Strangers and Lies (16 page)

"Oh, splendid Gwen! That's incredible. I
knew
you could do it. How long do you think you can stay up?" That part sounded pretty pleasant, instead of the blasé tone that all the Westmorlands had used in her head.

"I'm not sure, in the... dream thing, is was about half an hour. I feel fine so far." She floated up then, toward the ceiling which was nearly twenty-plus feet overhead. When she tapped it with her left hand, Beth clapped again.

"How exciting! Try to stay up and I'll time you." She pulled a silver watch from a little pocket and opened the plain front of it.

Then they chatted as she floated around the room, trying to take different positions, even as her head began to ache from releasing the energy. She had to keep that up though, or else she'd crash to the ground. It would have been scary, but she'd already dealt with the fear of that. It had been like a training course, after a fashion.

After about twenty minutes she had to come down, feeling like someone had been slapping the inside of her brain with a slightly damp fish. She was out of breath too, gasping as she landed, needing several minutes before she could speak clearly again.

"So, that's a thing. I was a little shorter on time than I should have been, compared to the whole mesmerism thing. Is this a sign that I'm still stuck in that? How would I know if I was?"

It made sense to her, but the Westmorland Detective shook her head.

"Easy enough, look around and focus on things, are they indistinct? Is anything changing as you go through your day? Are things as you remember them or do they warp a bit? The mind is powerful but inconsistent that way. Colors can shift, objects will become larger, or smaller than they normally would be. Try that now and see what's there." She didn't just assure her it was all real at least. That would be exactly what a hallucination trying to control her would have said, and Beth knew that.

The room looked fine however.

Everything was exactly as it should be as far as she could tell. One big difference was that the targets in the back yard were all intact, not having been blasted to destruction by her mighty force blasts. She didn't even think about it, raising her right fist and hitting the nearest target with a burst of force. It made a thunk that could be heard even from fifty feet away. Her aim kind of sucked though, she realized. She'd have to upgrade to a laser sight for it.

The other woman froze, and then nodded gently, smiling.

"Gwen... I..." She shook her head and then carried on, looking at the target off in the distance. "I really don't think that could be a mistake. For some reason these people, the ones that took you, did this on purpose. It should take years just to learn to fly the way you were doing in there. Even at that you were doing better than all but the very best manage. Now this? No, I don't think it was a mistake. I don't know why, but this might have been the actual point of the whole thing. Including the murder of that boy. Someone was trying, perhaps at least, to awaken power within you. I wonder why these however? They're strong things, but healing would be more useful."

That seemed likely, once it was mentioned, but Gwen didn't know what it might mean. Why would her enemies do that? Unless they thought they had some way to control her? She'd make a pretty decent weapon now, if they could. It was an unsettling thought, but she just shrugged, not knowing what do think about it. Bethany didn't seem that concerned however, feeling that they'd done a pretty good job of making certain that she wasn't going to turn into an assassin at least. Or a spy.

"And if this is about Katherine, then they've failed, since she won't have those abilities at all. They're clearly
yours
. It might change the dynamics of all this, may I use the telestator, do you think?"

That she was asking seemed odd at first, but that probably had to do less with the need to get permission from Gwen to actually use it, and more with the idea that she wanted to do it without her being right there. It was probably a good idea, if they had to keep things secret from the girl in her head.

"Sure. I'll, I don't know, go for a jog or something? This whole thing left me battered and bruised, but that isn't the same as getting exercise. I miss it when I can't do anything for too long."

Then, already feeling a bit tired from the work of flying and all that, she started jogging. The air was warm and the sun hit the new leaves of the trees along the path, but it wasn't oppressive yet. The world smelled fresh enough, and by just going, she didn't have to worry about saying goodbye. That... the whole reason they didn't say goodbye had happened in her dream, but it had the ring of truth to it. Had the person controlling her mind told her that then? Was it Jeffery, the one that she'd thought was the driver that had done it? She didn't know if that was how it worked at all, or even if there were rules to it. Maybe it was different for everyone? Had the man been part of the Counts rape scenario, or was he some strange kind of hero that had different reasons and had actually let his plan be put in danger to save those girls?

The jog wasn't a fast one, since really, she was sore in a lot of places. It made her legs feel heavy, but after the first two laps she was able to loosen up a bit, finishing about five miles before she decided to go in. Normally she'd have pushed for more, but it was hard to stay interested in it for some reason. She did check the world constantly, holding it in almost hyper focus, not knowing what was real or not anymore.

Then, she hadn't known that for a long time, had she?

No, the whole thing, this entire world, was probably one big hallucination or dream. It was something to keep in mind. If that was the case though, she was going to hang on to it for as long as she could. Imaginary friends beat the pants out of not having any at all. Here she was even rich. That was part of the whole thing of course. She just couldn't trust it all.

Gwen also decided that she didn't care. If it was fake, she wasn't leaving. If she was living in some psychiatric facility somewhere and not dead as she'd been told, then they could just keep her there. It was just too much fun, being here, even with the tension and negative things happening every now and then. They didn't have T.V. after all. So it made sense for her to find recreation where she could. Like it was all just one giant video game that she could win, if she did it all correctly.

Then, life really was like that for most people, wasn't it?

She showered again, before going in search of Beth, not knowing how much time she'd need to discuss the problem of her new abilities. No one met her at the bottom of the stairs to clap her in chains at least, though one of the male servants who had taken up a guard position nodded to her. He looked vaguely Native American to her, but a little lighter in skin tone, showing mixed heritage. No one cared about that here, so she smiled at him and waved a little. It occurred to her that it might seem flirtatious for this place, but the man didn't seem to mind overly. In fact he smiled back, then gave her a serious nod.

"Ma'am. May I help you with anything?"

 She nearly just said no, but then stopped herself, trying to practice making conversation.

"Um, what's your name? I seem to have missed it." It could have sounded rude, but he smiled again, so maybe it wasn't that far off?

"Carlton, ma'am."

"I'm Gwen. Nice to meet you. If I ever tell you that my name is Katherine and seem to mean it, put me in a choke hold and lock me in an empty room, will you?"

The man actually stared for nearly fifteen seconds before speaking, then did what had to be his best impersonation of Charles Winslow, his boss.

"Certainly ma'am." He didn't even sound confused, as if it made sense.

She made a point of patting him on the arm, a thing that she knew would be considered kind of trampy here, but it seemed about right given everything. Why should she live her life as a virgin? This body certainly wasn't one after all, and while she'd never done anything like that, it made sense to give it a try, just in case everything fell apart on her soon.

Carlton didn't follow her as she walked to the telestator room, hovering in the doorway, since she heard a voice. It was Mr. Vernor however, who stood in front of the set of five silver orbs, his right hand out and resting on the center one.

"Yes, your highness, I can understand that, but my child wronged Gwen so much, should we stand on the needs of the Kingdom in this?" He sounded a lot more humble than he normally did, and didn't turn around at all.

The voice from the device was a smooth and rich tenor, a voice that was just about right to cause her to have girly feelings inside, she realized. That wasn't a good thing though, since he was the King, and if anyone had a right to claim him, it would be Beth, since they used to date. That had been a while ago however, when she was about fourteen or so, which meant it might not count now, fifteen years later or however long it had been.

"Robert, Miss Farris told you not to do that. It isn't just that doing so might disrupt the kingdom, but her wishes must be taken into account here as well. It seems a grand gesture right now, giving her everything you own as an act of atonement, but I think that she needs more from you and Ethyl. Me as well. We owe her far more than can be easily repaid and I think that we can only do that by being there for her. This isn't about wealth or even repaying her. We allowed a world to be stolen from her... How can we fix that? The only thing that comes to mind is to replace it with a better one. It will take all of us to do that."

It sounded fair to her, except the part where these two owed her anything. She spoke softly, stepping right up behind Mr. Vernor, which still made him jump. He recovered quickly and smiled at her, tightening his mouth a little at least.

"Gwen, how long have you been there?" There was a wry tone to his voice.

"Not very long. Anyway, my people don't deal with things the same way I don't think. The parents aren't responsible for the actions of an adult child, and no one would
ever
assume that the ruler of a place was responsible for an action they didn't order himself. That said, I do kind of like the idea of giving me a better world than the one I came from. It shouldn't be that hard. Really, you've all done pretty well so far. I guess that I need to step up my game personally now, since things are getting strange, but I'll deal with that, you don't have to worry about it. Well except for helping me when I need it. I'll try to ask though, if anything comes up." That should fix it, she decided, knowing that it wouldn't be the last time this all came up.

It was a matter of honor for them after all. The strange thing there was that is kind of was for her too, and she wouldn't let anyone be hurt, trying to make everything right for her. After a few seconds of silence there was a deep chuckle from the air over Robert's shoulder.

"Well then! As always I stand ready to aid you, Miss Farris. For the time being, I hear that you have a project at hand? The Girls Camp? It sounds fascinating. You truly intend to teach them field craft?" He did sound amazed, as if girls wouldn't be able to do things like that.

 "More to the point, I'm going to have others teach them that stuff. Me too. I don't exactly have a lot of experience camping, but that, some self-defense, military drills. It's the Students Service. These kids might have to fight after all. We don't know where things are going to come from, so we need to see that they're ready. In the mean time I need to learn how to keep myself from being taken over like I was. I don't suppose you have a specialist you could send around for that? I have, what, nearly four days to learn it?" She added a small chuckle to the words, but there was a rustling of paper and a muttered phrase she didn't quite get.

Then the King made a sound that seemed distinctly tense.

"I
do
have such a man... He's considered the best in the Kingdom at teaching people to resist magical manipulation, but... He's retired and probably won't be pleased to be sent out on such short notice. I can but request it of him. He isn't... Pleasant. I have to warn you of that. Nor are his methods. They work however, if you can stand him long enough."

She shrugged, knowing that no one was going to see her do it, since she was behind Mr. Vernor.

"Sounds fine. Please tell him that I said pretty please, and that I'll do my very best? I don't really have a choice after all, since if I wait I might be taken again. I won't let that happen again." It was something that scared her a lot more than she wanted to admit. That loss of... everything. She still felt uncertain that anything was real, for instance. It was no way to live.

"Then I'll have him there directly." The line broke without hesitation.

And no one said goodbye.

The man that came to the door did
not
look pleased as he pushed past Charles, actually sneering at first, looking around at the opulence of Park Street as if it offended him personally. He was old and held himself as if every part of his body hurt for some reason. He had hair, but his face held so many wrinkles and seams that it was hard to tell if the man had ever been good looking or not. It was easy to think that wouldn't be the case, since if he had, then at some point he would have smiled, which might have left a trace on him.

That wasn't the case however. There was anger written there, and tension, pursed lines around the mouth that indicated a lifelong smoker, but nothing that spoke of happiness having plagued him overly.

He was also short, standing at perhaps five feet tall, and so thin it looked like everyone in the world had been withholding food from him for years. His steps were light and quick for all that and he fairly charged into the room, carrying a large leather bag and wearing dingy looking tweed that might have been in fashion once, but if so that time was so long before that Gwen hadn't seen the like on anyone. There were holes in his jacket and at the right knee of his tan trousers, that seemed to be made of something hardy and workman like, which meant canvas, or as they liked to call it in the Western Kingdom,
hessian
.

The man sounded half dead and half livid, so at least the words he said matched his demeanor.

 "Which one of you is Farris then? Out with it, I don't have all day. I'm old and might drop any moment, so if you want to do this, don't stand on politeness." For this place it was practically name calling and cursing in public, which showed on everyone's face, except Gwen's she just shrugged and stepped forward.

"That's me. Gwen Farris. We can set up in the next room, if you like?" She didn't sound short about it, even given the combative tone of the little man. It left her feeling proud of herself, since there was a time when she would have responded to something like that with a closed fist and a thrust kick to the chest. Not too long before even. Of course she might end up going there anyway, but the man actually looked at her and let his face change, if briefly.

He stared, in a way that would have been rude for a younger man and probably was meant to be coming from him, given everything.

"What happened to you? I was told you were taken and mesmerized, but no one mentioned you were beaten too. End up being raped too? Did they do you up the behind?"

 It was nearly funny, the way he said it. More so because it hadn't been the case. She probably wouldn't have thought so if she had been sodomized at least. No one else in the room seemed too happy with his words and Mr. Vernor moved in, looking ready to throw the man out. Gwen stopped that with a smile and a head shake.

"Nope. I had to order some Westmorlands to beat me, to make certain I wasn't going to turn out to be a spy or something later. Less than fun, so if we can prevent that in the future I'd appreciate it."

The man went very still for a moment, looking at her again, as if she was lying to him at first, but he started to nod slowly then, seeming happier she thought. It was hard to tell, because he didn't smile or give any overt sign really, he just relaxed a little and frowned slightly less. In all it could have been her imagination, if she were going to be honest about it.

"Seriously? Well, then we might be able to actually do something here after all. I wasn't aware that you were anything other than a waste of space. The boy did mention something about that, but he tends to think with his cock, so any pretty face has more worth to him than a plain one, and even under the bruises I can see you're a beauty. If I were even thirty years younger..." He didn't laugh or chortle at all, he just stood then, until Gwen waved and walked to the sitting room off the main entry space.

It had cream colored furniture and large throw rugs, that probably weren't called that, Gwen realized. At the size they were no one was
throwing
them at all. They were the kind of thing that would be good to wrap a body in, for transport to the airfield for disposal at sea. Why she was thinking that she didn't really know, but the little man kept talking as he followed her, oblivious it seemed to the anger he was generating in everyone else.

"If you aren't a waste of space, I guess I can pull out the new tricks I've come up with. Based on Debussey's work. Heard of her? Stone bitch, don't let her charming ways fool you. Used to be a student of mine, about thirty years ago, before I got out of this line of work. Oh... Devon Tanburry. Doctor Devon Tanburry. Not that anyone cares if an old man was something more interesting at one point..." He settled his bag on the table and then looked at the others, his face angry again. "Now, get these morons out of here. I need to abuse you for a while to make this work and they'll just get in the way. You aren't a virgin, are you dear?"

Those words, obviously meant to needle her and the others for some reason nearly got the man lynched. Robert actually started to go for him, which got Beth to hold him back. It was a close thing however, even if Bethany was Special Service now, and Mr. Vernor was a paper pusher. On the good side he didn't struggle long, since Gwen took care of it, by answering honestly.

"Yes and no. The body I'm in isn't, but me, this personality, has never had sex. Is that part of this?" She felt a little uneasy, but if he really had to do things to her to make it work... Or even if that was the price of his efforts, she could deal, she thought. It might be harder than she expected, since she didn't have any experience there, but the angry gnome of a man just chortled. It wasn't a happy sound either.

"Even as little as
twenty
years ago I would have told you yes, but the truth is that I'm just going to have to cause you a lot of pain and these people won't let that happen, clearly. Keep someone to guard your virtue and let's get rid of the rest. We don't have all day. I need a nap at six or I'll be cranky." There was a lot of fussing with the bag then, and he pulled out a half dozen different instruments which clearly had something to do with magic. One of them was simply a crystal pack, a round one that seemed a little like a battery and held magic, connected to two wires that ended in small round silver pieces that were a bit tarnished.

Gwen waved people away and motioned for Bethany to stay. Not that her friend would want to see her in pain, but everyone else really would try to stop it, if it was nearly as bad as the man indicated. She pointed, gesturing with her whole hand, since that was considered a lot more polite here.

"Bethany Westmorland, Detective and Special Service Agent." It was all the introduction she was going to be allowed it seemed, since the man moved to her and started to pretend to be working at her top, which wasn't going to work the way he was doing it, since the dress fastened in the back. After a few seconds, not having touched her at all really, he sneered again.

"Or we can attach them to your forearms. Let me get the straps for that. One moment." He wasn't gentle overly, but he didn't seem to be trying to hurt her yet either. It was almost as if he wanted her to complain or balk, so that he'd have an excuse to simply leave, instead of doing the work.

The leather straps were thin, and had cold brass buckles on them, the silver just being placed underneath that part of things, on the soft inner portion of her arms. Katherine's arms. The sleeves of her dress were pushed up, leaving them bunched and a little uncomfortable, since there was no stretch to the fabric at all.

"Now, in a moment I'm going to try to mesmerize you. You'll be able to feel it, since I won't be subtle about it. Not to start with. When your mind relaxes and you feel the process starting, the pain inducer will, well, you get the idea, horrible pain. Then we'll do it again and again, until every time you start to be mesmerized, no matter how light or subtle the attempt, you'll respond with fear and terror. It will keep you from moving into the correct state. Ingenious isn't it? I've never gotten to try it on a willing subject before." He didn't seem pleased to be doing it now either. Just angry still.

Gwen sighed a little, trying to relax.

"This is how everyone does this here?" The second the words were out of her mouth she realized it wouldn't be, but the man didn't snap at her, he just shook his head.

"
Noooo
. Most people take two years of study and practice daily to learn what we're going to do in a few hours. I was told you didn't have that kind of time however. Plus, I really don't care to waste my last days playing with you. If you want to do it that way, I can leave..." That got a slightly pleased sound into his voice finally. Almost as if it were his real plan.

Gwen smiled a little and shook her head.

"No, let's get it done. I really don't have time. Erin Debussey seems to be gunning for me and I don't think she's going to wait two years to kill me. So yes, I
have
heard of her. She wants to sacrifice me or something, that part wasn't too clear. Um, I'm basically her daughter from a different reality. Me, not this body. I can explain later, if you care. Right now I think I'm just stalling, since this sounds like it might hurt."

Devon the tiny man in front of her growled a little, but after about half a minute he nodded, his face set.

"Let's be about it then."

He started and as promised, seconds after a warm and relaxed feeling of energy hit her, she was in horrid pain. It ran through her whole being, not just her arms. It didn't seem to be at the point of contact at all, coming from inside the center of her chest instead. It was only a few inches away from the place she'd been stabbed and felt a lot like that, except more so. It was a bigger point, nearly larger than her body, the whole thing going at once. She screamed and couldn't help it at all. Really it was probably a lot more pain than was needed, just to condition her against this, she thought. It would work she guessed.

As long as it didn't kill her.

There was a commotion as Charles and Robert tried to rush the door. Beth stopped them, holding a power conduit in her right hand. It wasn't her silver one, but rather Gwen's little reddish one that would just knock the men back if they were hit with it. The butler had given it to her, so he recognized it at least.

"No. Gentlemen, there will be more screams, but it has to happen. Please remove yourselves." There was no hesitation in the words, or doubt, as if this was normal.

Gwen thought she understood it. For
her
it was. This was part of how the Westmorlands were trained, most likely. If so, it really did suck as much as they'd all hinted.

She waved a hand at the men, shewing them away, gasping a bit.

"We're going to have a lot of repetitions of this. Sorry about the yelling, but that's going to happen too. No help for it, we're on a short time schedule."

There was silence for a few seconds, as everyone stared at her, except Beth, who just held her position, face set.

"
Now
, gentlemen. Drawing this out won't help her at all."

Not that she didn't want to stall if she could, but that wasn't really up to her. The second Beth got the men to pull back, the tiny monster in front of her started again, his eyes dark the whole time. After she finished screaming, he did it again, and again.

The feeling got lighter each time, but she dreaded the sense of it already. On the good side that probably meant it was going to work. On the other side of things, she didn't want to go on with it at all, wondering instead of going into hiding wouldn't work better. After all, if Debussey and her friends couldn't find her, it would be impossible to take over her mind, wouldn't it? It seemed reasonable, but she didn't say anything or beg for the pain to stop. She was kind of already committed to this course of action.

Sweat had pooled in her armpits and her hair was already moist and sticking to her slightly when the man gasped himself and let her have some water, half an hour later or so.

What he said was a lot different than she expected.

"We... can't go on with this. The pain..." He looked at Bethany, who still had the PC in her hand, but pointed it at the floor.

She shook her head.

"We need to finish this, unless
you
can't continue? Is there a health reason?" She waited, but the man shook his head.

"It's not that, but the girl..."

Gwen gasped then, her voice ragged from the screaming.

"I'm fine. Keep going. We need to fix this. It's working already. I can feel it."

They did keep going, even as the man begged for them to stop every ten cycles of pain or so. They didn't, not until the crystal pack was drained on the device, which took about four hours. Doctor Tanburry was shaking by that time. Gwen was too, but
she
didn't have to look at herself, so it wasn't nearly as bad. To everyone's surprise, Beth freed the charge crystal and held it so that Gwen could recharge the thing, which got a glare from Devon that seemed half insane. His tiny fist clenched as if he was going to fight the Westmorland on the whole thing then.

Beth didn't pay attention to him at all.

"We have to do this again. Over and over, until the slightest hint of mesmerism triggers you into the resistant state. At these pain levels it should only take about three hundred repetitions. We're at seventy-six right now." There was a cold hardness to the words, even as Gwen worked to get the crystal back up to full. It didn't take long at all. About two minutes. It wasn't a large thing, but it was hard to focus.