"Ever truthful, Doctor Volospion." She gave her attention to Miss Ming's white frills. "And this dress. You must feel so much younger in it."
"Much," agreed Miss Ming. "How clever of you to understand what it was to be like me! How many hundreds of years can it have been?"
"More than that, Miss Ming. Thousands, almost certainly. I see, at any rate, that your would-be ravisher has yet to come out of his little lair again."
"He can stay there forever as far as I'm concerned."
"I have made one or two attempts to rouse him," said Doctor Volospion. "I sought to shift the ship, too, but it is protected now by a singularly intractable force-field. Nothing I possess can dissipate that field."
"So he does have the power he boasted of, eh?" Bishop Castle in his familiar tall tete which cast a shadow over half the company, looked without much interest at the spaceship.
"Apparently," said Doctor Volospion.
"But why doesn't he use it?" The Duke of Queens joined them. "Has he perished in there, do you think. In his own mad flames?"
"We should have smelled something, at least," said O'Kala Incarnadine.
"Well," Sweet Orb Mace was now a pretty blonde in a black sari, "you would have smelled something, O'Kala, with your nose."
O'Kala wrinkled his current one.
"He's playing cat and mouse with me, that's what I think," said Mavis Ming with a nervous glance at the vessel. "Oh, I'm sorry, O'Kala, I didn't mean to suggest…"
O'Kala Incarnadine made a toothy grin. "I pity any ordinary cat who met a mouse like me!"
"He's hoping I'll give in and go to him. That's typical of some men, isn't it? Well I had enough of crawling with Donny Stevens. Never again I told my friend Betty. And never again it was!"
"But you have been tempted, eh?" My Lady Charlotina became intimate.
"Not once."
My Lady Charlotina let disappointment show.
"I wish," said Mavis Ming, "that he'd either start something or else just go away. It must have been weeks and weeks he's been waiting there! It's getting on my nerves, you know."
"Of course, it must be, my dear," said Sweet Orb Mace.
"Well," the Duke of Queens reminded them all, "Florence Fawkes awaits us. Will you come My Lady Charlotina? O'Kala?"
"I have a project," said My Lady Charlotina, by way of an excuse, "to finish. Of course it is very hard to tell if it is properly finished or not. An invisible city populated with invisible androids. You must come and feel it soon."
"A lovely notion," said Bishop Castle. "Are the androids of all sexes?"
"All."
"And is it possible to —?"
"Absolutely possible."
"It would be interesting —"
"It is."
"Aha!" Bishop Castle tilted his tete. "Then I look forward to visiting you at the earliest chance, My Lady Charlotina. What entertainments you do invent for us!" He bowed, almost toppled by his headgear.
The Duke of Queens had resumed his saddle. "All aboard!" he cried enthusiastically.
It was then that there came a squeak from the space vessel below. The airlock opened. All heads turned.
Emmanuel Bloom's bright blue eyes regarded them. His high-pitched voice drifted up to them.
"So you have come to me," he said.
"I?" said the Duke of Queens in astonishment.
"I have waited," Emmanuel Bloom said, "for you, Miss Ming. So that you may share my joy."
Miss Ming drew back into the main part of the gathering. "I was only passing…" she began.
"Come." He extended a stiff hand from the interior of the ship. "Come."
"Certainly not!" She hid behind Doctor Volospion.
"So, the one with the jackal eyes holds you still. And against your will, I am sure."
"Nothing of the sort! Doctor Volospion is my host, that is all."
"You are too afraid to tell me the truth."
"She speaks the truth, sir," said Volospion in an off-hand tone. "She is free to come and go from my house as she pleases."
"Some pathetic enchantment, no doubt, keeps her there. Well, woman, never fear. The moment I know that you need me I shall rescue you, wherever you may be hidden."
"I don't need rescuing," declared Miss Ming.
"Oh, but you do. So badly do you need it that you dare not tell yourself!"
My Lady Charlotina cried: "Excuse me, sir, for intruding, but we were wondering if your plans for the destruction of the world were completely formulated. I, for one, would appreciate a little notice."
"My meditations are not yet completed," he told her. He still stared at Miss Ming. "Will you come to me now?"
"Never!"
"Remember my oath."
Doctor Volospion stepped forward. "I would remind you, sir, that this lady is under my protection. Should you make any further attempt to annoy her I must warn you that I shall defend her to the death!"
Miss Ming was taken aback by this sudden about-face. "Oh, Doctor Volospion! How noble!"
"What's this?" said Bloom, blinking rapidly. "More posturing?"
"I give fair warning, that is all."
Doctor Volospion folded his arms across his chest and stared full into the eyes of Emmanuel Bloom.
Bloom remained unimpressed. "So you do keep her prisoner, as I suspected. She believes she has her liberty, but you know better!"
"I shall accept no more insults." Doctor Volospion lifted his chin in defiance.
"This is not mere braggadocio, I can tell. It is calculated. But what do you plan?"
"Any more of this, sir," said Doctor Volospion in ringing tones, "and I shall have to demand satisfaction of you."
The Fireclown laughed. "I shall free the woman soon."
The airlock shut with a click.
"How extraordinary!" murmured My Lady Charlotina. "How exceptional of you, Doctor Volospion! Miss Ming must feel quite moved by your defence of her."
"I am, I am." Miss Ming's small eyes were shining. "Doctor Volospion. I never knew…"
Doctor Volospion strode for the air car. "Let us leave this wretched place."
Miss Ming tripped behind him. It was as if she had found her True Knight at last.
9. In which the Fireclown brings some small Salvation to the End of Time
It was, as it happened, My Lady Charlotina who first experienced the fiery wrath of Emmanuel Bloom.
Tiring (for reasons described elsewhere) of her apartments under Lake Billy the Kid, she had begun a new palace which was to be constructed in an arrangement of clouds above the site of the lake, so that it hovered over the water, reflecting both this and the sun. It was to be primarily white but with some other pale colours here and there, perhaps for flanking towers. She had spent considerable thought upon the palace and it was still by no means complete, for My Lady Charlotina was not one of those who can create a conception whole with the mere twist of a power ring; she must consider, she must alter, she must build piece by piece. Thus, in the clouds over Lake Billy the Kid, there were half-raised towers, towers without tops, domes with spires and domes that were turreted, there were gaps where halls had been, there were whole patches of space representing apartments which, at a whim, she had returned to their original particles.
Emerging from Lake Billy the Kid, after resting, My Lady Charlotina stood upon the shore, surrounded by comfortable oaks and cypresses, and arranged the mist upon the water into more satisfactory configurations, making it drift so high that it mingled with the clouds on which her new palace was settled, and she was about to eradicate a tower, which offended, now, her sense of symmetry, when there came a loud roaring sound and the whole edifice burst into flame.
My Lady Charlotina gasped with indignation. Her first thought was that one of her friends had misjudged an experiment and accidentally set fire to her palace, but she soon guessed the true cause of the blaze.