Friends and Enemies (Gwen Farris Book 5) (29 page)

Bethany explained the concept to her.

"He means, are you going to try and escape? Katherine won't be allowed to, but if you don't help her do it she'd have to do that as a regular person might. You can leave, not being a prisoner, and I doubt anyone here could stop you. Even null radiatives won't work to hold you now, it seems." She glanced at Adam, her leader.

The man made a face that held something close to fear, and then agreed with that idea.

"Indeed. Nothing we do will hold
you
, short of death. Worse, I don't think we have a
right
to keep you. We can't let you go, but we can't
stop
you under our own laws. So, I think Mr. Winslow wishes to enlist you onto our side. Will you stay here? I can't promise that action
won't
lead to your death, even if that would be wrong, and ultimately illegal. We'll need to contact King Ferdinand on this, as soon as we may. I... Honestly, I don't know what to do about this."

Before Gwen could answer, her own mouth moved.

"That won't be needed, though I'm sure you
will
have her word not to escape. You also have
mine
. I promise I won't leave this residence, unless given leave by you, or the king."

Adam didn't seem to trust Traitor McShiftypants for some reason and it showed on his face.

Gwen took control and made herself give a weak smile.

"I won't either. I'll stay here. I can't really make Katherine do anything. I really thought I could, but... I
can
promise
I
won't help her get away."

The man nodded then.

"Good enough. If we have both of your words on the matter, then perhaps you should take to your bed? I'm sure that you'll need rest and recuperation after your latest adventure."

Gwen snorted, and let herself go slightly wide eyed.

"You mean the one where I was chained up and couldn't move for months? That grand adventure? My bedsores have sores on them, Adam. I've barely talked to anyone in
years
. Even after I was let out of Kate's skull prison, everyone over there spoke in Mongolian, so I couldn't understand them. I know that you all have things to do, but..."

There was a stiff look from the guy, which she expected to be backed up with a reminder that she was a prisoner, possibly with a slap to keep her in her place, but he just seemed miserable about it all when he spoke.

"I can see that. I just don't know what to do, Gwen. You didn't do anything wrong, as far as we can tell. This has been proven, under some of the best telepathic questioning available. Perhaps some entertainment? It's nearly mid-night however, and we really must go and see to our duties... I'd stay and talk, if I could. Duty..."

That was all important, and probably doubly so at the moment, given the mess she'd let Katherine make of things.

"I understand. I could use a bit of food, then? It would be nice if I could stay sitting up, if that's not a problem? Maybe someone could help me stretch?" She glanced at Winslow, who nodded back, being cool that way.

The problem was that the last time Gwen had been around this many people, all of them loaders on an airship, if someone had suggested a man help her move her body around, someone else would have been at least suggesting they lynch him. Politely maybe, but it would have happened. Here, in this moment, no one seemed to care in the slightest.

It was both good, since Winslow wouldn't do anything wrong with her, and a sudden change that left her feeling even more out of balance about the whole thing. It was like no one considered her a real person anymore. Maybe because she wasn't.

Bethany gave her a sad look, and then smiled.

"It's good to have you back, even if this is less than perfect in execution. I could stay, and-"

She was cut off, by Derrick, the head of the Special Service.

"Except that you have duties to see to as well, Bethany. We can't have the Queen's guard down a body just so you can babysit Gwen. Worse, we can't even free
her
up to work the detail at the moment, given everything. Even though we could use another female for it. Not that I'm certain I'd want to subject either of them to the other. There might be blood, if that happens." He seemed amused by that one, which was odd, given that he was clearly teasing about the queen.

Plus, there was a
queen
now.

She looked at him, trying not to seem like an idiot.

"I clearly have some things to catch up on. I missed the wedding, too. That's no doubt all kinds of rude of me."

Peter at least grinned, warming up to her a bit now that she'd been cleared, it looked like.

"Oh, yes. It was nicely put together, as you would imagine. You should send something now though. The queen is all right, I hear told. She's a bit, um, delicate, in her sensibilities however."

Gwen had to work that one out, since it was practically in code.

"She's afraid of Westmorlands?"

Beth covered a smile with her hand, but didn't answer, not wanting to be rude herself. Derrick however did. That had to mean the women was pretty bad, since Gwen was pretty certain his conditioning made that kind of thing very hard to pull off.

"I think there might be some truth to that. It shows as a rather harsh demeanor towards most of us. I
do
hear she's a lovely person otherwise."

That was good. She liked Ferdinand, well enough that she wouldn't want him trapped with an evil harridan all the time. She was about to mention that when the rest of the people suddenly straightened, and ran from the room toward the front door. Well, not all of them, but the Westmorlands did.

Peter explained as he was the last to move.

"Emergency. An attack on the Azort islands. We're being called on to stop the landing. Sorry. Later Gwen?"

"Go! I'll be here. Be careful."

It left the whole place in silence, or nearly so, as the guards went back to work, watching her like she was about to leap up and start fighting with them. It was obvious enough she laughed after a bit.

"Look, guys, I
get
it. You don't need to stare at me like that though. I'm really not going anywhere. Also you caught the part where
I
didn't do anything? I'm all good and wholesome, and it was proven, right?" They might not believe that anyway, since it had been confirmed by the Bogeyman, more or less.

The youngest guard, the one she'd seen first, cleared his throat. It didn't sound like he was trying to be mean anymore, so there was that.

"What we heard was that
you
, Miss Farris are innocent and even being wronged. Right there, in your own person, is
also
a confirmed traitor. We aren't watching you, or doubting
your
good word, but how can we trust her?"

It was a real point. Still, the staring was setting her last nerve on edge. She was about to have a long, and no doubt unrewarding, conversation about it, when Winslow clapped.

"I could have a small meal served in here? Perhaps some soup? I fear that we don't have much on hand, the staff not being set to move back here for another two months. Daria, the undercook, won't be up for several more hours, to prepare breakfast. I can wake her now, I'm sure, given the emergency situation?"

She shook her head, not wanting to piss the person that did the food off that soon.

"Just grab some bread for me? Or whatever there is. I don't need much. I haven't exactly been pounding food in for a while. More of those biscuits, or... Anything really."

The man glanced at the guards, "very well. It lacks standards, but it
is
good to have you back. You're always so understanding of reality."

Hopefully that was true. Since she was at the mercy of everyone in the world at the moment, she didn't want to be a pain in the ass, if she could help it.

The butler walked off, moving at a sedate pace, and she was left alone. Except for the armed men that were still looking at her like she was Satan herself. Because, in a very real way, she was.

Katherine had made sure that was probably just the truth. There was no way to fix it now, either. She couldn't put the genie back in the bottle that way. Even if she could find all the rifters in the Europan project, and kill them, that didn't remove the knowledge of
how
to get the work done. The best she could do now was...

She stopped, not thinking what that really was. She knew it would have to be done carefully. Otherwise Kate could stop her, just by taking over. She'd tried to use a crin to kill herself once, and that hadn't worked at all. There had to be ways though.

Blinking, the idea of what to do occurred to her in a flash.

She could teletransport, couldn't she? It wouldn't work if she was tucked away like she had been for all those years, in the depths of Kate's mind, but from where she was at that moment, Gwen could do it. Just put herself a mile up, in a half moment, and then let them both fall to their death. That wouldn't work against her, if she wanted to live, but Kate would be helpless to stop it.

It was tempting to do it right then, but something stopped her. Some niggling doubt, at the back of her mind. After a moment, Katherine spoke, inside.

'Why should you die? The wrong doing, the missteps, were all mine. They won't hurt you over it. You're safe here, Gwen. I'd wager even the newsies won't hit you too hard over it. After all, everyone knows what a waste of space I am.'

The words sounded slightly defeated. Like she knew that she'd lost, well and truly.

There was a problem there however, since the last time she'd thought that was the case, Kat had rallied after a while, which had lead to all this current splendor and wonder.

She spoke out loud, which had all the men standing there staring.

"If I seem like her, or you aren't certain who's in control. Then kill me. I
don't
like being watched, but you aren't wrong. We can't let her get away with this.
I
won't let her, but I might need help. If I ever tell you to kill me, you all need to do it, without hesitation."

She expected some resistance, or glee, over it, but the younger guard just bowed a bit.

"Understood ma'am. We won't fail you. You have my word."

It seemed real, so she bowed back, as best she could, in response.

Chapter twelve

It was nearly funny, how things happened after that. If Gwen had been in charge of the situation, a certain heiress would have been locked in a dark hole already, to prevent her from going to the enemy and tattling even more about all the cool secrets. More to the point, that hole would have been six feet down, and covered with dirt.

Death wasn't a fun prospect, especially since Gwen had never bothered with the idea of religion. Besides, she was almost certain that if she died now, she'd end up being sucked into the void that the Elder Gods lived in, and tormented far worse than if she merely went to hell for all eternity. Most people imagined that as the worst thing that could happen to them. A fiery pit, with constant pain, and probably humiliating sodomy, just to round things out.

That was because they lacked the experience to know that would be a pretty sweet deal compared to some things.

For the ten millionth time she checked over her shoulder to the right, only to find that the wall of her old bedroom was right where it always was. Papered with silk, in a peach color, now. It looked nice, she had to admit, if a bit too extravagant for a prison cell.

There was a guard on her door, though she hadn't really been told she couldn't leave, exactly. At least she'd been told that someone would be right outside, if they were needed.

No, after everyone had left the night before, she'd eaten, chatted with Biggs, the younger guard, for a while, and then wandered off to bed, exhausted, even though that was insane after months of enforced rest. She'd floated to her room, since walking was out for the time being. That had gotten the guards going, since for some reason they hadn't understood what watching her had really meant.

The Westmorlands all had, so she'd just figured that these men would have been told all about her. Gwen didn't explain, not able to summon the will for it at the time being.

After all, in the end, Kate had only known how to rift, or more exactly teach rifting, because Gwen had decided that she needed to learn how herself. True enough, that had really all been about saving the Westmorland orphans of the future from horrible torture, but she was the one that had butted in, and created the conditions they had now. War, with looming death, resting just on the horizon.

When she woke up, with light coming through the window and the clock on the dresser across the room claiming it was about eleven, she stretched. Carefully, but completely. Her ability to do that was nearly gone, she noticed. Her back hurt, too.

"Which is funny, isn't it? Why would I be mainly fine for months in bed and now I hurt?"

Her own voice, the new one provided by this body, answered her, out loud. It was just her though, and not Kate coming to take it all back, now that they were free.

"Because, that pudding slash gruel was drugged to the gills. Probably with a half dozen things, so that I'd stay calm and not be able to struggle much. It was probably why it took me that long to escape, I bet." She grinned, and carefully moved to the side of the bed, trying to think of how to best get to the bathroom.

Because it had been a lifelong goal of hers to not pee in a bedpan, whenever possible. The great part there was that it was an actual thing. Gwen had spent so much of her time in places like that, unable to get up and walk on her own, that she'd made it a real project, more than once in her life. Now she could fly to the next room, and while it took a bit of focus and energy, it was better than screwing up her ankle. The tough part being that she still needed to get up and stand when she could. Otherwise her strength would never really come back.

After doing her business, showering and dressing for the day in a loose skirt, slippers and a comfortable and loose shift, all of it in blue of one shade or another, she moved to the door. When she opened it, Gwen made a point to be smiling and to go slowly, popping her head out first, so that the guard wouldn't shoot her as easily.