The Spacetime Pool by Catherine Asaro Read Free Book Online

bargained for. She could also, she
realized, end up pregnant.
     
    Dominick studied her
with that close focus of his. “I don’t mean to pressure you.” He smiled
ruefully. “But you’re so lovely, Janelle. Difficult to resist.”
     
    Her face heated. “You
do sweet-talk a girl.” The southern drawl she had lost after her family moved
to Washington often slipped back into her voice when she was nervous.
     
    “It may be ‘sweet-talk.’
But I mean what I say.” He took off only his shirt, nothing more. Then he slid
down the velvet cover and drew it over them both. Settling on his back, he
pulled her into his arms. She closed her eyes, relieved, letting her head rest
in the hollow where his arm met his shoulder.
     
    “Dream well,” he
murmured.
     
    “You too.”
     
    Dominick soon fell
asleep, his eyes twitching under his lids. As she drifted into slumber, she
wondered if he dreamed of the towns and countryside that would someday fall to
his army. He could be gentle with her, but she had no doubt he was capable of
conquering a continent.
     
    Would he wrack his
world with the ambition that led men to create empires—at immense human cost?
     
    * * * *
     
    IV
     
    The Shattered Hall
     
    Birdsong awoke
Janelle. She lay in a pleasant haze, listening to the dawn.
     
    Then she remembered.
     
    Her eyes snapped
open. It was real. She was still in the palace. Early morning light filtered
through high window slits she hadn’t seen last night. The room otherwise looked
as she remembered, beautiful and spare. And empty. Dominick had gone.
     
    She rubbed her eyes.
Yesterday she had been a new graduate with good prospects; today she had
nothing but the unknown. She thought of Rupert Quarterstaff, the lawyer who
dealt with her inheritance. Two years ago, when she had been paralyzed by
grief, Rupert had stepped her through the estate settlement with a solicitude
that went beyond his professional duties. He expected to see her in a few days.
What would he do when she didn’t show? It would be a mess.
     
    Janelle sat up,
rubbing her eyes. She couldn’t stay here as the plaything of a warlord who
wanted to conquer half of North America. She needed a library. Someone had invented Dominick’s gate. Pushing off the covers, she shivered in the cold
air. She went into the other room and bathed, then dried off with a towel
someone had left while she slept. Her clothes from yesterday were gone.
     
    As Janelle searched
for something to wear, she kept noticing the walls. Something strange...?
Stepping closer, she peered at the mosaics. Wavelike curves intertwined in the
tulip designs. She hadn’t seen them clearly last night because they were the
same color as the swirling stems. The curves weren’t just wavelike, they were sinusoids: diffraction patterns, harmonics, or quantum wave functions,
beautiful and elegant. They were too accurate for coincidence; someone had
understood them well enough to reproduce the curves. It was another piece of
the puzzle, along with the Fourier Hall and Riemann gate.
     
    Deep in thought, she
returned to the bedroom. Someone had come in while she bathed; her robe were
gone, and the bed had been remade, with fresh rugs and a jade-green bedspread.
As she toweled her hair, she surveyed the empty room. She couldn’t dress
without clothes.
     
    When the doorknob
turned, she jumped. She barely had time to wrap herself in the towel before the
door opened. The three women from last night stood there, each holding a large
box decorated with abalone and opals.
     
    “Uh ... good morning,”
Janelle said, clutching the towel around her body.
     
    Her greeting seemed
to be the signal they expected. They bowed and entered the room. The older
woman took an ornate key off a hook under the lamp and handed it to a soldier
outside. He closed the door, and a loud click came from the lock.
     
    Janelle watched them
uneasily. “Why did he lock us in?”
     
    “For privacy.” The
older woman spoke in the same