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  "Open the door slowly and keep a close eye on her." They did, and Zarco ran in, carefully skirting the piles of puke. It had a foul odor, even more so than normal bile. He knelt beside her and took her wrist in his hand. Her pulse was strong, but her skin was cold and clammy. Zarco motioned for the doctor to come and check Drewcila out."What the hell happened here?" Zarco demanded of the guard.

  "I brought them their food. She ate like all the others. The next thing I knew she was complaining of stomach cramps, and then she was throwing up."

  Jurak was obviously distraught, and he accused the guard through the bars of their cell, "Just last night I heard that man threaten the queen. He even moved to strike her."

  "But I didn't, I . . ."

  "She's been poisoned," the doctor said."Quick! We have to get her to my office. We need to find out what poison was used and deliver an antidote before it's too late."

  "Grab him!" Zarco ordered, pointing to the guard."Take him at once to an interrogation room. Atario, you see to it personally."

  "But, sire, I swear . . ." the guard started, but fell silent when the cold blue eyes of his sovereign locked on his. Drewcila was rushed off to the surgery as the guard was manhandled off to the interrogation room.

  "Zarco, please I implore you," Stasha cried from her cell."She is my sister, my only sibling. I had harsh words with her just last night. Please let me go with her."

  "Let her out, but watch her," Zarco ordered one of the guards. Stasha was released, and she followed Zarco and the doctor.

  The medics were pushing Drew along on a gurney. Stasha ran to catch up with the stretcher and took Drew's hand."Drewcila, please, you can't die. I love you. I'm sorry for all that I said."

  The doctor shoved her gently out of the way as they entered the surgery, and the medics skillfully moved Drew from the gurney to the bed.

  The doctor hooked Drewcila up to a computer medic.

  The doctor sighed, though it was hard to tell whether he was relieved or disappointed."All right, we can all relax, the poison was triple phosforin."

  "It's not deadly, then?" Zarco asked.

  "Oh, no, it's lethal enough, but it would have had to be fully digested to do any real damage. It wasn't in her system long enough for that since she threw most of it up. I'll simply program a dose of the antidote, Radiol 16." He punched some buttons on the apparatus."She should be just fine in two to three days with bed rest."

  "Slut!" Stasha screamed in Drew's face. She glared at Zarco."All right lock me back up."

  "Stasha . . . must there be all this ill will between us? I will release you, and you may go to your parents' house if you will only apologize," Zarco said.

  "Apologize! For what? Giving you the best years of my life? Wasting my love and my time on you? I've done nothing to you. You locked me in jail, you bedded my sister. You have completely discounted my feelings for you, and now you expect me to apologize to you! I'd sooner rot in jail."

  "That can be arranged!" Zarco glared at her."Guards! Escort my sister-in-law back to her cell."

  The guards grabbed Stasha. She shook off their hands, and holding her head high, walked off towards the dungeon. Zarco watched her go and almost told her to come back, almost decided that he should be the one to apologize. Tell her that he understood now that he belonged more with her than he did Drewcila. However, before he could open his mouth to speak, the doctor interrupted his thoughts.

  "Whoever our assassin is, he doesn't know much about poison," Doctor Sortas said conversationally.

  "Why do you say that?" Zarco asked, his curiosity piqued.

  "Triple phosforin is a slow working poison. If you wanted to kill someone with it, you would administer it in small doses over a long period of time. Giving someone enough to actually kill them all at once, well, more times than not you get the reaction Drewcila had. It causes intense stomach cramps, and they throw it up before it can do any real damage."

  "Where could they find this poison?" Zarco asked, hoping to narrow his list of suspects.

  "Just about anywhere. For instance, it's the main ingredient in most organic toilet bowl cleaners."

  "There is deadly poison in an organic product?" Zarco said in disbelief.

  "Sire, just because something is organic doesn't mean you should eat it," the doctor explained.

  "Are you mocking me?" Zarco asked hotly.

  "Why, no . . . Not at all, sire. I didn't mean to offend."

  "I'm sorry, doctor. I'm a little edgy lately. I know you said she should be fine in two or three days, but how long will it take her to come to?"

  "Her system's had quite a shock, this is her body's way of coping with it; still, she shouldn't be out more than an hour, two tops."

  "I know she's sick, but you had best keep an eye on her. She's a tricky one. I will leave two guards outside the room." Zarco hesitated at the door, and turned to face the doctor."How do you feel about Drewcila?"

  The doctor swallowed hard. That was a double edged question. On the one hand, the king had purposely removed anyone with loyalty to the queen from the castle. On the other, he obviously didn't want his wife killed. Sortas chose his words carefully."I don't agree with her politics, but I also believe that she, more than any of us, is a victim of the Lockhedes. I certainly don't want to see any harm come to her. I believe she can be fixed."

  "All right. Don't leave her side," Zarco said again.

  "I shan't," Sortas promised. Of course he didn't promise to actually do anything to help Drewcila, either

  Drew opened one eye carefully and looked around the room. The doctor was looking at her readouts, and she knew that meant he must realize that she was awake. Damn monitor.

  Well, she might as well talk to him."Doctor!" she croaked out weakly."What happened to me?"

  "Someone tried to poison you. They weren't very successful. You should be your old self in a day or two."

  "Great. It sucks to be in poor health when you're in prison." Drew laughed weakly."Who . . . who did it?"

  "They suspect a guard. He's being interrogated." The doctor turned to look at her for the first time."The King does love you so very much. Couldn't you at least try to be a proper queen?"

  "You know, doc, I feel like warmed up dog shit, and I'm fresh out of patience for even one more lecture. I wouldn't expect a doctor—possibly the group that bitched most about my maximum wage law—to understand what it's like to be a monarch who cares as much for the poor as they do the rich. To think that an unlucky man deserves medical care and a decent life as much as the privileged."

  "You make it sound as if I am without compassion. I wouldn't be in this profession if I didn't care about people . . ."

  "Yeah, that's why you'd be the king's physician, where you maybe treat what? Twenty or thirty people a year? Mostly kitchen burns and scraped knees. Save your crap for someone who'll buy it. All you rich fucks are alike."

  "No one is quite as rich as yourself, majesty," the doctor reminded.

  "True. But unlike you I haven't gotten rich off peoples' pain. In fact, I have gotten rich by stopping that pain. By giving jobs to people who didn't have jobs, by giving medical care to people who couldn't afford it before. By shrinking the giant gap between the haves and the have-nots. This is the real reason the nobility hate me. Not because I'm a salvager, or because I'm a whore, or even a drunk—although I'm sure all those things piss them off to no end. No, they hate me because there are far fewer people for them to be better than. Not as many people for them to push around. And not nearly as many people who have to kiss their asses. That's my big crime—I'm actually fair."

  The doctor laughed then."My, my! You are indeed the consummate public speaker. I had forgotten just how eloquent you can be when you're sober, and you set your mind to it. Save your speeches for the peons, my Queen, you shan't sway me."

  "I wasn't actually trying to sway you. I was just trying to keep you distracted long enough for my associates to take out the two guards at the door and sneak up on your ass." />
  "What?" The doctor felt the needle sliding into the flesh of his butt, felt a slight sting, and then he was out.

  "What took you so long?" Drew asked with a smile.

  "You ever try to carry a Valtarian lizard woman in a garbage can?" Dylan asked with a grin."She's heavy, and her tail kept sliding out from under the lid."

  Drew got out of the bed and stumbled. Arcadia caught and held her, and Drew threw her arms around Arcadia's neck and kissed her on the mouth."I am so incredibly glad that you aren't dead."

  "I wouldn't be nearly so much fun that way," Arcadia said.

  "You just would not believe the shitty week I've had."

  "Me, too. How are you feeling?" Arcadia asked.

  "Horrible," Drew said."Like I've been hit by a truck. But I've had worse hang-overs, so let's get the hell out of here."

  "For the record, I thought this whole crazy-assed plan was a big mistake," Arcadia said.

  "Yeah, not actually my very brightest moment," Drew said with a smile. Her legs were weak and would hardly hold her."For one thing, I feel a lot worse than I thought I was going to. I really figured that with all the booze I've consumed over the years, I'd be more or less immune to most poisons."

  Arcadia helped Drew into the palace guard's uniform that Dylan handed her. Drew was feeling a little better by the time Dylan checked the hall and they walked out. She leaned against the wall, laser in hand, and kept guard as Dylan and Arcadia dragged the two very dead guards into the infirmary. One had obviously wound up with a tail spike through his head. The other'd had his neck broken. So Drew guessed that Arcadia was as pissed about Pris as she was.

  "Hey! Look what we just caught," the guard announced.

  "Thought we were supposed to shoot them on sight," the gate keeper said as he rose with his ring of keys to open the door to the cell block for them.

  "The king changed his mind."

  "He seems to do that a lot these days."

  "He thinks he can use this one to sway the queen. Rumor has it that this one is one of the queen's lovers."

  "This ugly lizard thing?" The guard laughed as he opened the door."You've got to be kidding me."

  Jurak watched the exchange with obvious interest. The others seemed to be too depressed to notice much of anything now. They had brought them their lunch a few minutes before, but for obvious reasons none of them had eaten.

  He watched as the gate keeper and the other two walked in with their prisoner.

  "That's Arcadia," Facto whispered in despair at his shoulder."We are quickly running out of hope and options."

  Jurak nodded his head silently.

  "Which cell?" the gate keeper asked.

  "That one. She's dangerous, and we need to keep her separate from the others," one of the other guards answered. The gate keeper opened the cell door across from them."You know, you would think we could get a little more high-tech than this. Install computer door locks and laser bars and such. Even an alarm might be nice. Maybe some security cameras. This whole system is so antiquated."

  "You know the king and the higher-ups. They want to keep everything in the castle as authentic as possible."

  "Yeah, well, that's too bad for you."

  Jurak watched in confusion as the guard released the prisoner and fell against the bars of the cell, barely holding himself up. Arcadia grabbed the keys from the gate keeper and shoved him roughly into the open cell, shut the door and locked it.

  Arcadia then threw the keys to Dylan and turned to peel Drewcila from the bars of the cell.

  Drew addressed the guard in the cell."Now, fat ass . . . You don't mind if I call you fat ass? No, of course not. Anyway, fat ass, here's the score. Now I'd just as soon kill your worthless rich ass as look at it. So if you don't want me to smoke your butt, you'll get very quiet . . . Ah, fuck it." Drew raised her weapon and sent a bolt through the guy's head, then turned to look at Arcadia, who was still holding her up."I'm having a really bad day, and it's just easier to shoot him than it is to give the speech. Besides, why take chances, right?"

  "He called me an ugly lizard thing," Arcadia added with a mock pout.

  "God! I hate rude people," Drew said."Don't you hate rude people?"

  "Dead people are rarely rude," Arcadia said conversationally. Drew nodded her agreement.

  Dylan unlocked the door to the crowded cell, and the others ran out to join them.

  "Now what?" Facto asked Drew expectantly.

  "We make like a baby and go," Drew said.

  They started moving, but Drew stumbled, and if Arcadia hadn't been holding her up she no doubt would have fallen."Sorry," Drew said.

  "No problem," Arcadia said with a smile.

  "Are you up to this, Drew?" Facto asked.

  "Not really. I mean, I ate poison, but we aren't working in the 'have a whole lot of options' column here. At lunch time all the guards but the fat ass left the dungeon area. When the guards get back from lunch, I think even those lame-asses are going to notice that you're all gone. That is if they don't figure out that I'm missing from sick bay first. We have a relatively small window of opportunity, so we have to keep moving. Margot . . . you're a dresser. Where do they keep the spare uniforms? And don't tell me in the barracks. That isn't going to help."

  "The palace laundry room is just at the top of the stairs leading out of the dungeon," Margot said.

  "Let's go then."

  They got into the laundry room without incident, which meant that so far no one had noticed that any of them were missing. No doubt because of that lovely antiquated security system.

  "Wait a minute," Stasha said as she pulled on a uniform."You said you ate poison. That means . . ."

  "Yeah, yeah. Dylan slipped the poison into my food. I knew I was eating it. That's why I started hurling it up so quick."

  "Are you crazy! What did you do that for?" Stasha asked hotly."And why the hell didn't you tell us? We thought you were really dying."

  "Gee, I'm sorry to disappoint you," Drew hissed back, growing more tired of her sister's misplaced anger as the day progressed."I didn't tell you because you would have blown it. As to why I did it—three reasons, actually. First, it got me the hell out of the cell. Second, no one's going to expect someone whose just been poisoned to stage a prison break. Third, and this is my favorite one, the guilt factor. Zarco put me in jail, therefore he put me in danger. He has purposely hired guards that hate me, so now they're all suspect, and it pits them against him. Everyone's walking on eggshells, afraid of being accused. We need to get our happy asses in gear and get the hell out of here. I'm thinking we tie a shit load of sheets together and go out one of the second story windows which open onto the city streets. Out there in the streets, that's where our allies are."

  "Drew, you're in no condition to make a climb like that," Arcadia reminded.

  "We can lower her down first," Dylan said as he worked with Margot tying sheets together.

  When they had their make-shift rope, they made their way down the hall and up to the second story with both Drewcila and Arcadia shoved into a laundry cart which they pushed along.

  Looking like palace guards, and with no alarm having yet been sounded, they were able to walk through the halls and use the elevator with no one giving them a second look, much less stopping to question why guards were handling the laundry. No doubt they thought it was some new war-time thing that called for the palace staff to do more "double tasking."

  Their luck didn't hold. As they exited the elevator on the second floor, the alarm bell was sounded. Dylan looked at his watch. The guards must have gotten back from lunch and noticed that they had a jail full of . . . well, nothing. They started to move a little faster.

  Three guards rounded the corner in front of them.

  "You there! What have you got in that cart?" Then they all started to run, no doubt having recognized Facto and Stasha, whose faces would have been well known in the castle and to the nobility.

  "A pissed-off Valtarian lizard woman," Dylan
screamed, raising his laser and firing.

  Arcadia erupted from the laundry cart, sending the sheet ropes that had been concealing them all over, and opened fire on the guards

  All three fell.

  Arcadia and Facto helped Drewcila from the laundry cart as Margot and Dylan gathered up their rope.

  They started running again, but when they turned the corner, there blocking the hall was a large troop of guards. When they turned to retrace their steps there was another troop closing behind them.

  "Surrender!" a familiar voice said as Zarco waded out of the sea of guards."You're ill, Drewcila, and you're badly out numbered. Put your weapons down." Feeling cocky, he moved still closer to the escapees.