Chapter 28, Switch
DG reached her parent's chamber door. Five guards, Dr. Addison, her father, and the Provost Marshall Collins stood outside the door. It was quite the scene and DG had to push her way through the small throng.
She took one look at her father and gasped. He was sweating profusely and was as white as a ghost. "Father? Are you okay?"
He had a small white handkerchief and he used it to wipe the sweat from his brow. He looked unsteady on his feet. "I'll be all right DG. I just have the start of a bad cold that's all."
Before she could say anything her father continued, "Your mother and the chambermaids are getting Az ready. Once they're done she'll be moved to the barracks."
"Oh…okay." DG reached for the door. She gave her father one last worried look and asked, "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"
Ahamo gave her a tired smile, "Yes DG, I'll be all right. I took some medicine just like your mother told me too." He motioned for her to go on inside. Then he said, "After Az is moved I'll go right to bed." DG gave him a weak smile of approval and went inside. She knew that it was pointless to argue. She would be the same way.
As she entered the chamber she saw Elsie and one of Dr. Addison's nurses standing near a window. She found her mother sitting on the edge of her bed, stroking Azkadellia's hair. The Queen glanced behind her and upon realizing that it was just her, asked "DG! Where have you been all day?" However it was more of a demand than a question.
Without waiting for a response she went on, "You haven't been in your chamber. I asked both Meredith and Kyra myself."
There was a pause and finally DG answered, "I was down in my garden." For once she felt like she did not have to lie. She truly was in her garden.
"Again?," she asked, sounding irritated. But then she caught herself. She felt relieved that DG was now there and appeared to be feeling better. She softened her tone and said, "Oh DG, it's a wonder that you haven't caught a cold. I swear that your father is coming down with one."
They heard footsteps and DG turned to see who was making them. It was Meredith. She had emerged from the bath room with a handful of towels. She said, "Here are the towels that you requested. I will lay them down at the edge of the bed and then will return with the basin of warm water. Kyra is drawing it now."
The Queen looked up at her. In a tired, but kind voice she told her, "Thank you Meredith." Then her attention turned to Elsie. "Thank you as well Elsie for returning to work on such notice and giving direction to the other chambermaids. We all appreciate it and your leadership is duly noted."
Elsie smiled and simply nodded her head. She then returned to the bath room with Meredith. They could hear water being drawn and DG pictured Elsie hovering over Meredith and Kyra, telling them how to do it the correct way; like she did any other day.
DG pulled over a chair so that she could sit near her mother. She took a deep breath. "Jill was arrested today."
The Queen turned around so that she could look at her youngest daughter. "For what?"
Without hesitation she answered, "Probably because of your outworlder law. Why else?" She stopped. She waited for a response from her mother but none was given.
"Glitch and I went down to General Turnbaugh's office to find her and Cain. One of the soldiers' said that she had been arrested."
The Queen drew in a sharp breath and then held her tongue. Just hearing her daughter speak of looking for Cain, with or without Glitch, did not sit well with her. "How did you know to start looking there?"
There had not been any tension in the room until that moment. DG sensed her mother's displeasure. "Cain and Glitch came by this morning while I was in the garden. He told me that you ordered him to take her to Turnbaugh's office for questioning."
The Queen sat silent. She reached out for Azkadellia's hand and held it. It was cool to the touch.
"If she was arrested, then probably Cain was too." She then asked her mother accusingly, "Did you tell Turnbaugh to arrest her after he was done interrogating her?"
The Queen dropped Azkadellia's hand and glared at her. "How dare you insinuate that I had a hand in her arrest? The law is the law. If it was discovered either before or after her questioning that she did not properly register then she should be arrested. And furthermore you do not know if Cain was arrested or not."
"Mother!" exclaimed DG. She could not believe that her mother seemed so unemotionally detached. How could she not be concerned that Jill had been arrested and that Cain was nowhere to be found? How could she not question how or why?
The Queen sighed and then said in a tired voice. "DG, the law was put in to place in order to monitor human trafficking."
"I know why the law was put in to place! I just can't believe that you're just accepting all of this." By now DG was on the edge of her seat and talking with her hands. "Fine… The law worked and it caught Jill. But then why do you have to go through all of this protocol to get information from her? I'm sure that she wants to know why she's been brought here just like any of us do." She paused to catch her breath and then said defiantly, "I'm sure that Cain's been arrested too. It's not like him to not show up."
The Queen tried to be sympathetic. "It's unfortunate that this has happened. But not even I can go above the law. DG, sometimes we have to put aside our feelings and do what is right for the public good."
DG knew all too well of the materials that had been smuggled in to the O.Z. through the travel storms. Hell, she had helped identify some of the stuff. She knew too of the military's failure to capture the originators of the storms. It was at that moment that DG realized that her mother and General Turnbaugh might be using Jill, and may be even Cain too. Whether it was to set an example to the populace, deeper suspicions of treason, or worse of all, bait; it did not matter. It made her sick to her stomach. DG glared back at her mother. "Even if it means sacrificing our friends?"
They were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. Kyra, followed by Meredith and Elsie, came out of the bath room with a large basin of warm water. She put it on the nightstand next to the bed. Elsie asked the Queen, "Shall we begin to bathe the princess?"
The Queen took note of DG's confused look. She asked, "What is it DG?"
"Nothing," she replied. Shall? Who uses the word shall? She smirked to herself. Mother probably yelled at her for lack of protocol.
They started to bathe Azkadellia. Every once in a while she murmured but never woke up.
DG was still sulking over her mother's apparent refusal to do anything else to help either Jill or Cain. As she watched the chambermaids she leaned back in her chair and asked "Why can't anyone leave or enter the grounds?" She wanted to know why since she had already made up her mind that once Az was moved, she was going to go down to 9th Street; with or without her mother's help.
"It was on advisement of the Provost Marshall."
"So?"
The Queen drew in another sharp breath and held it. It was plainly evident that her daughter was sore in more ways than one. "He continues to believe that Azkadellia is a risk to the public safety. The less public access, the more secure we will all be."
The chambermaids were beginning to clean up when they heard voices of confusion and subsequent commotion from the hallway. A guard hollered for help. DG ran over to the door and opened it up. She stared in shock at the sight before her. "Mother!" she cried out.
The Queen left Azkadellia and ran over to the doorway.
Ahamo was thrashing wildly on the floor. His eyes had rolled in to the back of his head and his flesh had turned to a sick gray-green color.
Dr. Addison was kneeling beside him and he was yelling instructions to the other guards. The Queen cried out "Ahamo!" and went to be beside him but was gently pulled from behind by PM Collins. "Please mi'lady," he begged of her. "Stand here beside me. We need to allow Dr. Addison to treat him."
PM Collins then said loudly above the mayhem, "Princess Dorothy! Please shut the door! The chambermaids should not see this."
DG shook her head. She was still numb with shock at seeing her father in such a condition. She had never seen any one turn the color that he was now. Collins yelled out again at her, "Princess!" She nodded and then shut the door behind her.
After DG shut the door, Elsie nodded to Meredith, Kyra, and the nurse.
Elsie raised and brought her hands above her head. She shimmered and there standing before them was Hymnshra. They were in awe of the transformation. They had been told about it, but none had actually seen it done before.
Hymnshra hissed at them, "Hurry!"
Her one word spurred them into action. From then on no further words had to be spoken since all knew their respective part.
Hymnshra quickly walked over to Azkadellia and placed her mouth over hers. Azkadellia's eyes quivered and her back arched briefly, but then she went limp again. As she started to turn slightly pale Hymnshra released her. She placed her ear near Azkadellia's nose to make sure that she was still breathing. She did not want to kill her but only take enough of her essence so that she could be her for a little while.
"She yet lives," she said to Meredith and Kyra. It took the three of them to prop up Azkadellia. But once she was propped up and steadied, Meredith and Kyra were able to move her in to the bath room with relative ease.
The palace was very old. Over the annuals it grew as each generation added rooms and entire wings to it. The result was a hodgepodge of passageways that were either intentionally created for escape in the event of an attack, or by accident.
Whether it was known to the Queen or not, there was a secret passageway that led from the bath room to the lower levels of the palace. It was an accidental passageway that was created when the rooms had been renovated to accommodate indoor plumbing.
Hymnshra opened the secret entrance leading to the passageway. Meredith and Kyra gently laid Azkadellia's limp body on to the simple mattress that had been placed there earlier. She would not be left alone long. Already they could hear their brethren climbing the steps to retrieve her. Meredith laid a blanket over her and Hymnshra quickly closed the entranceway. She took one last look to verify that nothing appeared to have been disturbed.
The voices outside the chamber door were muffled but they could make out Dr. Addison's voice telling his medical assistants how to strap Ahamo to the stretcher.
Hymnshra quickly went over to the bed and crawled up on it. Then, as before, she raised her arms above her head. Another shimmer, and there knelt Azkadellia. The nurse was already by her side with shot in hand. Azkadellia lifted her nightgown to expose her leg.
Azkadellia nodded and the nurse plunged the needle in her thigh. Azkadellia grimaced but it was soon replaced by her fluttering eyes. Her body went limp and collapsed on to the bed.
The nurse, Meredith, and Kyra rearranged and covered her body. Then Meredith gently kissed her on the forehead and whispered, "May the Father protect you."
Through the mayhem that occurred as a result of Ahamo's collapse, no one, including DG, had noticed that Elsie had gone missing.
DG followed the small troop that moved Azkadellia to the barracks while her mother stayed behind to be with her husband in the palace's infirmary.
Dr. Addison visited both of his patients often. Even DG tolerated being in his presence, since it meant that he brought news of her father. But there was no change in either's condition. It was a very long night.
Cain opened up his eyes. He was lying on his back and found himself starting at the underside of the top bunk bed. He brought his hands up and tried to rub the sleepiness out his eyes. He had no idea of what time it was but thought that it might be morning since he heard the stirrings of the other cellmates. He wearily sat up on the edge of his bed and rubbed his neck. It still hurt. Add that to his other aches and pains and he was going to be in a ripe mood.
In his mind's eye he could still see Jill being hauled off by Costello. Then he felt the blow from that damn gun of Petey's. What was it he said to him? Oh yeah, it went something like, "That'll teach you for interfering". Great. Petey's dirty, Dr. Addison is in on it, I'm in here, DG's out there, and only the gods know where Jill's at.
As he continued to rub his neck his thoughts turned back to Costello from sometime during the night before.
"It's about time you woke up sweetheart," Costello said. It was late and he was long overdue for supper. He thought of his children. They would already be in bed. Then he thought of his wife. These late nights had been hard on her.
Cain slowly sat up from his bed and groggily asked, "Where am I?"
"In a holding cell at 9th Street."
It finally registered in his brain that the deep voice was that of his friend Costello. "Where's Jill?" he asked without looking up from the floor of his cell. He was silently wishing that he had not sat up so soon. He felt dizzy even just sitting there.
Costello replied matter-of-factly, "In a holding cell in the women's section."
"Alone?"
"Yeah."
Good, at least for now. He concentrated on a stain on the floor. "That god damn Petey hit me with the butt of his gun Costello."
He heard Costello shift and he finally looked up at him. He was leaning against the cell bars. "He said that you were resisting arrest."
"You really think that?"
"Why not?," he sarcastically replied. Then his tone softened again. "Wyatt, what the hell am I supposed to think? Jill has no paperwork and you give her a gun to run around with."
"You know that we went down there to register her." Cain rebutted.
Costello sighed. "I don't doubt it Wyatt but there's no paperwork to prove it. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has gone through their files." He stopped and took a hold of a bar. It pained him to see his old friend sitting there on the other side but the law was the law. He said gruffly, "Even if she did have her paperwork, she's not licensed to have a firearm. That's grounds enough to hold both of you in here."
He turned to leave. Cain called after him, "That RDX is royal demolition explosive."
Costello stopped and turned around. "So she knew what it was?"
"It's a high powered explosive from her world but said that something else was mixed in with it. She doesn't know what those shiny flakes are."
Costello said nothing. Cain stood up and gingerly walked over to the cell bars. He felt a little wobbly but shook it off. He took a hold of a bar and whispered, "Paul, that shit can be molded like clay. You can make it look like anything and you wouldn't know the difference."
Costello looked in to his old friend's face. His eyes betrayed the look of exhaustion. "So, what are you saying Wyatt? That stuff we found in Spencer's apartment was the same stuff used to blow up downtown?
"Yeah."
Costello shook his head. "I'll send word to the Royal Academy that I'm looking for an update on the batch that we sent over. If it's the same stuff then we have a big problem."
Cain added, "There's more." He paused as Costello raised an eyebrow. "You were right about the palace trying to cover it up. The military's been tracking and rounding up what they can. They haven't been able to catch who's been generating those travel storms though. On top of that the Queen wanted General Turnbaugh's men to interrogate Jill to see if she could provide them any clues as to why so much stuff was being transferred."
"Does the Queen think that Jill's in on it?" asked Costello. He thought back to the argument that they had had in Spencer's apartment about her.
"No. She thinks that she just got caught up in it." Costello saw Cain's grip tighten on the bars. He knew that he too remembered their argument in the apartment and of Costello accusing Jill being in on whatever conspiracy was playing out.
For a few seconds neither said anything. Then Costello asked, "So that's why Jill was in the building where General Turnbaugh's office is?"
"Yeah," he answered curtly. He had to ask his next question, "How did you know to go to his office building?"
Costello looked around at the other cells. So far he had not been harassed by any of the other inmates. It would start soon though. It did not look good for any officer to be holding a whispered conversation with any them.
He turned to leave. As he did so, he answered, "I got an anonymous tip."
He did not turn back around to see Cain's expression.
"You know it's Petey don't you?"
He did not answer him. As he walked past the cells, the other inmates started their whooping and hollering.
He heard a double set of footsteps coming down the hallway. They stopped in front of his cell. He looked up and saw two officers, one stood at the ready with gun in hand while the other unlocked his cell. They opened the door and walked in.
One took out a pair of handcuffs and coldly told him, "Put out your hands."
Cain slowly stood up and held out his hands as he was told. "Where are we going?"
The other officer spoke up, "You have a visitor."
They then led him out of his cell and they walked down the hallway.
