Rachel had prepared a special tisane for the weary travelers. Alice was amazed at how much better she felt after a few sips of the herbal brew. She could see that the tisane was also having a soothing effect on Karen Rosser, who now appeared more composed.
The two dust bunnies, high on chocolate zingers, were dashing around the floor of the bookshop. They appeared to be engaged in some version of a dust bunny game. Darwina clutched a small Amberella doll dressed in a sparkly ball gown. There were occasional crashing sounds when books or other small objects fell to the floor.
Drake picked up his cup and inhaled the aroma of the tisane with obvious appreciation. “Figured the amber lantern might be useful, but the fire worked better because with it for illumination I didn’t have to wear my glasses. That gave us an advantage when the insects came out of the Preserve. We used a couple of fire-starters modified for use inside the fence to zap the bugs.”
Charlotte shuddered. “Giant mutant insects. How much worse can things get?”
“I don’t think we want to find out,” Fletcher said.
Jasper shook his head. “Gotta say, it’s amazing that you both survived the night.”
“We spent it watching each other’s back,” Drake said. “Literally.” He looked at Alice across the table. “We maintained physical contact. That helped. And we had Houdini, who functioned as an early warning system.”
Fletcher nodded, understanding. “Sounds like the three of you made a good team.”
“Yes,” Drake said. He did not take his mirrored gaze off Alice. “We do make a good team. Nothing like spending a night zapping giant roaches to find out if you were meant for each other.”
He said it very seriously, but the crowd around the table—with the exception of Alice—laughed. The sudden rush of heat into her cheeks told her that she was blushing.
“Probably a more accurate compatibility test than those questionnaires the professional matchmakers use,” Charlotte said dryly.
“Yes,” Drake said. It was clear he took the comment very seriously. He looked at Alice. “A hell of a lot more accurate.”
Frantically, Alice searched for a way to change the conversation.
“When did the Glorious Dawn crowd arrive?” she asked quickly.
“That lot came in on the last ferry,” Rachel said. She made a face. “No one was expecting them. Slade and Harry were getting as many people off the island as possible. Not everyone was willing to leave, but most of the folks with kids did want to evacuate. Slade and Harry let the Dawn crowd stay because they needed space on the ferry for the Shadow Bay families. They figured they’d get rid of the Dawners on the last run. But there were no more runs. The ferry was never able to get back to the island. Several of the families did not make it off.”
“Thus, we got stuck with the Dawners,” Jasper explained. “And the first thing they did was head into the Preserve.” He sighed. “Slade and Harry thought it would only take a few hours to find them and pull them back out. But that was two days ago.”
No one spoke for a moment.
Rachel exchanged a look with Charlotte.
“We keep telling you, they’re okay,” Charlotte said quietly. “Trust me, Rachel and I would know if that wasn’t the case.”
Fletcher eyed Karen, who was sitting very quietly and drinking her tea.
“You said that this Dr. Zara Tucker stuck a couple of Old Earth crystals into an Alien ruin to jump-start it and now the place is overheating?”
Karen lowered her cup. “Yes. She wants to get off the island before it blows but she’s trapped, too, just like us.”
Alice cleared her throat. “I think you should all know that I’m the one who located the Keys.”
Charlotte stilled. “The Keys? You mean those three crystals?”
“I was told that’s what my great-grandfather called them in his diary,” Alice said. “Why? Does that mean something to you?”
“Nothing terribly useful,” Charlotte admitted. “But it may explain something I’ve always wondered about. My aunt Beatrix, who died and left me Looking Glass Antiques across the street, spent the last years of her life searching for something she called the Key. Singular, not plural, but she may not have realized there were three of them. I don’t think she even knew what the Key looked like or what it opened.”
“Dr. Tucker used those crystal Keys to fire up the Chamber,” Karen said. “That’s all I can tell you.”
Drake finished his tea. “Alice and Karen and I all need some food and some sleep.” He looked out the window at the unnatural dark that had fallen in the past half hour. “We need to pull together the information we’ve got and come up with a plan, but there’s nothing we can do until morning.”
“You’ve got that right,” Fletcher said. “Shadow Bay was never what you’d call a lively town after dark. We roll up the streets around nine o’clock most nights. But lately it’s gotten real quiet at night. You can move around to some extent with an amber lantern, but that fog makes people nervous as hell.”
“Folks think they see things in it,” Rachel said. “And now that we know about those mutant insects in Deception Cove, we have to take the hallucinations a little more seriously.”
“Everyone who couldn’t get off the island or who refused to leave is staying here in town,” Fletcher explained. “Jasper and I are sleeping in our shop.”
“Rachel and I are staying at the B-and-B at the end of the street,” Charlotte said. “We can squeeze Karen in there, but the place is really full. I think Burt Caster, who owns the Marina Inn and Tavern, mentioned that he had one room left. Drake, you and Alice can have it.”
Alice went very still. She did not dare look at Drake.
“That works,” Drake said.
Rachel gave Alice a commiserating smile. “I’ll bet you didn’t expect to spend your honeymoon on Rainshadow, did you?”
“Actually,” Alice said, “it’s become something of a tradition for me.”
Chapter 18
“YOU KNOW,” ALICE SAID, “IF WE HADN’T ALREADY SPENT a couple of nights together, this situation would be somewhat awkward.”
Room Number Five at the Marina Inn had seen better days. The curtains, carpet, bedspread, and towels were faded and a bit frayed, but the bathroom and the sheets were clean, and that counted for a lot in her opinion. During the past year she had learned to establish priorities. Nevertheless, in the low, mellow light of the amber lantern on the table, the place didn’t look all that bad. Under other circumstances, it might even have been romantic in a retro sort of way. The kind of place where a young, broke, eloping couple might spend a honeymoon.
But she could not remember a time when she had felt young, and she was married—temporarily at least—to one of the wealthiest men in the four city-states. True, they had eloped, but not for the usual reasons.
When they had entered the room a moment ago, Drake had done a methodical walk-through of the small space. Houdini had followed at his heels, evidently taking the job of checking out the room as seriously as Drake. There was none of the usual dust bunny obsession with turning the nearest bright, shiny object into a toy; no trying to swing from the drapery cord. At first Alice had wondered if the effects of the chocolate zingers had simply worn off, but now she sensed that, like Drake, Houdini was in sentry mode.
“Charlotte and Rachel probably could have made space for you over at the B-and-B,” Drake said. “But I didn’t want to go into detailed explanations of exactly why we got married, not in front of a lot of people we don’t know very well.” He shrugged out of the pack and dropped it on the small table near the window. “Figured that would be even more awkward.”
“You’re right.” Alice smiled ruefully. “Explaining to a bunch of strangers that you married me to protect me from Ethel Whitcomb, who thinks I murdered her son, would have been a tad difficult.”