Free Philip José Farmer's The Dungeon 06] - The Final Battle by Richard Lupoff

dispatches… how much of my mental emanation were you able to receive?"
    "In a way, Folliot, I was able to receive everything. The mind is a subtle and complex organ. Madame Mesmer's ancestor gave his life to its study, and only began to scratch the surface. When you tried to send me messages, they penetrated the barriers that separate our world from the Dungeon. But you must realize, Folliot—the events that you experienced, compressed into, let us say, two years—these events were spread for me over a span of twenty-eight years."
    He released Clive's and Clarissa's hands and dropped his own to the coverlet. "May I have a cup of tea and brandy, please? Will you ring for a servant, Madame Mesmer?"
    Clarissa rose to her feet. As she stood over him, Clive detected the scent of her, a subtle essence. It penetrated to his core.
    "Let us avoid the presence of servants, Mr. du Maurier. I know my way about your establishment. I shall fetch tea and brandy myself."
    She swept from the room.
    Du Maurier gestured to Clive, who bent close to the old man's face.
    "Be careful of her, Folliot."
    Clive drew back, astonished. "She is your personal aide, is she not? You attribute to her wondrous powers."
    "Those she has."
    "But then—?"
    "It is neither her powers nor her works that I suspect. It is her motives. Her intentions."
    "What do you know of her?"
    "I summoned her from the Continent."
    "And she came."
    "Ah—but not directly. After arriving from the Continent, Madame Mesmer first paid a visit in the countryside."
    The old man dropped his voice to a whisper. Already he had been speaking so softly that Clive had to lean over the bed, but now du Maurier looked fearfully about, assuring himself that no one overheard their conversation. "Before coming to see me," he explained, "she visited Tewkesbury."
    "Tewkesbury!"
    "Yes."
    "But… that is my ancestral home. It was the home of my childhood. It is the Barony of Tewkesbury that my brother, Neville, will inherit if he lives and returns from the Dungeon—and that I will inherit if Neville dies."
    "All of that I know, Folliot."
    "And in Tewkesbury… what did Madame Mesmer do?"
    "I know only that she visited Tewkesbury Manor. That, when there, she saw your father the baron, and—"
    "Are you certain?" Clive interrupted. "I thought I saw the baron in the Dungeon, but then it appeared that it was not truly he, but an amazing simulacrum of him."
    "Arthur Folliot, Baron Tewkesbury, has not been out of England in all the years you were away. If you saw a man who purported to be him, you were surely dealing with an imposter of some kind."
    "Then I must go to Tewkesbury! My father, for all his shortcomings, is yet the holder of the title of baron and is head of our family. He is entitled to a report on the search for his heir." Clive hesitated, struck by another thought.
    "But if it is really 1896, du Maurier, the baron is twenty-eight years older than when last I saw him. He will be…"He permitted himself to lapse into silence.
    "Yes." Du Maurier smiled. "He will be an old man, like me. Growing old has indeed been somewhat of a burden to me, Folliot. Don't be afraid to say it. Don't be afraid to acknowledge it. I assure you, I vastly prefer growing old to the only alternative I know of."
    He waited patiently, smiling his indulgence while Clive unraveled the circuitous logic of his statement.
    "Not only is Baron Tewkesbury in residence at Tewkesbury Manor, I have reason to believe that he is being attended by your brother, who arrived recently in company of a missionary priest, a Father O'Hara."
    "Father O'Hara!"
    The words had barely escaped Clive's lips when the door to du Maurier's chamber swung open and Clarissa Mesmer stepped through.
    "Silence," du Maurier whispered to Clive. He pushed himself upright once again and reached toward the woman. "You are too kind, Madame," the old man said.
    "I would be of what service as I am able, Mr. du