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“Peep-a-cheek! Peep-a-cheek!” The little pink bird-creature—a flur’fa—that was what it was, Nox suddenly remembered—hopped around the table cheeping earnestly at him. It was almost as though the little creature was trying to tell him something.
Looking down at the table, he saw a suspicious lump covered by a napkin. Lifting the napkin, he saw a cube that would fit in his palm. It was made of many smaller cubes, all of them either black or white. Nox started to reach for it…then drew back his hand. Something had happened the last time he touched it…but what?
A memory was niggling in the corner of his brain—a very bad memory. He knew he was going to have many negative emotions once it finally surfaced but at the same time, he felt a deep urgency to remember it fully. Because it was important…and it had to do with…
“Seline!” he exclaimed, looking around him. “Where is Seline?”
The diners at the other tables stopped eating for a moment to look at him from the corners of their eyes but Nox paid them no attention. He was finally remembering what had happened and it was every bit as bad as he had feared.
The Far Box—that was the black and white cube under the napkin. He and Seline had come to bargain with Lendrex for the other half of it but instead of taking the cred chips they had brought to pay with, the Viridian had taken Seline as payment instead.
Nox curled his hands into fists as he remembered the Lord of the Halls of Pain swinging Seline over his shoulder and telling him to just accept that he had taken her.
Didn’t he also say something about putting her in the Ghost Box? whispered an apprehensive voice in Nox’s head. You can’t let him do that to her—she fears it more than anything else!
Nox felt sick. He jumped up and was about to rush to the lift that led up to the Upper Disk when something pecked the back of his hand sharply.
“Peep-a-cheek! Peep-a-cheek!” The little pink flur’fa was hopping up and down on top of the napkin that covered the Far Box.
“Oh, all right—yes,” Nox muttered.
It was true that he would need the Far Box once he got Seline back, so they could return to their own universe. He still wasn’t thinking straight—between the residue of the drug Lendrex had given him and the anxious and fearful emotions crowding his mind for Seline, he felt like his usual cool, logical state was almost unreachable.
But he had to try and reach it, he told himself. There was no way he could rescue the woman he loved if he couldn’t gain control of his emotions and think clearly.
He took a deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly. Then he did it again—it was a technique the humans used to calm down. Nox knew because he had seen it on a movie about a human who often had panic attacks. The deep breathing seemed to help because after a moment, he felt his head begin to clear.
Carefully, he picked up the Far Box—keeping it wrapped in the napkin someone had draped over it so his skin didn’t touch it—and slipped it into one of the metal carrying cases. It fit perfectly and he was able to put it into the inner pocket of his black leather duster. Peep-a-cheek lighted on his shoulder as he left the restaurant space and headed for the lift that led up to the Upper Disk.
He was going to get Seline back or die trying.
THIRTY-NINE
SELINE
Seline woke up with a pounding headache and a nasty taste in her mouth. Someone was bending over her and she saw anxious turquoise eyes and realized who it must be.
“Lovely?” she asked, putting a hand to her temple. “Oh, my head hurts!”
“That’s just an effect of the sleep-quick potion,” Lovely told her cheerfully. “But now that you’re awake, we should have a minute before Master Lendrex comes back.”
“Master Lendrex?” Seline groaned as she forced herself to sit up and clutched at her head. “Oh—it really hurts!”
“Well, you probably got the highest dose, because you were handling that cube thingy so much,” Lovely told her. “The aftereffects can be nasty, but they wear off quickly once you wake up.”
“He put a drug…on the Far Box?” Seline asked. She looked around herself—she was lying in the middle of a large bed with a shiny black coverlet that had red flowers embroidered on it. “Where is it?” she asked feeling a spasm of panic when she didn’t see it. “Where’s the Far Box?”
“With your old Master, I guess.” Lovely shrugged. “Master Lendrex left it with him—as payment for you, you know,” she added.
“No…” Seline shook her head, which made it hurt even more. “No, no, no,” she said, clutching her temples. “Nox would never agree to that! He wouldn’t trade me for the Far Box!”
