“Sextus, I was in the military, that’s not fine details, it’s a full intelligence briefing,” said Pyrrha.
“Good. Go and get Gideon’s body. Take Nona—poor Nona, dig her out before she’s squashed any more.”
“Thanks,” said Nona.
“But you’re—”
“Pyrrha, we have no time. Ianthe’s still alive and kicking—up here.” Palamedes tapped his perfectly coiffed head. Crown had emerged from a side door clutching a hard-shell plastic box, crossing over to join them. When Palamedes said, “Alive,” she nearly dropped the box. Her expression was terrible.
Pyrrha said, “Sextus, that wasn’t wise.”
“Probably not,” said Palamedes. “But I fought Ianthe Tridentarius within an inch of our lives inside her head, for … for a long, long time. How long did it take out here?”
“Four, maybe five seconds,” said Crown, ashen-faced.
“Lucky you. To me, it was a little longer,” said Palamedes with a slight smile. “It would have been a disgrace to kill her … No, Cam, I mean it. I currently have more respect for Ianthe than she ever won from me previously. I’m going to hold her back as long as I can, but if I hold her for more than an hour I’ll be astonished. Your Highness, go and get Captain Deuteros, then meet us back here.”
Crown kept fingering the package of bandages. Her eyes were huge and purple and glimmering, like pools of violet water. She said quietly, “You are a good man, Sextus.”
“No. If I didn’t think it was safer to trap Ianthe than to let her retreat back to her body, out there in deep space somewhere, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have killed her … Just because I feel good about not killing her doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have. It wasn’t mercy, Princess.”
“I don’t care. Thank you—thank you for not … not hurting her. Let me help Cam, I know how to dress a field injury…”
“I’m without resources,” said Palamedes with dignity, “but I think I can still bandage my cavalier’s abdominal wound. Can you carry Judith Deuteros?”
“Of course, but the guards—”
“Unconscious or locked up,” said Pyrrha. “I clonked half of them on the head, and the other ones are in the mess. Deuteros’s door should be unlocked, but don’t move her without sedating her. Nona—you’re with me.”
Crown dropped the scraps of her dress. When she looked at Palamedes, Nona was suddenly struck by the idea that Crown wasn’t happy at all, or grateful—and yet she obviously was, hungrily and thirstily grateful; she put Nona in mind of Noodle, suddenly, wanting to go out but wanting to stay in the basket, wanting to run around outside but wanting to come back. Then Crown deflated like a beautiful balloon and fled.
Nona felt wobbly and unreal. Her body was able to walk and move and hold itself upright, but she still felt very light-headed, disconnected from herself. As Pyrrha steered her out of the room, Nona kept looking back over her shoulder at Camilla and the body Palamedes was inhabiting, still kneeling on the floor, bloody and bent. Palamedes looked as though he were talking quietly to her—but Pyrrha closed the door behind them.
Once they were out of the room, Pyrrha took Nona by the shoulders and said, “You all right?”
Nona’s eyes kept crossing and uncrossing. “I’m not sure,” she confessed. “I feel strange.”
“Did those corpses falling on you hit a nerve?”
“No, I only feel funny.”
“You want me to pinch you, kiddie?”
That was so banal and unwelcome that Nona shook back into her body out of pure disgust.
“No. I don’t want to be pinched. Why do you always offer to pinch me? I never want to be pinched.”
“Just proving I’m me. Look at you—not sure I like the couture. Who did your eyes? It’s all coming off. Here, use my sleeve, not yours.” Nona obligingly used the sleeve, and quite a lot of white, gummy stuff came off on it. “Smart way of hiding it though. I should’ve thought of that. Good to go?”
“I can do it.”
“Okay. Shake a leg,” said Pyrrha.
The barracks had not got any less foetid or dark—in fact, Nona balked at the dark flight of stairs as they smelled so bad, and had to hold her breath as Pyrrha escorted her down—and there was so much rubbish, so many strange things laid out in strange places, that at one point they had to pick their way over piles and piles of boxes in order to pass. “This place is a maze. I never would have found her myself,” said Pyrrha, lifting Nona over a busted-up bedframe.