminal case, we would hold off presenting this evidence until the preliminary hearing. But the nature of this evidence is so extraordinary and of such subtlety that I wish to reveal it here this morning. My reasons are twofold. One, a person of quality is involved. It has been so long since a scion of a noble house has been brought up on capital charges that I wish this individual's peers to be impressed with the strength of the prima-facie case, so that there is no feeling that we are merely casting about for a suspect, hauling in the first hapless fish to be netted. Two, I believe the evidence to be forceful enough to dissuade a lord magistrate from releasing this individual on his own cognizance after arraignment but prior to a hearing, as is the custom when the defendant is of high noble station. I have no doubt that, were this custom followed, the suspect would flee through a well-chosen castle aspect, where decades might go by before justice prevailed. I hope I have made myself clear.'
Tyrene surveyed the room, as if to acknowledge anyone who would pose a question. No one did.
'Very well, my lords and ladies. I shall now turn these proceedings over to the individual by dint of whose unflagging determination and incisive intellect the case was cracked. I am speaking of Mr. Thaxton of the castle.'
A murmur went up, borne on a note of surprise mixed with no little displeasure.
Thaxton strode forward. 'My lords and ladies. What you are about to see is a demonstration of magic. Now, I well realize that, as castle inhabitants, you regard magic as a commonplace on the order of toast and tea or the Monday wash. But this magic is unusual in that the feats we will perform here this morning are among the few that are known to be possible in this aspect, this world. And they are, at first, not very impressive as magical tricks go. But bear with us, please. I should like at this time to beg the assistance of one of the castle's leading adepts, a person whom you all know, Her Royal Highness, the princess.'
Dorcas stepped forward.
Thaxton held up something shiny. 'I have here in my hand a coin, a shilling, which I've been carrying in my pocket for a good while now, not having any place to spend it. I'm going to ask Her Highness to make this coin invisible.'
Thaxton gave Dorcas the coin. Dorcas held her right hand palm up and placed the coin in it. She brought her other hand down on top of it and stretched her arms out. Then she began to speak some strange words, a few sentences. When she was done, she held her stance for a moment longer, eyes shut.
She took her left hand away. The right was, apparently, empty.
