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saying?”
    “Ieuan,” Prince Dafydd said. “Look around you. Does anything look familiar?”
    “Of course not! The land of Madoc is full of wonders, as you yourself said.”
    “I know I said that,” Dafydd replied, “but the reason it’s full of wonders is not because I am descended from Madoc, but because when I jumped off the cliff with you, I not only brought you to another land, but I brought you forward nearly seven hundred and fifty years in time, to my world.”
    “Your world, sire?” Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.
    “I have taken you into the future, Ieuan. A future where machines are in every room and used for every conceivable purpose; a future where everyone is literate and educated; a future into which I was born, but neither you nor I belong.” He gazed down at his feet. I stared at the top of his head. Has my Prince gone mad?
    He looked up. “You see my problem, Ieuan. How do I explain to you that you’re in the future without you thinking I’ve lost my mind; while at the same time explain to Bronwen that we are from the past, without her thinking the very same thing?”
    Then he smiled. And barked a laugh. “I don’t have to explain anything, do I? I’ll just let you two convince each other.” He clapped his hands.
    Has my Prince gone mad? Have I?
     
    * * * * *
     
    I slept, woke at midday to eat, and slept again. Judging from the light outside, it was mid-afternoon by the time I became fully awake. I was alone in the room. My arse was sore from lying down. I’d never spent so long in bed in my life. Loath to give in to more sleep, I carefully swung my legs, one at a time, over the side of the bed.
    I was tall enough that I could get my left foot on the ground from the prone position, and used the railings on either side of the bed to muscle myself upright with my arms. My ribs hurt but I ignored them.
    Once seated, I noted that the floor was made of a white rock, but as smooth as sanded wood. I lifted my feet, one at a time and inspected the fuzzy socks that covered them. They were an appealing blue color, but I hoped I wouldn’t slip in them when I stood. With my left hand on the railing, also made of a smooth material, though gray, I pushed up to my feet. It made me dizzy and I was tempted to sit down again, but I took a deep breath and released it, and my vision cleared.
    An open door lay on the far side of the room: the garderobe, Prince Dafydd had explained. I really needed it now, so I grasped the metal pole from which tubes ran from a clear bottle to my arm, and shuffled across the floor, pulling the contraption with me. By the time, I reached the stone basin that Dafydd said was a ‘toilet’, I was exhausted. It was too interesting to pass up, however, and I was determined to try it out.
    I wore nothing but a thin shirt, open in the back. I managed to relieve myself, but when I stepped back from the toilet, a loud whooshing sound reverberated and the water in the basin disappeared, to be replaced by new water that ran down the inside of the bowl like a waterfall. Hmmm .
    I stepped forward again, waited through a few heartbeats, and stepped back.
    “ Whoosh !”
    More curious implements adorned the room, but I was tired, so I shuffled out of the toilet room and found a chair to sit in right outside. I drifted around in my own mind for a while, trying to get up the strength to try the other door, the one through which Bronwen had marched after her conversation with my lord. I smiled to think of it. Such spirit! I was sure that Prince Dafydd had never encountered anyone like her, except maybe his own sister. Of course, he hadn’t met my sister yet, either.
    Fortunately, all the furniture was constructed with conveniently placed railings, so I pushed to my feet again and shuffled off, my pole in my hand. It was an awkward thing, with wheels on the bottom, and the tubes coming from it that led ultimately to a needle in my arm. The needle was held to my skin with a sticky cloth and