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Authors: John Dechancie
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don't mindââ Deems stood and reached out both arms toward the screen. The image jerked and the angle of view shifted until Deemsâ face was in close-up. âI'm going to forgo the refined pleasures of having a mirror by the bed. I don't really care to be surprised in quite that way again. There are plenty of other looking-glasses about the palace."
âMy apologies."
âSo, if it's all the same to youâ"
Deems carried the mirror through high mullioned doors and into open air. âGoodbye, Incarnadine.â Deems held the mirror out at arm's length, then let it drop.
The mirror turned slowly as it fell. The twisting perspective showed Deems standing on a balustrade high on the outside wall of the palace. He was looking down, smiling and waving. His image quickly shrank, sliding off to one side as the mirror turned to face the uprising ground. Briefly a tilted vista of the green and beautiful Albion countryside revealed itself until the screen of the CRT went black.
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KeepâQueen's Dining Hall
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Sheila took another sip of coffee. She felt a little better now. There were people here who seemed to be in the same boat she was inâlost and stranded in a crazy place without knowing how or why. It felt good to talk to them and find out more about what the heck was going on here. None of what she was hearing made any sense, but at least everyone seemed to acknowledge that it didn't make any sense. She could deal with that. Not with everything not making sense, but with the fact that no one seemed concerned that it didn't.
Yes, she felt a little better, now that she had some proper clothes to wear. She had declined the usual quasi-medieval costume that everyone here pranced around in, opting instead for jeans, a blouse, and a good pair of running shoes. She'd been told that it was wise to be quick on your feet in Castle Perilous. She was determined to be as quick as possible.
The dining hall was almost full. Apparently it was a holiday in this world, and the castle servants (it was sometimes hard to tell the servants from the Guests, except that the servants had a sort of English accent) had set a festive table laden with dish after colorful and elaborate dish.
Everybody was digging in, so Sheila did, too.
âAnybody know what the occasion is?â Gene asked.
âSomething akin to our winter solstice, I think,â M. DuQuesne said.
âI guess most worlds have solstices and equinoxes and all that stuff,â Gene said.
âMy world doesn't,â the creature called Snowclaw growled. (It seemed to growl all the time.) âCourse, I wouldn't know what an eekinocks was if it came up and kicked me in the butt."
Sheila couldn't get over how she could understand everything the white-furred, white-clawed creature said. In fact, it sounded a little like Uncle Walt, Mom's brother. Uncle Walt growled a lot, too.
Despite her fear, she found the creature to be very friendly. She just couldn't bring herself to look into its fierce yellow eyes.
She helped herself to a slice of roast suckling pig, then spooned out samples of a few of the side dishes. Everything had been delicious so far.
âSnowclaw, your world has to have an equinox,â Gene insisted.
âHow do you know?â Snowclaw scoffed. âYou've never been there."
âDoes it have a sun?"
âWell, of course."
âThen it has equinoxes and solstices. What I'm talking about is ... well, really it's the relationship of a sun to a planet that revolves about it. You see, when a planet's axis of rotation is tilted somewhat to the plane of its orbit, what happens is thatâ"
âWhat's a planet?"
âUh, a planet. It's a world. You know, a big spherical lump of dirt that spins around."
âSpins around what?"
âTurns. Rotates."
âWhere?"
Gene blinked. âWhat do you mean, âWhere'? Out in space, of course. Look, when a planet spins on its axis,
âMy apologies."
âSo, if it's all the same to youâ"
Deems carried the mirror through high mullioned doors and into open air. âGoodbye, Incarnadine.â Deems held the mirror out at arm's length, then let it drop.
The mirror turned slowly as it fell. The twisting perspective showed Deems standing on a balustrade high on the outside wall of the palace. He was looking down, smiling and waving. His image quickly shrank, sliding off to one side as the mirror turned to face the uprising ground. Briefly a tilted vista of the green and beautiful Albion countryside revealed itself until the screen of the CRT went black.
Â
Â
Â
KeepâQueen's Dining Hall
Â
Sheila took another sip of coffee. She felt a little better now. There were people here who seemed to be in the same boat she was inâlost and stranded in a crazy place without knowing how or why. It felt good to talk to them and find out more about what the heck was going on here. None of what she was hearing made any sense, but at least everyone seemed to acknowledge that it didn't make any sense. She could deal with that. Not with everything not making sense, but with the fact that no one seemed concerned that it didn't.
Yes, she felt a little better, now that she had some proper clothes to wear. She had declined the usual quasi-medieval costume that everyone here pranced around in, opting instead for jeans, a blouse, and a good pair of running shoes. She'd been told that it was wise to be quick on your feet in Castle Perilous. She was determined to be as quick as possible.
The dining hall was almost full. Apparently it was a holiday in this world, and the castle servants (it was sometimes hard to tell the servants from the Guests, except that the servants had a sort of English accent) had set a festive table laden with dish after colorful and elaborate dish.
Everybody was digging in, so Sheila did, too.
âAnybody know what the occasion is?â Gene asked.
âSomething akin to our winter solstice, I think,â M. DuQuesne said.
âI guess most worlds have solstices and equinoxes and all that stuff,â Gene said.
âMy world doesn't,â the creature called Snowclaw growled. (It seemed to growl all the time.) âCourse, I wouldn't know what an eekinocks was if it came up and kicked me in the butt."
Sheila couldn't get over how she could understand everything the white-furred, white-clawed creature said. In fact, it sounded a little like Uncle Walt, Mom's brother. Uncle Walt growled a lot, too.
Despite her fear, she found the creature to be very friendly. She just couldn't bring herself to look into its fierce yellow eyes.
She helped herself to a slice of roast suckling pig, then spooned out samples of a few of the side dishes. Everything had been delicious so far.
âSnowclaw, your world has to have an equinox,â Gene insisted.
âHow do you know?â Snowclaw scoffed. âYou've never been there."
âDoes it have a sun?"
âWell, of course."
âThen it has equinoxes and solstices. What I'm talking about is ... well, really it's the relationship of a sun to a planet that revolves about it. You see, when a planet's axis of rotation is tilted somewhat to the plane of its orbit, what happens is thatâ"
âWhat's a planet?"
âUh, a planet. It's a world. You know, a big spherical lump of dirt that spins around."
âSpins around what?"
âTurns. Rotates."
âWhere?"
Gene blinked. âWhat do you mean, âWhere'? Out in space, of course. Look, when a planet spins on its axis,
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