Tanith Lee - Claidi Journals 01 Read Online Free PDF Page B

and I with her.
    Nemian was around the other side in the Pavilion cage, where the Guards had been. Maybe they’d been insulting him, or just talking. Surely someone must be interested in the Waste just a teeny bit.
    He stood there inside the bars. His coat hung over a bench. He looked… overpowering, so close. So I couldn’t even squint at him.
    “Oh,” he said. “Hello, madam. A great lady, and a girl in a blue dress with green hair tangling from a blue scarf.”
    I could feel him staring at me, a long, long gaze. He, who would never have glanced my way.
    “She is Claidi,” said Jizania Tiger. And next she said, “Claidi for short, that is. Her full name is Claidissa Star.”
    My head shot up. I goggled at her. Most unbecoming I must have appeared. I had no words. I’d even forgotten the gorgeous Nemian.
    Was that— that —my proper name?

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My arm aches from writing so much, but I can’t stop. There isn’t time. The moons moved. Can I squeeze the rest in before I have to go down?
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For a minute, dazzled by the new name, I didn’t take in what the princess and the prisoner were saying to each other. They were talking about something.
    I sort of came back to hear him say, “Its kind of you to inquire, madam. I wasn’t seriously injured, no. A handful of bruises, a scratch or two. The balloon brushed against some of your trees in falling, and I was able to swing out on a handy bough. Then the balloon veered again and crashed at quite a distance. I was damned lucky.”
    “Lucky but damned?” said she.
    Nemian smiled, and I saw him color very slightly. My heart turned a somersault. I’d certainly remembered him again.
    “Pardon my rough language, lady,” he said. “I’ve been traveling some while and lost my good manners.” Then his eyes came back to me. For a moment they held mine, and I seemed to be sinking in them. (Still cant recall their shade—blue? grey?? Soon I’ll know.) Then he smiled such a smile. And I thought, I really am not going to be so totally, tiresomely soppy . So I frowned at him in a grave and ugly way. And he laughed. And I turned my head. (Childish. I’d run out of ideas on coping.) Nemian said to the princess, “She seems to have had enough, Lady Claidissa Star.”
    “I expect she wants her tea.”
    “Then please lose no further time in seeing she gets it.”
    I found that she was turning me with her slender claws, and we were going back over the paving, the Guards saluting. I was convinced I’d messed everything up—whatever everything was.
    Back in her apartment a carved table had been laid with the most delightful “tea.” (Really it was lunchtime.) I thought she meant for me to wait on her, but she said I was to sit down and eat with her.
    In fact she only drank a glass of iced chocolate.
    (It would be madness not to note down at least some of the “tea.” There were sliced peaches and strawberries in painted dishes, and cakes still hot, and biscuits in the shapes of birds, and white butter shaped like a rabbit. There were hot and cold drinks of all types. How the cups and glasses sparkled!) What a shame I couldn’t eat anything. I tried. I’d never been offered such a feast. But you’ll grasp why I couldn’t.
    And when Jizania Tiger saw I couldn’t, she started to talk to me, and what she said made it impossible for me to eat and drink even the crumbs and drips I’d been trying to get down my throat.
    “So much is said,” she said, “about the House. Long ago, the House was a sanctuary. It was a pleasant enough place. But now its like an overwound clock. It goes in fits and starts and tells the wrong time.” Then she said, “They talk about the Waste, too, and terrorize little children with stories of it. But you saw the flower. The Waste isn’t as bad as its made out, just as the House isn’t as good.” Then: “That young man, our handsome prisoner—they don’t know what to do about him. He meant us no harm, but by now