“You’d think the people living in the dark would be the ones most frightened by curses and the like.” She joined me in watching the blood-red lamps pulse and glow. “What in Heaven’s name does all this do?”
“This station allows the operator to oversee temperatures and pressures in every section of the Queen’s machinery,” said Evis, who simply stepped out of the shadows and joined us before the banks of lights and dials. “It’s one of three such stations. The gentleman who mans this position is called the lamp man. I trust your tour of the Queen has proven informative?”
Evis wasn’t wearing his dark-tinted spectacles down here in the shadows. The glow from the lamps gave his pale, angular face a devilish red hue and turned his white eyes into pulsing wells of fire.
He grinned, perfectly aware of his appearance.
Gertriss darted up to his side. “Hiya, boss, Darla,” she said. Then she reached up and yanked Evis’s ear. “You promised you wouldn’t make spooky eyes at people down here, didn’t you?”
The dapper little vampire chuckled, pulled his tinted spectacles from his coat pocket, and shrugged as he put them on.
“Consider it chastisement for starting the grand tour without me,” he said. “So, uncover any dastardly plots yet? You could say yes and save me a fortune, you know.”
I nodded gravely and dropped my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It seems you’re foisting at least one unacceptable wine upon the drinking public, Mr. Prestley. I shall be forced to report this at once to the proper authorities.”
“So you’ve met Mr. Lavit. I might have known you’d start your inquiries at the nearest beer tap. Shall we head to the upper decks? I suspect a lavish meal is being prepared.”
“They’re using us as training for the kitchens,” added Gertriss cheerfully. She was wearing grey today-grey long skirts and grey blouse with just a hint of white at the neck. She laid an arm possessively on Evis’s shoulder and I wondered if she realized she did or just let the action slip. “They’re pulling out all the stops, as sort of a practice run for the cruise. It’ll be quite a feast, isn’t that right, Mr. Prestley?”
Evis nodded wordlessly. Gertriss laughed and removed her hand.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” I said. Darla said something to Gertriss and they paired off, whispering in the dark as Evis gestured toward the next bank of dim lights in the shadows.
“After you,” I said. “Warn me about low hanging beams, won’t you? My head has a tender spot.”
“Right between your ears,” offered Evis before he glided ahead. The last glimpse I saw of his face showed the visage of a man deep in thought.
I grinned and hurried after, Darla and Gertriss giggling and whispering in my wake.
Even the halfdead, it seemed, had doubts and conflicts about matters of the heart.
True to his word, Evis took us on a long, detailed tour of the Queen’s many niceties.
He started off by exchanging a few quiet words with the workmen still toiling frantically away on the casino deck. Satisfied, he led us to the stage, caused the curtains to be raised, and then he bade us to gaze out on the darkened room before motioning toward someone my mortal eyes couldn’t pick out of the shadows.
The massive chandeliers that hung above the casino floor flared slowly to life.
Darla, close at my side, took in a sudden breath and covered her mouth with her hand. Gertriss beamed at Evis, who winked at her behind his tinted spectacles and clapped his hands once.
The lights blazed, bathing the vast chamber in a bright, ethereal glow. I peeked through my fingers at the lights, which shone like patches of sky torn from the heavens and folded and woven and then somehow suspended from the Queen’s curving ceiling.
The lights spun and twinkled and moved. The light they cast didn’t so much shine upon you as envelope you.
“Magic,” said Darla, playing her fingers through the light as though her hands were submerged in warm, flowing water. “It must be.”
“We call them starlights,” said Evis with a closed-lip smile. “They cost a small fortune. Each one took three years to build. And by Yule there’ll be half a dozen hanging in the High House, or I’m a badger.”
He clapped again, and the starlights faded, and the shadows returned.
“Sorry, but they’re expensive to keep lit. Unless you’d care to lose a few large sums at our brand new gaming tables?”
“Not a chance.” I looked out across the empty casino. “So, how many gaming tables have you got?”
“Two hundred and ninety, to start. Card games there, roulette wheels there, something new we call a slot machine over there. Something for everyone, including the ladies.”
I whistled. I couldn’t even estimate the earning the House expected to pull in, night after night, but I didn’t think it would take long to pay off the Queen’s lavish construction expenses.
“And all of it tax free,” said Evis in tones that suggested worship.
“You’re kidding.”
“I am not. The Regent himself signed off on it. Any gambling that takes place on a boat is exempt from Regency taxation. Oh, we agreed to fund certain civic projects out of our earnings, but not a cent goes to taxes.”
“How many of these boats are you building?”
Evis shrugged and pretended to inspect a talon. “Six or eight, I forget which.”
Gertriss smiled. She put her arm on Evis’s shoulder again.
“Tell them the rest, won’t you?”
“Later,” he said, tapping his ear. “In private.”
She laughed.
“We have three more decks to show you,” said Evis. “If you please?”
By the time we reached the top deck, which Evis called the promenade, my feet were aching in my fancy shoes and even Gertriss was beginning to pant.
We walked every hall. Climbed every stair. Inspected every stateroom. Poked in every closet. For one awful moment I was convinced we were going to flush every toilet and test every doorknob for quality of polish and ease of use.
Whatever else Evis might love, I whispered to Darla, he loved that damned boat more.
I got a kick in the shins for my insight.
Hours passed. Bunions were born. Mouths went dry.
But I did learn a few things.
The Queen’s layout was meant to channel guests toward the casino or the half-dozen plush bars located at strategic places around the top three decks. There were no clocks anywhere in sight. Evis said this was to ensure that passengers were relaxed and unhurried. I suspected it was an effort to keep gamblers unaware of the passage of time, which might in turn remind them of the passage of their money from their pockets to the Queen’s safes.
Darla and I had a stateroom on the second deck. All the rooms there were comfortable and well appointed.
The rooms-excuse me, suites-on the next deck up were twice the size of mine, and probably came with butlers and big-eyed, half-Elf maids. The beds? You could build my house on one of those beds and have room left over for a middling-large garden.
The next deck, the promenade, was even more lavish and ornate. There were only half a dozen suites, each featuring sitting rooms and smoking rooms and bathtubs I could paddle about in-if I was fond of paddling about with irate rich people.
The only suite we couldn’t enter was the one being prepared for the Regent. It was guarded by a full dozen of his personal bodyguards, with a pair of black-robed wand-wavers hovering nearby. Flashes beneath the doors and bangs from behind the thick walls hinted at sorcerous wards being laid inside.
Evis didn’t elaborate, and neither Darla nor I asked. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until we took a corner and were finally out of sight of the Regent’s expressionless personal guards.