The First Science Fiction MEGAPACK®. Fredric Brown
you don’t have any? Come on with us. Get the camera out, Jo. We’ll have to photograph him and send the picture to Chief Records Headquarters. They’ll tell us who you are, kid. Now hold still.”
Behind them, a sudden white-haired figure was out of the shadows and over the gate in a moment. The guards did not see her.
“Hold still now, kid, while I get your retina pattern.”
* * * *
Later on a bunch of rowdies, led by a giant, started to raise hell around the palace. They hadn’t even gotten the kid to the guard house yet, but somehow in the confusion the boy got away. One guard, who wore a size seventeen uniform was knocked unconscious, but no one else was hurt. They dispersed the rowdies, carried the guard to the infirmary, and left. The doctor saw him in the waiting room, then left him there momentarily to look for an accident report slip in the supply room at the other side of the building. (He could have sworn that a whole pad of them had been lying on the desk when he’d stepped out for a bit ten minutes ago.) When the doctor returned with the slip the soldier was still there—only he was stark naked.
* * * *
A minute later, an unfamiliar guard, wearing a size seventeen uniform, saluted the guard at the gate, and marched in.
* * * *
Two strange men behind the gate flung a cord with a weight on one end over a third story cornice. They missed once, then secured it the second time and left it hanging there.
A guard wearing a size seventeen uniform came down the hall of the west wing of the castle, stopped before a large double door on which was a silver crown, indicating the room of the Queen Mother; he took a complete set of keys to the private suites of the royal family from his cloak, and locked her Majesty firmly in her room. At the next door, he locked Prince Let securely in his. Then he went rapidly on.
Tel ran till he got to the corner, rounded it, and checked the street sign. It was correct. So he went to a doorway and sat down to wait.
* * * *
At the same time, Prince Let, getting ready for bed and wearing nothing but his undershirt, looked out the window and saw a girl with white hair hanging head down outside the shutter. He stood very still. The upside down face smiled at him. Then the hands converged at the window lock, did something, and the two glass panels came open. The girl rolled over once, turned quickly, and suddenly she was crouching on the window ledge.
Let snatched up his pajama bottoms first, and ran to the door second. When he couldn’t open it, he whirled around and pulled on his pajama pants.
Alter put her finger to her lips as she stepped down into his room. “Keep quiet,” she whispered. “And relax,” she added. “The Duchess of Petra sent me. More or less.” She had been instructed to use that name to calm the prince. It seemed to work a trifle.
“Look,” explained Alter, “you’re being kidnapped. It’s for your own good, believe me.” She watched the blond boy come away from the door.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m a friend of yours if you’ll let me be.”
“Where are you going to take me?”
“You’re going to go on a trip. But you’ll come back, eventually.”
“What has my mother said?”
“Your mother doesn’t know. Nobody knows except you and the Duchess, and the few people who’re helping her.”
Let appeared to be thinking. He walked over to his bed, sat down, and pressed his heel against the side board. There was a tiny click. Nothing else happened. “Why won’t they open the door?” he asked.
“It’s been locked,” Alter said. Suddenly she looked at the clock beside the Prince’s bed, and turned to the window. Light from the crystal chandelier caught on the shells that were strung on leather thongs around her neck as she turned.
Let put his hand quietly on the newel post of his bed and pressed his thumb hard on the purple garnet that encrusted the crowning ornamental dolphin. Nothing happened except a tiny click.
At the window, Alter reached out her hand, just as a bundle appeared outside on a lowered rope. She pulled them in, untied them, and shook them out as the rope suddenly flew out the window again. “Here,” she said. “Get into these.” It was a suit of rags. She tossed them to him.
Finally Let slipped out of his pajama pants and into the suit.
“Now look in your pocket,” Alter said.
The boy did and took out a bunch of keys.
“You can open the door with those,” Alter said. “Go on.”
Let paused, then went to the door. Before he put the key in the lock though, he bent down and looked through the keyhole. “Hey,” he said, looking back at the girl. “Come here. Do you see anything?”
Alter crossed the room, bent down, and looked. The only motion Let made was to lean against one of the panels on the wall, which gave a slight click. Nothing happened.
“I don’t see anything,” Alter said. “Open the door.”
Let found the proper key, put it in the lock, and the door swung back.
“All right, you kids,” said the guard who was standing on the other side of the door (who incidentally wore a size seventeen uniform), “you come along with me.” He took Let firmly by one arm and Alter by the other and marched them down the hall. “I’m warning you to keep quiet,” the guard said to Let as they turned the last corner.
Three minutes later they were outside the castle. As the guard passed another uniformed man at the Sentry’s post, he said, “More stupid kids trying to break into the palace.”
“What a night,” said the guard and scratched his head. “A girl too?”
“Looks like it,” said the guard who was escorting Alter and the Prince. “I’m taking them to be photographed.”
“Sure,” answered the guard, and saluted.
The two children were marched down the street toward the guard house. Before they got there, they were turned off into a side street. Then suddenly the guard was gone. A black-haired boy with green eyes was coming toward them.
“Is this the Prince?” Tel asked.
“Un-huh,” said Alter.
“Who are you?” Let asked. “Where are you taking me?”
“My name is Tel. I’m a fisherman’s son.”
“My name is Alter,” Alter introduced herself.
“She’s an acrobat,” Tel added.
“I’m the Prince,” Let said. “Really. I’m Prince Let.”
The two others looked at the blond boy who stood in front of them in rags like their own. Suddenly they laughed. The Prince frowned. “Where are you taking me?” he asked again.
“We’re taking you to get something to eat and where you can get a good night’s sleep,” Alter answered. “Come on.”
“If you hurt me, my mother will put you in jail.”
“Nobody’s going to hurt you, silly,” Tel said. “Come on.”
CHAPTER VI
The Duchess of Petra said, “Now, your first direct assignment will be…”
* * * *
Then, the sudden green of beetles’ wings; the red of polished carbuncle; a web of silver fire; lightning and blue smoke. Columns of jade caught red light through the great crack in the roof. The light across the floor was red. Jon felt that there were others with him, but he could not be sure. Before him, on a stone platform, three marble crescents were filled