Across A Star-Swept Sea Part 18

She took off without another word.

Outside, dusk had descended on the lawn, but the sound of evening insects gave way to screams and crashes that ricocheted across the stone and crystal columns and polished floors. Persis was relieved they'd be swept away by the wind as soon as they reached the lanai. At the door to her mother's room, she saw the extent of the damage. Every piece of furniture was overthrown, every item of clothing ripped from the cupboards. Her mother, wild-eyed and wailing, was digging through a trunk of monsoon gear, shouting hoa.r.s.ely.

"Where is it! Where did you put it! Give it back!"

In the corner stood two maids, wringing their hands and looking on in horror.

"Where's my father?" Persis asked.

"Down in the village," said one of the maids. "Fredan sent a flutter."

"And the night nurse?"

"Not here yet."

Persis swallowed and crossed to her mother, recalling the advice Noemi had given her and her father. Keep her calm, talk her back into rationality. She could do this. If there was anything she was good at, it was making people behave the way she wanted.

Heloise's hair had escaped its clips, sending bronze spirals cascading down her back. Persis brushed one aside. "Mama?" she asked softly. "I'm here to help you. What are you looking for?"

Heloise Blake turned and her eyes went even wider, if that was possible. "You."

"Yes, Mamaa"" Persis began, when her mother grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the wall.

"You!" Heloise growled, shoving her against the stone. "You stole it! Who are you?"

"Mama!" Persis said, though her voice tripped over the syllables. "It's me, Persis."

"You stole my face."

Her muscles relaxed. Here was the heart of the episode. She'd seen this one before. "Yes, Mama," she said calmly, blinking until the threatening tears subsided. "I'm your daughter. We've heard that all my life, remember?"

Heloise's hands crept up to Persis's cheeks, her fingers curved into claws. "Give me my face back."

Persis neatly caught her mother's wrists before she did any more damage to her inflamed face. "Mama, please. Look at me. I'm Persis." She moved Heloise's hand to her own face, let it caress her own cheek. "We look alike. We always have. You're the most beautiful woman in all Albion, and I'm lucky that anyone thinks I resemble you."

Sometimes this worked. Sometimes her mother remembered. But Heloise's eyes were still wide, her pupils constricted to tiny points. Her nails were now raking across her own skin. And then, suddenly, she slumped against Persis. Justen stood behind her, a p.r.i.c.ker in his hand.

"What did you do!" Persis cried as the maids rushed to help support her unconscious mother.

"Sedated her," Justen said. "She needed it. You did your best, Persis, buta""

"You had no right to medicate my mother," she said, her tone low and dangerous. She'd been getting there. She just needed more time. And Justen Helo was never, never allowed to give anyone she loved a drug.

She swept by him and followed her servants to the bed, where they were laying Heloise down. At the edge of the platform lay the cracked remnants of a hand mirror, its rotating lifters bent and clicking as they tried to turn. That was probably what had set the whole spell off. Sometimes her mother lost track of the pa.s.sage of years and failed to recognize her own reflection. She tapped the mirror off, swallowed, and said in as steady a voice as she could muster, "You may be a medic, but you aren't ours."

"I have a little more experience dealing with DAR than you do," he replied. "When they reach a certain point of confusion, they can't be reasoned with. There's a feedback loop that happens in their brains, anda""

"Save it for your lab reports." The maids had wisely retreated, and Persis took her mother's limp hand. Her parents' bed was suspended from the ceiling on long lengths of silk, and swayed slightly as she perched on the edge. Her mother was sleeping, her face so relaxed in repose that she looked much younger than forty. She looked, indeed, like Persis herself. "You don't know her."

"Do you think that's the first time a member of a patient's family has said that to me?" he asked softly. "It's true. I don't know your mother. I wish I'd known her when she was well, when she was all the things she wanted to be, all the things you love about her." His voice came from very close now, but Persis would not turn toward him. "I don't knowa"I can't knowa"how you and your mother feel. But I have seen people go through this before, and I do know the best ways to help."

Her heart pounded in her chest and her skin burned from more than the chemicals she'd used to remove her genetemps facial hair. Justen's voice was sweet and soothing. He was surely trained for thata"bedside manner, they called it. He knew just how to talk to patients and their families. Just how to keep them calm.

He was a bigger liar than she was.

"You can go now," she intoned, still focused on her mother. "My father and the night nurse will be along shortly."

"I can stay." She felt his hand on his shoulder, pressure and heat searing right through the silvery fabric. "This is what I'm good at, Persis. Let me help."

She bit her lip. A day ago, that would have been all she wanted. The grandson of Persistence Helo, dedicated to the cause of helping Darkened. Ministering to her mother. Recruited into the League of the Wild Poppy. Kissing her in the star cove. But it was all a lie. Justen wasn't here to helpa"he was her enemy, and he had no idea what Persis was truly capable of.

"Here," Justen said, though she'd offered him no answer. He had a tube of ointment in his hands, and he was dabbing it on the scratches marring her mother's perfect cheeks. He offered her another cloth. "You could use some of this on your rash, too."

She took it, but the words "thank you" stuck in her throat, the aristocratic manners of Persis Blake warring strongly with the Wild Poppy's need to flatten this man.

"She'll sleep for at least four hours with this sedative," he said. "When the nurse gets here, I'd like to consult with him about what just happened. My observations are from a clinical standpoint, so they might be more usefula""

"Than mine," Persis finished. "I understand." Like it or not, Justen knew how to care for Heloise far better than Persis did. "Excuse me while I see how soon my father can be expected." She also needed to send in a maid to clean up the room before her father returned. It would upset him far more than necessary.

Torin Blake always put on a brave face, but his wife's bad spells were destroying him, and there was nothing, absolutely nothing that Persis could do to help. If anything, he would rather not see her whenever things got bad, as if dreading the day Persis followed the same path.

Secretly, Persis wondered if that was why her father had let her drop out of school and was indulging what he called her current "phase" of parties and dresses and silly court intrigue. After all, the prospect of losing one's intellectual capacity hurt somewhat less if you'd spent your life wasting it anyway.

Her mother, on her better days, was less understanding. "Fashion is certainly art, Persis," she'd told her the last time they'd discussed her sudden apathy toward intellectual pursuits, "and worthy of your time. But I always thought you were more interested in politics. I'd hoped, someday, you could finally become the female voice we need on the Council."

Persis couldn't pursue politics. At least not until she was done being the Wild Poppy. But she could hardly explain that to either of her parents. If Papa wouldn't let her go to Galatea on shopping trips, he'd flip if she learned she was risking life and mind every time she crossed the sea. No, they'd just have to spend a little while longer being utterly baffled that their previously book-ravenous daughter refused to talk about anything in public except her ever-expanding wardrobe.

Lies upon lies. She lied to her enemies as the Wild Poppy and to her friends who didn't know her secret ident.i.ty. She lied to her parents when they asked her why she no longer wanted to join Albion's intellectual salons or continue her studies at school, and to Isla when she explained away her mother's absences from court. She lied when she pretended to the public that she was in love with Justen Helo, and to Justen when she pretended that she didn't know exactly what he'd done to his countrymen. There was almost no one left now who Persis could tell the truth to.

The night breeze blew across her heated face, bringing with it the scent of sea spray and frangipani. She heard a few playful barks and Slipstream darted up the stone path threading down the pali. His coat was wet from the sea as she scooped him into her arms.

"You know it all, though, Slippy." His big otter eyes shone in the starlight, his fish-scented whiskers tickled her cheeks as she nuzzled him. "Now tell me what to do."

Instead he stretched out his long neck to sniff at the golden flutter that had halted above their heads and was drifting slowly downward. An orchid. Persis opened her palm.

Dearest Persis, I have decided that tomorrow would be an excellent opportunity for you to throw a small party for our friends on the Daydream. It's been quite a while since you have used the yacht for any social events, which apparently seems strange to some of the courtiers. I believe you shall invite me, the Finches, Lord and Lady Blocking, Councilman Shift's nephew Dwyer, and of course your darling Justen must attend.

It would please me very much if you were to pick us all up at the docks near the court tomorrow morning. Perhaps a sail out to Remembrance Island is in order?

Princess Isla, Regent of Albion Persis grimaced, imagining Isla composing this flutter under duress from Councilman Shift. Its tone was so stiff and formal she wondered if Shift had made Isla type it out in front of him on a wallport. Setting the flutter to her usual Blake frangipani, she thought out her reply.

Of course, if you insist, I'd be happy to throw a boating party tomorrow. However, I feel as if there may be a better way to spend our time at the moment. I have very important news about Justen and me.

The princess fluttered back in record time.

I insist.

Twenty.

BY THE TIME VANIA got back to Halahou, she'd reviewed every bit of information she could find on the prison break-in. She'd also gotten sick over the side of the boat. In single burst, the Wild Poppy had managed to destroy not only her long campaign against the Fords but also the week she'd spent rearranging the troops according to General Gawnt's orders, which she knew he'd somehow manage to blame on her. And the spy had done it all while Vania had been off in Albion, failing to talk sense into a clearly lunatic Justen Helo.

How was she ever going to explain this to her father?

She was surprised to find Remy waiting for her on the docks, her short black hair mussed in the breeze.

"What are you doing here?" Vania snapped at her foster sister, disembarking before the sailors finished setting the nanoropes. "It's not safe in this neighborhood so late."

Remy pouted. "Moral support, of course. Do you have any idea what they're saying about this fiasco at the palace?"

Vania wasn't sure she wanted to know, but then again, forewarned was forearmed. "Thanks, squirt." She ruffled the girl's hair a little as they headed for a waiting skimmer. "I imagine it's not particularly good."

At first, no one seemed to know how the Poppy had pulled it off. After they discovered the Ford's prison cells were empty, troops had been sent after all deliveries and repairmen who'd entered the palace that day. One guard recalled a suspicious salter whose skimmer had broken down right at the gate, but though he'd been located, detained, and thoroughly searched along with his skimmer, there was no sign that anything was amiss. With a lack of any evidence and the clearly innocent and distraught miner beginning to draw a crowd on the public road, the guards let him go. All the other visitors to the prison that day had been similarly cleared.

It was all so mysterious.

It wasn't until the guards reconvened at the prison, to review the records of all comings and goings that they'd noticed the exodus of a crew of military personnel without any movement orders to match.

Vania groaned. "So no one recognized the guards as prisoners? No one thought, *Well, I haven't seen these people before'?"

Remy shrugged. "Apparently, with all the staffing changes, as well as the influx of soldiers who'd previously been a.s.signed to the Ford estate barricades a I was down there today looking for Uncle Damos and I barely recognized anyone."

"I told Gawnt increased staffing wouldn't help," Vania muttered, mostly to herself. "If anything, it's backfired." She looked at Remy. "You have no idea how frustrating it is to not be taken seriously."

"I can't imagine," Remy replied, and for a second, Vania was almost positive she heard an edge in the girl's voice. "Did you find anything worthwhile in Albion?"

Vania remained silent. How much should she say about Justen's behavior? She didn't want to upset the girl, but it would be better for Remy to hear it from Vania than get shocked if things went bad for Justen later on. Vania couldn't quite picture her father being kind if Justen's treasonous ravings made it across the sea.

Stupid Justen. If he really felt so guilty about all of this, then he shouldn't have gone to Albion. He should have simply joined those weird Peccants and spent the rest of his life whipping himself and combing the beach on Remembrance Island. At least then everyone would have just written him off as crazy.

"Not much on the Wild Poppy, no," she said at last.

"Did you see Justen?" Remy pressed. "I heard he's gone to Albion."

"Yes." They pa.s.sed through the gates to the palace, the sound of the lifter fans echoing off the ma.s.sive walls of the courtyard.

"Did he tell you why he left?"

Vania rubbed her temples with her fingers. She didn't have time for a big dramatic scene with Remy. She needed to arrange her thoughts around this break-in. Like it or not, the Wild Poppy took precedence over whether or not her foster brother had decided to betray everything he'd ever believed in for some stupid rich girl.

"I don't know," she snapped. "The gossip all says he's in love with some idiot aristo." There. That excuse would hold Remy for a little bit, until she had time to explain all the complex political philosophies involved. Hearts and flowers a girl her age could understand. "Her name is Persis Blake."

"An aristo?" Remy sounded skeptical. "That doesn't sound like him, and an idiot even less so." She laughed awkwardly. "You know Justena"he'd sooner Reduce an aristo than kiss one, right?"

Vania looked at the younger girl. There was something odd in her tonea"grasping and almost desperate, as if she was trying to convince herself of something she didn't really believe. Had Justen already infected her with some of his traitorous ideas? Vania made a note in her oblet to screen all Remy's messages from Justen. For now, let the girl think Justen was being guided by l.u.s.t.

"This aristo's especially rich and especially pretty," Vania said. She accessed an image of the lady in question and turned the oblet's display toward Remy. "Here. Take a look at her and tell me your brother's thinking with his head."

The display sparked to life, revealing Persis Blake in all her splendor. She was at some event or another, in a gown that sparkled like a sunlit sea, her wild yellow and white hair floating above her in a cloudy puff. She was holding a crystal gla.s.s of kiwine in her hand, and she had her head thrown back, laughing.

Not a care in the world. Spoiled brat. Vania started feeling sick again. She rolled her eyes and turned to Remy. "See what I mean?"

"That's Persis Blake?" Remy asked quietly. Her eyes were wide, her mouth a little round O.

Oh no, not Remy, too! They were supposed to be above all this awe-of-aristos nonsense. "That's her. And believe me, she's every bit as stupid as she looks. Don't be too impressed, Remy. Trust me, your brother has made a huge mistake."

Remy looked from the display to Vania and back again. "That, I believe," she said at last.

THE DAYDREAM WAS AT full sail, the party was at full tilt, and they were halfway to Remembrance Island, but Persis was certain this trip would go down as the worst outing a Blake had ever hosted. Half the attendees weren't speaking to one another, and the other half couldn't figure out why.

"Darling," Isla cooed in Persis's ear. Persis turned to see the princess wearing a diaphanous white wrap and her most disapproving frown. "You're neglecting the party, and, worse, you're neglecting Justen."

"I'm sorry," Persis replied. The poison-green petals of her skirt swirled around her knees in the sea breeze, and her split sleeves flapped like angry snakes at her shoulders. "Would you prefer I livened things up by dumping him overboard?"

Isla sighed. In deference to the bright sun, she'd donned an enormous white floppy hat with a hole in the middle that allowed her to pull her hair through and arrange it in layers around the brim. When she'd picked up the royal entourage at court, Persis had said Isla looked like a child's sh.e.l.l art. Isla had said Persis looked like a clump of seaweed.

The party, in Persis's opinion, had gone downhill from there.

Justen sat like a lump in the extreme aft, giving monosyllabic answers to every attempt at conversation. He was deeply unhappy that he'd been dragged out on the boat instead of being allowed to return to the lab, though he'd only registered his complaint once to Persis. Noemi, however, had reported to Persis that he'd sent her several messages overnight about the "new address of the refugees."

Forget dropping him off the side of the Daydream. She'd wait until they got back to Scintillans and push him off the pali itself.

"You're supposed to throw the best parties on the island, Persis," Isla reminded her, "so act like you're having fun or people are going to start to suspect you have something else on your mind."

Which she did. And it wasn't like Isla wanted to be here, either. "Fine," she said. "Shall I arrange a game of spin the sh.e.l.l with, say, you, me, Justen, and Tero?"

Isla gave her a queenly look. "Tero and I have made up."

"Kissed and made up?"

"Don't start with me right now."

"Then don't complain about me and Justen," she replied in as low a voice as she dared out here in the wind. "Those pictures of us kissing in the star cove probably did more for your campaign of equality than any five royal b.a.l.l.s."

Isla turned on her heel and went to talk to the other aristos aboard. The princess had invited Lady Blocking and her stick-in-the-sandflats Council-member husband in what was supposed to look like a show of support for the Council. They'd at first acted thrilled to finally score a ride on the Daydream, then dialed down their enthusiasm as the festive atmosphere failed to materialize. Then there was Dwyer Shift, who seemed much happier about attending than Isla was about putting him on the guest list. Dwyer was every bit as exasperating as his powerful uncle, and his unctuous behavior was not a particularly welcome change. His tangerine hair had been arranged in an artful swoop, and he'd chosen to dress from head to toe in a material that made him look for all the world like a molting bra.s.s crab. He'd spent the party either offering Isla an endless parade of sweets or telling Justen that it must be exceedingly wonderful to be descended from Persistence Helo.

Persis was quite sure neither recipient enjoyed his attentions and, quite frankly, she thought they both deserved ita"Isla for forcing her to host this event, and Justen because being bothered by Dwyer Shift was the least of the punishments she fantasized for him.

Andrine and Tero rounded out the party, but neither was in the mood to help. Andrine had been giving Persis the silent treatment ever since waking up in her own bed, totally feminine and completely clueless as to how she'd wound up there, rather than in the middle of a spy mission on Galatea. Persis was surprised she'd even accepted the invitation, given how angry she was.

"Oh, don't worry," Tero had informed Persis as they'd boarded. "She's got plenty to say to you later. But my sister, unlike a few people I can mention, knows the proper time to impart her feelings on issues. Which is not, I'd like to add, in the middle of a mission."