Free Lady Friday by Garth & Corduner Nix Page B

bottles of different sizes and shapes, each containing a mysterious-looking fluid. A female Denizen, wearing an old-fashioned Florence Nightingale getup, complete with a starched white hat that made her even taller. While she was very attractive and at least six feet tall without the hat, she was not awe-inspiringly beautiful, or much taller than normal, so Leaf figured her to be only a mid-ranking servant of Lady Friday. She was intent on pouring a rich blue fluid from a bottle with a very long neck into a measuring cup, and didn’t immediately look up as Harrison and Leaf came in.
    “Urn, excuse me, Axilrad, we’re here,” said Harrison, ducking his head in a little nervous bow.
    Axilrad tipped the measuring cup into another bottle, then looked up and saw Leaf. Her frown of concentration immediately deepened. She put the bottle and measuring cup on the table and strode over to the girl.
    “You’re no sleeper! You’re much too young! What are you?”
    “I’m Leaf. I was asleep and I woke up—”
    Axilrad reached out and gripped Leaf’s chin, turning her face up to the gas flare in the ceiling.
    “You’re a Piper’s child, aren’t you? Who sent you? What is your purpose?”
    “I was in the hospital and Dr. Friday came and then I must have gone to sleep again—”
    Axilrad let go, and Leaf felt her neck twinge as her head dropped back to its normal position.
    “This is odd,” said the Denizen. She didn’t look at Leaf, but spoke as if to herself. “She never takes anyone so young. There must be a reason. I shall have to go find out. I do not like a surprise of this sort.”
    “What’s a Piper’s—” Leaf started to ask, though the question didn’t sound all that convincing, even to herself. Axilrad ignored her, instead striding to the door, barking out a command as she left.
    “Harrison, prepare a dozen sleepers. The cordial is made up, in the checkered bottle. They are to go to the crater as soon as they’re ready. I will be back soon, but do not wait for me. Get the girl to assist you. She is not to go out of your sight.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” said Harrison. He bowed to the closed door. Leaf watched him with a sinking feeling. The man behaved like a slave and he wasn’t likely to be much help for anything.
    “Look at each sleeper,” instructed Harrison. “They need to be lying on their backs. If they’re not faceup, turn them so they are.”
    “Why?” asked Leaf. She walked over to the door and tried the handle, but it was locked.
    “Just do it!” squeaked Harrison. He hurried to the table and picked up a silver spoon with a very long handle and a bottle with a checkered pattern in the glass. It was full of a sludgy fluid the color of dead grass.
    “I’m not doing anything unless you tell me why,” said Leaf. There was one other door, down the far end. She started to walk towards it.
    “She’ll punish both of us if they’re not ready,” said Harrison. He moved to the closest sleeper—a woman—and poured a measure of the brown-green fluid into the spoon, which he then expertly slipped into the woman’s mouth. She swallowed and then immediately shivered and sat up, without opening her eyes.
    Harrison quickly poured the mixture into two more sleepers, then had to set the bottle and spoon down to turn over the third, who was sleeping on his side. As he poured another spoonful, he spoke.
    “The mixture raises them from a very deep, coma-like sleep to a higher level, where they can be given commands and move. When they’re ready, I will order them to walk out that door, which leads to the crater.”
    “This door?” asked Leaf, who had been about to open it.
    “Yes,” said Harrison. “You can’t escape, you know. There’s nowhere to go. Even if you could leave the mountain, the plants would get you. You have no idea how horrible—”
    “Yes I do,” said Leaf. “How often do those seedpods get in?”
    “Give me a hand and I’ll try to answer your questions,” grunted