she really wanted to believe them. "I...don't know--"
A lilting, child-like voice wafted through the air. "Aw, go on, tell them." A giggle followed it.
Sunny whipped her head around trying to locate the source of the voice, but Eile felt more disturbed by Differel's reaction. She went rigid, as if having a seizure, and bit off the end of her cigarillo, which dropped on the marble floor in a small shower of sparks. She squeezed her eyes shut with a grimace and jammed her fists into each temple. It looked as if she tried to block it from her mind.
"Who said that?"
Differel snapped to attention and stared at Sunny in utter disbelief. "You...you heard that?!"
"Wellllll, yeah, naturally." Sunny's eyes widened with wonder. "Who is she?"
Differel charged straight at her and grabbed her by both arms. "You really heard her?!" She shook Sunny hard enough to whip her hair around her head.
"Cut it out!" Eile said. "Let her go, we both heard it!"
Differel threw Sunny at Eile and backed away from them. "How do I know you're not lying? How...how do I know you're even real!? Maybe you're just more hallucinations! Merciful God in Heaven, I may actually be going mad!! I can't live like this! Dear God, please, make it stop; make it stop--"
Eile strode up to Differel and slapped her across the face so hard she turned her head and knocked off her glasses. The blue-blood glared a look of outrage and slugged her in the mouth. Eile flew back and Sunny caught her before she fell.
"What the bloody hell did you do that for?!?"
"You were wiggin' out!" Eile replied as Sunny put her on her feet. "I couldn't think of anything else ta do."
Differel made an effort to calm herself, but still stared daggers at her. "Hmph. Well, it worked, but never do that again."
Eile tested her jaw. "Don't worry, you've gotta a right cross that can fell an ox, lady. So what's going on anyways?"
Differel took a moment to retrieve her glasses and head back to her desk. "It started a fortnight ago. I heard the voice for the first time as I fell asleep. I awoke, but saw no one in my room, and I assumed it had just been a dream. But I heard it again, louder and clearer, the next night, and then the next night, and the night after that."
She paused to select another cigarillo and light it; Eile noted her hands still shook. "It kept talking to me, night after night, incessant, more frequent and longer each time, until I could barely sleep. Meanwhile I started hearing it during the day. It would break in while I was on the phone, in a meeting, receiving a report; then when I was reading or exercising, or just trying to relax. I never know when I'll hear it, or for how long." She put her hands over her ears as if trying to deaden some cacophony. "And I cannot block it out; no matter what I try, it breaks through my thoughts and hammers at my brain like a pile driver."
She dropped her hands and turned to look at them. "That's when I told the others. I hoped Vlad had been aware of it and would vouch for me, but he denied knowing anything. They tried to be sympathetic, but they were convinced I merely suffered from stress."
She took a deep, rattling breath. "I almost believed them, but then I started seeing her! At first just in my dreams, but then I would catch glimpses of her in halls and rooms. At first it was just flashes out of the corners of my eyes, but next she started leering around corners and through windows, popping out from behind furniture, standing just inside when I opened doors--Vlad never saw a thing!"
She took another rattled breath. "By then I was deteriorating rapidly and I felt certain they would pack me away to a sanitarium at any moment. I had become paranoid; thank God you two are here now, because I doubt I can last another day."
"What does she look like?" Sunny asked.
Differel gave her a sharp look. "What?"
"The girl you've been seeing; what does she look like?"
"Like me," the voice said. Eile turned with the others and saw a girl fade in from nothing as she pirouetted across the room towards the desk. But Eile realized she wasn't a girl at all. She looked like a late-twentysomething woman who dressed and acted like a child. She was short and petite, which added to the illusion, but she had a maturity of face and figure that belied her playacting. She wore what resembled a Sailor Moon senshi uniform, like she was some kind of cosplayer, except over it she wore an open cape-like coat. She also looked fairly normal, except for the baroque style of the clothes and ornaments, and the fact that everything about her was colored in various shades of orange: costume, hair, eyes, lips, cosmetics, fingernails; even her skin had an orange tinge to it instead of pink.
As she approached, she giggled, warbled, and bubbled laughter, until she came to a stop just in front of the desk and faced them, a huge grin on her face. She jammed the index fingers of both hands into her cheeks and cried, "Ain't I cute?!"
She acted and sounded like a lunatic, which, Eile realized with shock, was exactly what she was.
Differel visibly trembled and her voice quavered. "Do you see her?"
"Uh-huh." Sunny sounded awed, her voice uncharacteristically quiet.
Eile said, "Me too, unless we've all gone Looney Tunes tagether."
The girl burbled laughter. "Oh, my madness is very contagious, but have no fear, you are all as sane as march hares."
Differel appeared to relax at the news, despite the girl's innuendo. Her voice even sounded calmer. "Then you're real."
She giggled. "Of course I am, Cousin. Silly Willy Diffy!"
Differel startled visibly. "Cousin?!"
"Naturally. Oh, didn't you know? Your family and mine are descended from the same royal stock. Indeed, Artur Pen Draig was quite the ladies man." She giggled again.
"Just who are you?"
The girl pirouetted on her toes with her arms over her head. "I am the Princess in Orange! Wheeeeee!!!!!"
Eile could see that meant nothing to Differel, who frowned in confusion, but her blood ran cold.
As usual, Sunny voiced the obvious: "Oh my fabulous gravy! She's a Carcosan!"
From the way Differel stiffened, Eile knew she understood what that meant. The inhabitants of the city of Carcosa, on the shore of Lake Hali in the Hyades, were members of a pantheon of monstrous beings led by the King in Yellow and his consort the Queen in Red.
The Princess stopped dead in mid-twirl, her back to them. She lowered her arms and straightened up, then turned to give Sunny a baleful stare. "And just what would you know of it, Missy?" Her tone had a low, ominous quality.
Sunny twittered in a nervous manner. "Um--ho boy. We've met others of your family."
The Princess finished her turn and advanced on them. "My brother, mayhaps?" Her eyes flamed and a fiery orange glow sprang up, surrounding her. Medb had once told them that the Prince in Blue was the family black sheep, and he and his sister hated each other.
"Why, yes." Her voice resonanted, dropping lower and echoing on itself. "I can smell his taint on both of you. What did you do, crawl whimpering into his bed, begging him to fill you with his putrid seed?"
Scare out of her wits, Eile clasped hands with Sunny and they backed away from her. Her form appeared to grow larger and more horrid with each step she took.
Differel summoned Caliburn, but before she could make a move, Eile screeched, "Cripes, no! We sent him packin'!"
"With his tail between his legs!" Sunny shrieked.
The Princess snapped back to her original size and appearance as the flaming aura vanished, but she continued towards them. Laughing, she clapped her hands. "Oh, well then, in that case, you're my kind of gals! Tell me, did the little bastard squeal like a pig?"
Differel got between them, pointing the greatsword at the Carcosan royal. "Not another step!"
The Princess's eyes grew wide and bulged as she grinned to split her face. "Ah, pointy!" She began stroking the sword with her hands. "And so long and hard. I imagine your lovers must squeal with delight at the sight. Have you pleasured many? Well, come, let me pleasure you, Cousin." She opened her mouth and fellated the blade, humming a
s she rocked her head back and forth.
Snarling, Differel yanked the weapon out of her mouth. "That will do! Just what do want?"
The Princess looked hurt. "Aw, I hadn't even started yet." Then she pouted. "You're no fun." In a flash, however, she beamed a lascivious leer. "But I'll change that, have no fear." She bubbled laughter, but it had a sinister edge.
"I said, what do you want!?"
She turned in a coquettish manner and sashayed further into the room. "You are single-minded," she complained, then stopped and turned back. "But that is part of what I like about you. I want you as my Lady-in-Waiting."
"I...beg your pardon?!"
The Princess giggled, covering her mouth with her hands. "Oh, you are so easy to fluster! I so enjoy playing with you. That's why I want you to join the Royal Court. We could use some fresh blood, some excitement! I'll make you, hmm...let's see." She pursed her lips and tapped the side of her face as she pondered her dilemma. "Yes, the Duchess in Gray. You'll live with me in my apartments, be my companion, and we'll have ever so much fun together!" She clasped her hands and spun around, warbling a wordless tune.
"I don't think so."
The Princess halted and threw her a sly, malevolent leer. "Like you have a choice. Oh, but perhaps you want company of your own. That makes sense. After all, I have official duties; there will be times I will be away. And times when I will be occupied with other playthings. You should have your own diversion." She focused on Eile and Sunny. "Why, how about these two vivacious maidens? You