Mia, get up here. Take charge.
I can't. Not yet. As soon as we're alone I will.
And dear Christ, Susannah recognized that tone of voice, recognized it very well. The bitch wasshy.
To the desk clerk, Susannah said, "What's this thing? Is it a key?"
"Why - yes, sai. You use it in the elevator as well as to open your room. Just push it into the slot in the direction the arrows point. Remove it briskly. When the light on the door turns green, you may enter. I have slightly over eight thousand dollars in my cash drawer. I'll give it all to you for your pretty thing, your turtle, yoursk?ldpadda, yourtortuga, yourkavvit, your - "
"No," Susannah said, and staggered again. She clutched the edge of the desk. Her equilibrium was shot. "I'm going upstairs now." She'd meant to visit the gift shop first and spend some of Mats's dough on a clean shirt, if they carried such things, but that would have to wait.Everything would have to wait.
"Yes, sai." No morema'am, not now. The turtle was working on her. Sanding away the gap between the worlds.
"You just forget you saw me, all right?"
"Yes, sai. Shall I put a do-not-disturb on the phone?"
Mia clamored. Susannah didn't even bother paying attention. "No, don't do that. I'm expecting a call."
"As you like, sai." Eyes on the turtle. Ever on the turtle. "Enjoy the Plaza - Park. Would you like a bellman to assist you with your bags?"
Look like I need help with these three pukey li'l things?Detta thought, but Susannah only shook her head.
"Very well."
Susannah started to turn away, but the desk clerk's next words swung her back in a hurry.
"Soon comes the King, he of the Eye."
Susannah gaped at the woman, her surprise close to shock. She felt gooseflesh crawling up her arms. The desk clerk's beautiful face, meanwhile, remained placid. Dark eyes on the scrimshaw turtle. Lips parted, now damp with spittle as well as gloss.If I stay here much longer, Susannah thought,she'll start to drool.
Susannah very much wanted to pursue the business of the King and the Eye - it washer business - and she could, she was the one up front and driving the bus, but she staggered again and knew she couldn't...unless, that was, she wanted to crawl to the elevator on her hands and knees with the empty lower legs of her jeans trailing out behind her.Maybe later, she thought, knowing that was unlikely; things were moving too fast now.
She started across the lobby, walking with an educated stagger. The desk clerk spoke after her in a voice expressing pleasant regret, no more than that.
"When the King comes and the Tower falls, sai, all such pretty things as yours will be broken. Then there will be darkness and nothing but the howl of Discordia and the cries of the can toi."
Susannah made no reply, although the gooseflesh was now all the way up the nape of her neck and she could feel her scalp tightening on her very skull. Her legs (someone'slegs, anyway) were rapidly losing all feeling. If she'd been able to look at her bare skin, would she have seen her fine new legs going transparent? Would she have been able to see the blood flowing through her veins, bright red going down, darker and exhausted heading back up to her heart? The interwoven pigtails of muscle?
She thought yes.
She pushed the UP button and then put the Oriza back into its bag, praying one of the three elevator doors would open before she collapsed. The piano player had switched to "Stormy Weather."
The door of the middle car opened. Susannah-Mia stepped in and pushed 19. The door slid shut but the car went nowhere.
The plastic card,she reminded herself.You have to use the card.
She saw the slot and slid the card into it, being careful to push in the direction of the arrows. This time when she pushed 19, the number lit up. A moment later she was shoved rudely aside as Miacame forward.
Susannah subsided at the back of her own mind with a kind of tired relief. Yes, let someone else take over, why not? Let someone else drive the bus for awhile. She could feel the strength and substance coming back into her legs, and that was enough for now.
Five
Mia might have been a stranger in a strange land, but she was a fast learner. In the nineteenth-floor lobby she located the arrow with 1911 - 1923 beneath it and walked briskly down the corridor to 1919. The carpet, some thick green stuff that was delightfully soft, whispered beneath her
(their)
stolen shoes. She inserted the key-card, opened the door, and stepped in. There were two beds. She put the bags on one of them, looked around without much interest, then fixed her gaze on the telephone.
Susannah!Impatient.
What?
How do I make it ring?
Susannah laughed with genuine amusement.Honey, you aren't the first person to ask thatquestion, believe me. Or the millionth. It either will or it won't. In its own good time. Meanwhile, why don't you have a look around. See if you can't find a place to store your gunna.
She expected an argument but didn't get one. Mia prowled the room (not bothering to open the drapes, although Susannah very much wanted to see the city from this height), peeked into the bathroom (palatial, with what looked like a marble basin and mirrors everywhere), then looked into the closet. Here, sitting on a shelf with some plastic bags for dry-cleaning on top, was a safe. There was a sign on it, but Mia couldn't read it. Roland had had similar problems from time to time, but his had been caused by the difference between the English language alphabet and In-World's "great letters." Susannah had an idea that Mia's problems were a lot more basic; although her kidnapper clearly knew numbers, Susannah didn't think the chap's mother could read at all.
Susannahcame forward, but not all the way. For a moment she was looking through two sets of eyes at two signs, the sensation so peculiar that it made her feel nauseated. Then the images came together and she could read the message: