| |
Parvati was not alone in the library. Along with several older patrons making use of the resources, she also had the company of one particular young patrolman from Mini City. I’d mostly forgotten about Shep after he and I parted ways the previous evening. Perhaps I should’ve shown more gratitude after all he’d done to help me. Parvati, however, seemed to be enjoying his companionship. She and the corporal huddled over a stack of white tiles, a teapot, and a pile of little cookies dusted in powdered sugar.
Should I repeat myself in case you missed it? Powdered. Sugar.
“Care for tea?” Parvati asked after I took a seat on a cushion beside her.
“This one isn’t big on tea,” Shep answered for me. “But if you’ve got any fruit mash wine, she’ll be your best friend.”
“Don’t you have somewhere you’re supposed to be?” I wrinkled my nose. “Grimes ought to be missing you by now.”
Shep sat back in his chair, laced his fingers together over his stomach, and chuckled. “Ready to be done with me? Just when I thought you and I were starting to develop a rapport.”
I snagged a cookie from the tea tray and stuffed it into my mouth—mmm, dates and almonds—before responding. “How is it you have all this freedom to do as you please? I always thought Grimes kept her Forces on a short leash.” I’d been too distracted by more urgent matters to question his appearance in the street the day before, but things were less perilous now.
Shep waggled his eyebrows. “Woof woof.”
An older lady sitting at a nearby desk glanced up from her book and gave Shep a curious look.
“What were you even doing on that side of the city?” I asked. “Erik and I were a dozen or more blocks away from Moll’s territory.”
“I was out for a stroll.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Heard a commotion... decided to investigate.”
Skeptical, I narrowed my eyes at him. “So it was just a coincidence?”
He turned serious, sitting up straighter. “Not coincidence. Just a little ambition and luck. You don’t get ahead in Moll’s world without taking some initiative, without going out and looking for opportunities.” He sneered. “Sometimes, if you’re in the right place at the right time, those opportunities might just fall in your lap. Moll won’t mind so much about my absence when she hears about your boyfriend. I’m planning to stick around long enough to verify his miraculous recovery. Once I’m satisfied he’s all you say he is, I’ll be on my way.”
“And when do you think that will happen?” I turned to Parvati, who seemingly hadn’t paid attention to our conversation. She’d been focusing, instead, on the tiles stacked between her and Shep. “When do you think we might lay eyes on Erik again?” Perhaps I should’ve attempted to see him sooner, but his presence complicated my emotions and made me lose sight of my goals. It was easier to remain focused on Bloom if I kept my distance from Erik.
Parvati selected a tile from a row facing her and laid it on the game board beside two others with similar patterns. Without taking her attention from the game, she said, “He’s sleeping now. I gave him a draught to help him rest, but he’ll be well enough to join us for dinner this evening.”
“A sleeping draught?” I asked with delight, wondering if she’d given him the same concoction he had slipped to me. The irony of it would be too sweet.
“He has terrible dreams.”
“Oh?” I said, feigning only mild interest.
She shrugged and laid down another tile. “He won’t speak of them, but he hasn’t been staying lucid long enough to explain anyway. But the last time he was awake, he said he felt well enough to attend dinner tonight.”
“About that...” I motioned to my current attire. “Your uncle sent me to you to ask for some help with my, uhh, wardrobe.”
“I suspected as much.” Her tone was dry. “Corporal, it’s your turn.”
“What are you playing?” I asked, trying to make sense of the game.
“A variation of mahjong,” she said. “The real game requires four people.”
“Is it hard?”
“Not really. It just takes patience and strategy. I’ll teach you sometime if you like.”
“Did you have to teach the corporal?”
Shep rested a studious finger on his lip but had not yet moved any of his tiles. If he could figure it out, then I could too.
Parvati shook her head. “Oh, no. He already knew the game.”
“He did?” I blinked wide-eyed at the corporal.
Shep flashed me an arrogant grin. “Don’t underestimate me, Miss Blite. There’s much more to me than meets the eye.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
He laughed.
I pursed my lips and frowned. I didn’t know what to make of him. Corporal Baumgartner was a square peg, and all I had was a bunch of round holes.
“Sera,” Parvati said, “you and I will worry about dressing for dinner in a little while. Why don’t you choose a book from the library? It would be much better than staring over my shoulder for the rest of the morning.”
Taking her not-so-subtle hint, I went to the bookshelves lining the room and selected several volumes at random, reading the first few lines of each until one caught my interest. And that was how Parvati came to find me much later, stretched out on a sofa, a third of the way into Great Expectations. Part of me felt guilty for indulging in such luxury. I should’ve been tending my garden or hunting, doing something productive. But Dwivedi had promised his help in retrieving Bloom, and I aimed to take him up on his offer, even if it meant exercising patience, a virtue of which I was normally in short supply.
I rubbed my eyes. The long period of reading had left me bleary. “Are you done with your game?”
“A while ago,” Parvati said. “I’ve cleared away our tea things, put up our game pieces, walked the corporal to his room, and even stopped to check on Erik. You, however, have not moved from this space for the whole of the morning.”
I gasped. “It’s been that long?”
Smiling, she nodded.
“Books are how I escape reality.” I waggled the book at her. “The fastest way to get back to the Time Before.”
She patted my shoulder. “I wished they worked that way for me. I guess that is why I smoke opium instead.” She turned away and motioned for me to follow her. “Usually only when I can’t sleep, or when my memories become too heavy a burden.”
I understood the weight of memories. They were the only things I had in abundance. “How is Erik?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Still sleeping,” she said. “But his color has returned. By tonight, he will be quite ready to look at something other than the backside of his eyelids.”
Parvati led me to my room but stopped short of following me in. “I’ll be back with some help in just a bit.”
“Help?” I crooked an eyebrow at her. “For what?”
Parvati looked me over, similar to the way her uncle had appraised me earlier—foot to head and back down again. “Oh, dear,” she said. “You have no clue.”
“A clue about what?” I crossed my arms over my chest and tried giving her one of her own petulant looks, but she only laughed, rolled her eyes, and scooted away without an answer.
If I had known what was coming for me, I would have barricaded the door or escaped out my window. I never could have suspected the torture Parvati had in mind. But by the time she returned with reinforcements, it was already too late for me to run.