Strangers and Lies (13 page)

"But the part with the boy, I really found him? The girls are well though, or, at least alive and Count Kavas is dead? Will there be fallout from that?"

Bethany shook her head, her left arm hugged across her body as they stood on the grass.

 "I don't think so. The story will be put out that there was a simple fire and that the children were found. I know this must all seem a little disorienting, but you did well Gwen. You figured out what was happening, and
fought
, which given your low level of training is very impressive. We really need to set that up for you. Today if possible, or early tomorrow if not."

Gwen sighed, but nodded. Everything she'd gotten done in the last few days was totally fake, wasn't it? There was no flying, or mind blasts, but she could live with that. She also didn't have any tutors set up, or a girl coming to hang out with her and make sure no one took "liberties" with her. That part kind of sucked, since it was a good idea, and now she'd have to go and do it all over again. If she even could.

It took time, but over the next few hours Gwen came back to herself more fully, and now that she wasn't being screwed with, her mind could tell the difference between what she had been dealing with and what was real. There was a sense of solidity and clarity to it all now.

It sucked though.

In movies she'd
always
hated that kind of thing. Where you get to the end of the show and found that every single important event was invalid, because it had all just been imagined, or a hallucination. Her life wasn't all a dream, and it pissed her off that someone had made her go through all that stuff for no reason.

"And
why
?" The words, coming out of nowhere, got Bethany to stop walking, but before she could ask about it, Gwen explained. "Why try to grab me that way? And, for that matter, if you were going to bother, why do it for half an hour and then dump me? They could have killed me, or kept me for a lot longer, so that I'd be a real secret agent for them or something. I guess they might have done that somehow anyway... so we should get it checked out, if we can. Maybe Grainger has a machine for that? Still, what would the point be otherwise? I don't know anything of note... It might have just been that I guess?" It made a rough kind of sense to her at least.

If the bad guys had thought that she'd known things, and wanted to check, then let her go when it hadn't turned out to be the case... No, that left too many unanswered questions. She just didn't know enough and guessing probably wasn't going to help anything, until more facts came in. It drove her crazy in a way, not knowing, but letting herself become too worked up over it wasn't going to give her answers. It would just make it all worse. She could feel acid churn in her stomach already, eating at her.

The next bit was a little strange. Gwen kind of wanted to go home, to Park Street, but Adam Westmorland came out and suggested that she make herself at home there for the night, trying, very clearly, not to explain
why
. It didn't take a lot to come up with a theory there though, did it?

"In case they succeeded in turning me into some kind of assassin or something? Or a spy?"

Bethany gave it all away with a hard glance to the side, making a face that pretty much spelled the whole thing out. The sour looking old man in front of her half sneered, but then let his face soften.

"
Exactly
. Even keeping you here is probably too risky. If it was allowed I'd move you to one of the outer sheds and put a guard on you for a day or two, until we can examine you closely enough to be certain of your mental state. I doubt the King or your parents would be too pleased about that however..."

Gwen shrugged. Then just because she wanted him to get the idea, she flipped her palms up.

"Alright. Get me a bed and something to read I guess. We can't take chances with this and I know that I'd feel better not being the one to deliver all our plans to the bad guys, if I can help it. I can't say I love the idea of being placed under guard, but that
could
be due to some kind of programming, um... Orders to follow under mesmerism?" These people didn't have the word programming, at least not in a sense that meant the thing she wanted to convey.

For some reason Adam went still, as Bethany nodded firmly a few times, not looking at either of them. Her voice was a bit sharp when she spoke.

"I have to agree. I hate it, of course, and yes, Ferdinand and the Vernors will as well, but we
must
be certain of this. It is, like it or not, a war for the fate of the entire world. At least in potential. Gwen, I'll stay with you, so you won't be scared or lonely." The words were very heartfelt and warm sounding.

The very idea made the whole thing sound a lot less like prison to her, but she shook her head, even as she felt a wash of warmth and...
love
, for the woman wash over her.

"Nope, me getting close to you right now could be part of the plan too. I saw you as Doctor Debussey earlier and thought you had a knife. That might have just been me projecting things that would seem scary to me, since the woman had nearly had me killed with a knife once, but it could also have been aimed at you. I'm pretty sure that she thinks of you as her arch nemesis after all. We need to make sure that I don't try to hurt you by mistake." Or to Debussey's plan.

Or that of any of her friends or minions. For all Gwen knew it could even be some kind of outside group doing it. If that was the case, it didn't make a lot of sense given the information she had, but that didn't mean it wasn't possible. There was a sudden and frustrating feeling that she just didn't know anything at all about this world. It left her feeling half panicked and breathless for a bit.

"So, yeah, we need people that don't have any useful information, that can fight if they have to and don't know me, so that if they have to kill me in order to keep me from hurting anyone they can. Adam, not to give you orders, but this is your idea. I don't suppose you can see to that and maybe some history books? I might as well make good use of my time. A lamp too. And water, that kind of thing..." She grinned at the man who made a face, looking more than a little displeased at first, but he didn't growl at her or call her names.

No, he looked away and didn't speak for about ten seconds.

"I'll see what we can manage. I don't suppose you'd be willing to contact the King and claim this is all your own idea? It would make my life ever so much simpler. Well, nothing for that. It's my idea, so I'll take the blowback from it." He really didn't seem to want to do that, but Gwen didn't totally get why that was. OK, so she was going to be a prisoner, after a fashion, but it was more of a protective custody, and didn't involve being beaten or anything. Unless it did?

Well... That was the only way they knew of to really break through the new mesmerism, wasn't it? Telepathic questioning while a nice beat-down was applied. It would be less then fun if that was the case, but she'd dealt with pain before. As long as they were careful it wouldn't kill her.

The shed she was led to, by Adam himself, Beth in tow, was an
actual
shed, filled with gardening tools. In other words it was a room full of uncomfortably sharp things that she could easily use as a weapon in a pinch. The man wasn't stupid, so had her stand outside while it was cleared by about twenty young people in blue uniforms. Kids about Peter's age.

Or what it would have been, if the boy hadn't been a hallucination or whatever that whole thing had been. It was a shame, since she'd kind of liked him. Even if he was a bit of a demented psycho when it came to training. The cleanout of the space took about an hour, and not one, but four glow lamps were brought in and placed on the walls, so the small wooden structure was very well lit. Then a latrine was dug out behind it and a tent put up so that she wouldn't be exposed the whole time. It wasn't a marvelous thing, but it was better than a bucket in the corner of her own room, so she decided not to complain. A real mattress arrived, but not a full bed, since she wasn't going to be there that long.

At least that was the plan.

Then, almost as if having read her mind about the questioning techniques they'd have to use, Adam excused Beth and all the kids, then had a team of five people she didn't know come in for the actual work. Adam looked at her and smiled. It didn't touch his eyes, but also didn't have a feeling of evil about it.

"Miss Farris... I... This form of questioning is rather extreme. I believe that you've seen it done yourself before?" Now he actually seemed hesitant. Probably because beating an heiress was kind of a no-no, regardless of the world you were in. Since she was the one about to be hit, she kind of liked the idea, but couldn't really hide behind it, even if she wanted to.

Instead she nodded.

"Seen it, helped
do
it twice. I get the drill." She focused on the woman that was near the front, a hard looking person that pulled a lacquered billy club from her belt near the back. She wore regular Westmorland blues, and didn't seem to be too happy about the whole idea at least. Gwen waved to her and took a deep breath, not really wanting to do this anymore at all, but knowing that it was the fastest way to uncover anything that might have been hidden in her mind. "Try not to cripple me."

The woman seemed a little taken aback at the words, but gave a single slow nod.

"I won't. It will hurt though. I..." She looked away then and after a few seconds turned back to Adam. "Is this a good idea? I really don't want to have the world fall in on us. Torturing one of our own..."

Gwen felt a little heartened by the statement, since this woman who she'd never met seemed to think she was one of them, part of the group, or at least someone on her side. It was nice.

She didn't let Adam speak though. This
had
to be her game, or it really might mean a good bit of fallout. Even she could see that. The King actually seemed to like her after all. He was smart, but very few people thought twice about the Westmorlands, so trouble for them might just seem an easy solution if complaints came later.

"My orders as... um, well, I don't have a title really, do I? Make something up. It
has
to be done and you're the one here with the club. So, Adam, you should take off and let these nice people get to work."

The man stared at her for a long time, then shook his head.

"It would be improper for me to avoid seeing the pain that I'm having done."

Gwen grimaced and then decided to be blunt with the man. He already wasn't her number one fan, so it probably wouldn't matter.

"Yeah, but later when you're trying to justify this to Ferdinand, it will be a lot easier if you can tell him honestly that
I
ordered you away and you went, because this is happening under my command. I'm in charge here, not you, so head on out. That's an order Adam. Do it now." Gwen didn't add, or
else
, since she was faking the whole thing and they all had to know it, didn't they?

The man didn't move for a long time, but when he finally did, he muttered something to the man guarding the door. It didn't sound happy, and Gwen wanted to ignore it and pretend she didn't know what it meant. She could make out too much of it though.

He'd told that man, who had a matte silver power conduit in his right hand, to kill her if she started to escape. It made sense, but it wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear, to be perfectly honest.

After all, what if she had to go to the bathroom? No allowance had been made for that at all.

Then, after the man that was doing the reading of her mind was placed in the right state, one of the Westmorland Detectives, she thought, a man that she recognized, but wasn't in charge of anything as far as she knew, the woman with the stick hit her on the inside of the right knee, hard enough to knock her to the floor. It hurt pretty badly, even if it wasn't the worst thing she'd ever felt.

Another man yelled at her suddenly, leaning in to do it, so it would shock her enough to force her subconscious mind to react, giving up the information she might be holding.

"Who are you!"

This was followed by another blow, this one to the sternum.

After a few repetitions, with her gasping out that she was Gwen Farris each time, the telepath spoke, his voice low and relaxed, almost as if he was drugged.

"Katherine Vernor." The man went totally still, as did everyone else in the room.

So did Gwen, between the gasps of pain.

Then he spoke again, "Inside, she's Katherine Vernor, and Gwen Farris. They're both there."

That got Gwen to go still. They were
both
there? Katherine was trapped in Gwen's real body, in a different world... Wasn't she?

Was it even possible?

The beating was doled out rather deliberately, since it really didn't take a lot to shake a person's mind and concentration. Plus, Gwen wasn't fighting it, having nothing to hide consciously at all. Katherine on the other hand
did
, and was trying to stay as far back from the Westmorlands as possible. It wasn't something that could be managed easily, it seemed, given the way that Regina Westmorland was going after her. Regina... Like the girl in her hallucination? It might have been a coincidence, or something else. They'd never met before, but here she was, helping her out anyway.

"Come on, no need to hide... Be a good girl and come out now." She coaxed, then slapped the billy club very neatly against one of the two nerve clusters on Gwen's chin. It stung badly and had to have been hard enough to leave a bruise. For a few seconds she thought that she could taste blood, but this wasn't some wailing on from an uncontrolled animal, it was carefully done, to create pain and fear without actually risking too much serious damage. The words weren't for Gwen at all, she got that, so didn't
try
to speak at all.

That being the case the words surprised her quite a bit.

"Ow. Stop that! You're
hurting
me!" The accent was different than the one Gwen used trying to sound like what she imagined the girl would have. More petulant, slightly huskier and colder at the same time. "My parents will be
most
displeased when they hear of this, I assure you!"

There was a hiss when Regina struck the top of her kneecap. It was odd, since Gwen could see and hear everything just fine, but she didn't actually feel it at all this time. Much nicer that way, all things considered. It was baffling though. Had Katherine been in there the whole time, watching like this? As far as she could tell, the other girl wasn't there at all, except for the fact that her mouth was working and seemed to be a bit of a bitch. Not that it wasn't warranted, since she
was
being tortured, if lightly. That wasn't exactly the kind of thing that made anyone all bright and cheery most days.

"My family is
very
well connected and won't stand for this mistreatment of their daughter, I'll tell you right now. I demand you release me right this instant!" She sounded regal enough, entitled even. Also more than a bit scared. Nearly enough to excuse the rest of the words, once you put it all together.

"Who are you?" The man that had been asking the questions before said the words softly, not trying to seem intimidating now at all. "May I ask your name?"

Her gaze turned to the man, and she nodded a few times.

"I'm Katherine Vernor. Of
The Vernor's
. Where am I?"

It took a few seconds for anyone in the room to respond at all, so Gwen tried, wondering if it could possibly work. She didn't have to fight to the front or displace anyone, she just spoke, like she always did.

"This is the Westmorland central headquarters. Well, a shed off to the back of the compound." The words sounded fine and came out exactly like they should have, sounding very different this time. The Telepath nodded at her, but didn't speak, since he was in a deep working state at the moment.

There was pause, and then the girl screamed softly, apologizing after a few seconds.

"Sorry! Sorry,
I
didn't say that, I mean it came from my mouth, but it wasn't
me
. What's going on and how did I get here? More importantly, can I leave? My parents must be frantic."

Regina actually did the speaking then, which probably made it easier for the girl.

"You were set-up for a human sacrifice about nine months ago, some kind of magical ceremony. It went wrong and your mind was traded out for one of a woman from a different world. At least everyone
thought
you were replaced. It seems that something else might have happened. We should call someone. Your parents..."

The telepath stared at Katherine and let out a single slow word.

"
Nooo
." It was a soft and breathy thing, but he didn't elaborate and probably couldn't. It was enough, since one thing that the Westmorlands were really good at was teamwork, which meant catching hints from your fellows, like being told that something was a bad idea.

Gwen risked speaking again.

"Get him out of state so he can explain." It was probably what they were planning to do next anyway, but she was a little impatient. The man that had been questioning her, and Katherine, said the correct code, asking the man to return to alpha.

The instant he did the fellow pointed.

"That
is
Katherine Vernor, but she knows a lot more than she's claiming. She's trying to control her thoughts, but enough is leaking through that I know she had something to do with the whole sacrifice thing."

It didn't make sense, but he was put right back into state and Regina slapped Katherine's face hard.

"Alright then, talk. What do you know about Erin Debussey and Baron Mathews?"

It was followed by another, harder blow that had a lot less control to it. It was kind of clear that this whole thing was messing with Regina and probably some of the others. It was showing with increased violence.

Katherine didn't say anything, which got another blow that was hard enough Gwen tasted blood for real this time.

"Hey, easy there, I'm in here too." She mumbled the words but the Westmorland actually looked taken aback by them.

"Forgive me, I forgot for a moment." There was a look of actual chagrin, but it was followed by another sharp blow to the knee. It was what she had been assigned to do after all. More than that, Gwen herself had set the task, after a fashion. Not Katherine however, but it seemed that the girl might actually be a suspect in this whole mess or something like that.

"I suggest you talk, it will make it easier on both of us." The words flowed out easily, as if she wasn't talking to herself or anything even half that strange. "You know, use your
words
and don't force them to kill us. They will if they have to you know."

Not that they would, most likely. Still, it might just be the easiest thing to manage, if Katherine didn't cooperate. Gwen waited, trying not to even think anything, in case that might mess with the telepath's ability to pick up what Katherine was thinking. It seemed so strange, sharing a brain with someone else. Worse, this wasn't her rightful body. The other girl had a lot more right to it than she did, so it kind of looked like her time here was done anyway.

"Fine, I'll talk, but stop
hitting
me. It wasn't any big issue after all."

Regina went very still and stared at the girl for a while, "stealing a body isn't a big issue for you?"

There was a soft sound that Gwen decided must have been exasperation.

"We, Doctor Debussey, Baron Mathews and I, along with some others, weren't trying to steal a body at
all
. Don't you understand? We just wanted the information to be carried from one distant world to another. It was my turn, since most of the others didn't have the needed talents for it. I always scored high in mental skills, magically speaking. It was my idea, once I learned that there was more than just this one reality." She seemed almost proud of the fact for some strange reason. "Erin said that I was gifted and kept trying to get me to go to school with her. I think she just wanted to have me around more. I probably shouldn't have dallied with her like I did, but it was fun. Does that shock you?"

This got said to the man that had been doing the questioning earlier, but he just looked at her without blinking, not bothering to say anything until it was clear that the girl had stopped giving information. Regina hit her again. Not too hard, but it got a womanly wail from Katherine at least.

"I suggest you keep explaining. If you weren't stealing bodies, then why kill them afterwards? That clearly had a ritualistic style to it, didn't it? Were you supposed to be a willing sacrifice?"

That got the girl to go silent for a while, finally speaking in a tone that was a lot harsher than was really needed.

"No. I wasn't
supposed
to be a sacrifice at all. We made the transfer, one way, which probably killed the person we took the information from. Since this is my body, I figured that I'd be in control after that, but I wasn't. Mathews, he was kind of a friend of my parents, which is how he and I got into the whole thing, making friends at a party a few years ago, he could tell that I wasn't in charge I think, and decided to use just me for my energy, since no one knew what would happen. It was the plan, but I didn't think we actually
had
to use it. We couldn't just let someone run around in my body, of course, they could be insane or something. Worse they might have told on us. So it turned into a ritual, but only after the fact. What they didn't realize was that it had
worked
. Perfectly. She was even the one we wanted, or as close as we could have gotten."

She shook her head, soft brown curls coming into view since her hair was down. It was matted with sweat though, from the last several hour's worth of being beaten. It was a lot harder work than most people thought, especially if it was strung out like it had been. Gwen knew that she was tired, even as Katherine continued chatting.

"I could have used a bit more time, to tell the truth. They were supposed to be my friends, but they turned on me almost instantly. It was Erin's idea too. I remember that much. Mathews didn't fight it though, did he? I don't think he really liked me much at all, come to think of it. Kind of a strict man, morally, for all that he wanted to help us bring back the Old Ones. That was for knowledge of course. They know everything, the Old Ones." There was a hint of wistfulness in her tone, then she let her eyes close, letting the world go black. She spoke anyway, probably so the beatings wouldn't return.

If so it was a good plan. Regina didn't look impressed by her tale at all. In fact, the words "bloody minded" came, almost unbidden, in regards to how the Westmorland with the stick looked at the moment.

"So, as it turned out, I was expendable the whole time, and only
thought
that I had value to them. After all that mental training from Erin too. They'd acted like I was important, but the instant there might have been trouble, the solution was to simply kill me. I ask you, does that sound reasonable to you? They could have at least given me a bit of a break. I could have gotten a lot more victims for them, if they'd wanted them. I'd gotten the two women and one of the men that had gone before I did, after all."

That was news to Gwen, who wondered what the selection criteria had been for the body stealing thing? Or was it the
mind
stealing thing? Either way, it was a pain in the rear. Being an inquisitive person, she simply
asked
, which got the girl to stop and think for a few moment. No screaming about it this time though at least.

"Erin
picked
you. There was a very definite target. Her daughter, or the one that would have been her, if she existed at all in that other place. There was no assurance of that, of course, but the ties between mother and daughter would be very strong, making the magical component of a sacrifice tremendous. Now that I think about it, I should have
known
better. There's a bond between children and their mothers. A magical thing that she must have been trying to play off of, pretending that it was just a thing of interest to her for casual reasons." There was a grunt then, that didn't sound ladylike at all.

For a second Gwen had to wonder if that was really her making the noise, since it sounded a lot more like the kind of thing that she'd do, compared to the well bred and no doubt very polite Katherine. Not that they'd really been seeing a lot of those good manners just yet. The girl was a bit of a pain, to tell the truth. For one thing it really sounded like she'd personally come up with the idea that kind of killed Gwen.

That part wasn't lost on the Westmorlands either, since they all started to ask questions, except for the telepathic detective, who simply waited. Finally after nearly an hour he was released from the working state, so that he could explain what he'd found, if anything. It wasn't a lot of fun to hear about. Not for Gwen at least.

"Well, it's clear that she's in on the whole thing. She definitely tried to kill Gwen, and knew that stealing her information would do that to her. So this isn't just mind theft, it's
murder
, if in a place so distant no one could ever prove it. She thinks that Doctor Debussey planned the whole thing, making her a pawn, which is a little odd, since they were pretty thick at one point, working closely on the whole thing. Katherine really isn't very self-aware. Magically talented, but only of average intelligence, and that isn't used very well at all. There was time for Doctor Debussey to make a lot of changes to Miss Vernor, but those don't intersect with Gwen at all."

There was an outraged noise, but Gwen decided that
she'd
heard enough at least, and took control, coming forward with her own conjecture.

"Which is probably why I'm in charge then, isn't it? Not that I'm claiming to be the world's smartest person at all, but that, plus the difference in how we were raised and lived, maybe even just being a bit older... Those probably combined to leave me the dominant personality." She wasn't having any problem being in charge at least. It was
just
possible that Katherine had been hiding on purpose, but Troy, the telepath, didn't seem to think that was the case at all.