"The prison?" Damon seemed distracted. "Yes! The prison!" But then, he added, pulling up something like a pillowcase filled with billiard balls, "Sage, what are these?"
"Loot. Booty. Spoils! Plunder!" As the horses swung in a new direction, Sage's voice seemed to get more and more cheerful. "And look around your feet!"
"More pillowcases...?"
"I wasn't prepared for a big haul tonight. But things worked out well anyway!"
By now, Elena was feeling one of the pillowcases for herself. The case was, indeed, full of clear, sparkling hoshi no tama. Star balls. Memories. Worth...
Worthless?
"Priceless...although of course we don't know what's on them." Sage's voice changed subtly. Elena remembered the warning about "forbidden spheres." What, in the name of the yellow sun, could they possibly forbid down here?
Bonnie was the first to pick up a disk and put it to her temple. She did it so quickly, with such flashing, birdlike movements, that Elena couldn't stop her.
"What is it?" Elena gasped, trying to pull the star ball away.
"It's...poetry. Poetry I can't understand," said Bonnie crossly.
Meredith had also picked up a sparkling orb. Elena reached for her but once again she was too late.
Meredith sat as if in a trance for a moment, then grimaced and put the sphere down.
"What?" demanded Elena.
Meredith shook her head. She wore a delicate expression of distaste.
"What?" Elena almost yelled. Then as Meredith put the star ball by her feet, Elena lunged at it. She clapped it to her own temple and immediately was dressed in black leather from head to toe. There were two broad, square men in front of her, without a lot of muscle tone. And she could see all of their musculature because they were stark na**d except for rags such as beggars wore. But they weren't beggars - they looked well-fed and oily and it was clearly an act when one of them groveled, "We have trespassed. We beg your forgiveness, O master!"
Elena was reaching to take the sphere off her temple (they stuck gently, if you put a little pressure there) and saying, "Why don't they use the space for something else?"
Something else was immediately all around her. A girl, in poor clothing, but not sacking. She looked terrified. Elena wondered if she were being controlled.
And Elena was the girl.
Pleasedon'tletitgetmepleasedon'tletitgetme -
Let what get you? Elena asked, but it was like watching a movie or book character while they were going into a lonely house in a howling storm and the music had turned eerie. The Elena who was walking in fear could not hear the Elena who was asking practical questions.
I don't think I want to see how this one comes out, she decided. She put the star ball back at Meredith's feet.
"Do we have three sacks?"
"Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am; three sacks full."
Oh. That didn't work out very well. Elena was opening her mouth again, when Damon added quietly: "And one sack empty."
"Really? We do? Then let's all try to divide these. Anything - forbidden - goes in one sack. Weird stuff like Bonnie's poetry reading goes into another. Any news of Stefan - or of us - goes in the third. And nice things, like summer days, go in the fourth," Elena said.
"I think you are being optimistic, me," Sage said. "To expect to find an orb with Stefan on it so quickly - "
"Everybody, hush!" Bonnie said frantically. "This is Shinichi and Damon talking him into it."
Sage stiffened, as if taking a lightning bolt from the stormy sky, then he smiled. "Speak of the devil," he murmured. Elena smiled at him and squeezed his hand before taking another ball.
"This one seems to be some kind of legal stuff. I don't understand it. A slave must be taking it because I can see all of them." Elena felt her facial muscles tighten with hatred at the sight - even in a sort of dream - of Shinichi, the kitsune who had done so much harm. His hair was black, except for an irregular fringe around the edges, which made it look as if it had been dipped in red-hot lava.
And then, of course, Misao. Shinichi's sister - allegedly. This star ball must have been made by a slave, because she could see both of the twins and a lawyerly-looking man.
Misao, Elena thought. Delicate, deferential, demure...demonic. Her hair was the same as Shinichi's, but it was held up and back in a ponytail. You could see the demonic part if she raised her eyes. They were effervescent, golden, laughing eyes, just like her brother's; eyes that had never had a regret - except perhaps for not exacting enough revenge. They took no responsibility. They found anguish funny.
And then something odd happened. All three of the figures in the room suddenly turned around and looked straight at her. Straight at whoever had made the sphere, Elena corrected herself, but it still was disconcerting.
It was even more disconcerting when they continued to advance. Who am I? Elena thought, feeling half-frantic with anxiety. Then she tried something she had never done before, or seen or heard of being done. She carefully extended her Power into the Self around the orb. She was Werty, a sort of lawyer's secretary. She/he took notes when important deals were done.
And Werty definitely didn't like the way things were going right now. The two clients and his boss closing in on him like this, in a way they never had before.
Elena pulled herself out of the clerk and put the ball down to one side. She shivered, feeling as if she'd been plunged into ice-cold water.
And then the roof crashed in.
Bloddeuwedd.
Even with her crippled beak, the huge owl tore off quite a bit of the roof of the carriage.
Everyone was screaming and no one was giving much good advice. Saber and Damon had both damaged her: Saber by raising right off the three soft laps he was sitting on and lunging straight up for Bloddeuwedd's feet. He had torn and shaken one before letting go to fall back into the carriage, where he almost slid off the back. Elena, Bonnie, and Meredith grabbed at whatever portions of canine anatomy they could reach, and hauled the huge animal into the backseat again.