Chapter 10

Angelique held Amy on her fingertips. She had shrunk to only a couple of inches.

But it was Amy.

"It is all right, Amy. It is me, Angelique,"

The voice resonated all around her. Amy felt Angelique's breath knock on her like the wind. But she understood what she meant. She had escaped the egg an found a friend.

Talking to her would be difficult, Angelique realized. But there had to be a way around it.

She put Amy very carefully on top of a candle stub, after hollowing a seat on the wax. Amy sat down and told her tale.

Angelique gestured and her voice muted into a whisper, while Amy's strengthened into audibility.

Amy told Angelique all she had learned since her kidnapping; and Angelique listened fascinated.

"I need help" Angelique said "Yours, if you want to give it."

Amy gulped. She wanted to help, but her experience inside the egg had made her fearful. But the choice was not her, she thought. They would know that she had escaped, and would come recapture her. And punish her for it.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Tell me all you know of the place. Everything about the people there. Or the buildings. Or... Anything. No matter how trivial.

Amy did. There was a great deal to tell. Angelique listened avidly. There was something in there that could be used, but she did not find it yet. It was close. The answer was to be found in the egg itself, but how to find it?"

"There is another way that you can help." she told Amy.

"What is it?"

"You can help me get inside the egg, so I can find its weakness."

"You can't They'll find you. There is no way I can hide you."

"I will be well hidden. I will be you, while you stay here, wearing my face."

Amy stared at her.

"Yes. We are going to trade places, you and I. And don't worry about being a convincing Angelique. You will be in a trance and I will use you to tell Megan what she needs to know. You shall be my contact. Are you willing?

Amy nodded "What choice do I have? I want to escape them and end their power. Anything it takes." she hesitated. "Did I tell you what they did to Barnabas?"

"Yes."

"If you cannot free him, kill him. It is better for him than to continue as he is."

"I believe that I can free him, as well as the others. Now stare at this."

It was a pearl. It looked like an enormous boulder to Amy, ready to roll over her and squash her. She stared at it.

"Look into it. Stare through it. Go through it. to the other side."

Amy stared, as Angelique commanded.

As you go through, feel how your body grows, how it changes, how your face molds itself into mine. Float through the air, through the pearl."

It was easy to do, Amy thought. She was indeed floating in the air, moving towards the pearl... going through it...

Suddenly the room was of normal size again. And there was a candle stub in front of her, with a tiny figurine seated on top of it...

Her eyes began to close, as the figurine waved her arms, sprinkled the slivery powder on herself, and was gone.

"Angelique! Angelique!" Megan shook the unconscious body ""Wake up, wake up!"

But Angelique barely responded.

"What did you do? What did you try?" Megan continued shaking her. "You fool. You've really done it this time."

With an effort Angelique opened her eyes, then closed her again. "Do not worry, Megan... it is part of the plan" she said before losing consciousness again.

"I guess you are gone into a trance, and will come back when you will come back. Well, I know what I should do. Keep you comfortable, warm, and fed. When you come out of it tell me what the plan is."

It was not, after all, the first time that Angelique had gone into a trance... But not so deep. She hoped she was able to eat food. If not, she might have to hook her to an IV.

As for the rest, she laid her down on the bed, removed her shoes and covered her with a blanket. And then she had to wait for her to tell her what she needed to know...

The trees were marvels of the jeweler's art, as Amy had told her. So was the castle itself. But the beauty of it was only skin deep. At bottom there was cruelty, exploitation, suffering...

Just as it had been in the du Pres plantation... something that Barnabas had refused to see as he courted Josette...

Well, this time Barnabas had to face it. He was now deep in the dungeons powering the infernal engines while around him people were being beaten and bled.

She had to find a way to destroy this place. If she did, it would be like destroying the plantations... What she should have been doing instead of trying to steal Josette's fiancé... She should have seen that she was not the only victim of injustice, and made common cause with all the others...

Well, it had been a missed opportunity. She knew better now...

And she would do it right now. She would find out what was needed to destroy this place, and let Megan know of it.

"I still don't feel right about it." Carolyn confessed to Adam.

"If you don't want to marry me, just say so."

"I want to marry you. It is just that..."

"It is just that you keep worrying about Roger."

"And all the others who are missing. The Kings, Patterson, Amy, Derek Pearce, Sebastian Shaw, and now Barnabas."

"I know how you feel. But what can we do? Are we expected to stop living because something happened to them? Are we supposed to hold off the wedding until they come back? You heard Sheriff Brant. It is hopeless. If he can't do anything, what can we do?"

"I don't think that we have a right to enjoy ourselves, not while that is going on."

"I know. But we have our life to live. Life cannot be denied its rights."

"I know. And in spite of it I feel guilty. I should be doing something else, something to help them, even if I don't know what. Instead, I am planning my wedding."

"We have to do something about George." Tammy said "I can't see him destroying himself as he is doing, getting drunk ever night and picking up fights. We have to do something to snap him out of it."

"The only thing we could offer him is a way to get Barnabas back, and that we cannot do." Joe sighed. "It makes me angry. I know what he is going through. It is like it was when Maggie was missing. Or when you were missing. You want to do something, and you don't even knew where to look. You want to beat up on someone, and you can't figure out who."

"I know."

"So we can do nothing to cheer George up."

"But we can't leave him like this. Come the next election he's going to be out of a job, and that will only make things worse for him. And the way he is carrying on, that is more than likely. No one wants a drunken, brawling sheriff."

"So what we can do? Do you have a suggestion?"

"There's bound someone how knows what to do."

"Angelique, but she does not want to."

"What about Julia?"

"All she had were Stokes' notes, and those are gone."

"There's got to be someone who can help. Damn it, how many people owe something or other to Barnabas? They should be willing to help now."

"But what can they do?"

"I can ask them. Some may have an idea."