O'Kala Incarnadine wiped his whiskers. "Then he has succeeded."
"For the moment, I grant you, but unsubtly. It will not last."
My Lady Charlotina sighed and sucked at a celery stalk, letting her gaze wander to the scarlet spaceship. "Our curiosity is still with Jagged. Where can he be? This," she indicated the vessel with her vegetable, "is no more than a diversion."
"It would be amusing, though, if Mr Bloom did begin to lay waste the world."
"There is no logic to it. The world will be finished soon enough, as everyone knows. The very universe in which our planet hangs is on the point of vanishing forever. Mr Bloom has brought his salvation at altogether the wrong moment and at a time when salvation itself is unfashionable, even as a topic of conversation."
"The reasons are obvious…" began O'Kala, in a rare and philosophical mood, "… for who would wish to discuss such matters, now that we know —?"
"Quite." My Lady Charlotina waved. An air car was approaching. It was the shape of a great winged man, its bronze head flashing in the red light of the sun, its blind eyes glaring, its twisted mouth roaring as if in agony. The Duke of Queens had modelled his latest car after some image recently discovered by him in one of the rotting cities.
The car landed nearby and from it trooped many of My Lady Charlotina's most intimate friends. From his saddle behind the head of the winged man the Duke of Queens raised his hand in a salute. He had on an ancient astronaut's jacket, in silver-tipped black fur, puffed pantaloons of mauve and ivory stripes, knee-boots of orange lurex hide, a broad-brimmed hat of panda ears, all sewn together in the most fanciful way.
"My Lady Charlotina! We saw you and had to greet you. We are on our way to enjoy the new boys Florence Fawkes had made for her latest entertainment. Will you come with us?"
"Perhaps, but boys…" She lifted the corner of her mouth.
My Lady Charlotina noted that Doctor Volospion and Mavis Ming were among those pouring from the body of the winged man. She greeted Sweet Orb Mace with a small kiss, laid a sincere hand upon the arm of Bishop Castle, winked at Mistress Christia, and smiled charmingly at Miss Ming.
"Aha! The beauty for whom Mr Bloom crossed galaxies. Miss Ming, you are the focus of all our envy!"
"Have you seen Mr Bloom?" asked Miss Ming.
"Not yet, not yet."
"Then wait before you envy me," she said.
Doctor Volospion's cunning eye glittered. "There is nothing more certain to attract the attention of a lady to a gentleman, even in these weary times of ours than the passion of that gentleman for another lady."
"How perceptive you are, dear Doctor Volospion! It must be admitted. In fact, I believe I already admitted it when I first greeted you."
Doctor Volospion bowed his head.
"You are looking at your best," she continued, for it was true. "You are always elegant Doctor Volospion." He had on a long, full-sleeved robe of bottle-green, trimmed with mellow gold, the neck high, to frame his sharp face, a matching tight-fitting cap upon his head, buttoned beneath the pointed chin.
"You are kind, My Lady Charlotina."
"Ever truthful, Doctor Volospion." She gave her attention to Miss Ming's white frills. "And this dress. You must feel so much younger in it."
"Much," agreed Miss Ming. "How clever of you to understand what it was to be like me! How many hundreds of years can it have been?"
"More than that, Miss Ming. Thousands, almost certainly. I see, at any rate, that your would-be ravisher has yet to come out of his little lair again."
"He can stay there forever as far as I'm concerned."
"I have made one or two attempts to rouse him," said Doctor Volospion. "I sought to shift the ship, too, but it is protected now by a singularly intractable force-field. Nothing I possess can dissipate that field."
"So he does have the power he boasted of, eh?" Bishop Castle in his familiar tall tete which cast a shadow over half the company, looked without much interest at the spaceship.
"Apparently," said Doctor Volospion.
"But why doesn't he use it?" The Duke of Queens joined them. "Has he perished in there, do you think. In his own mad flames?"
"We should have smelled something, at least," said O'Kala Incarnadine.
"Well," Sweet Orb Mace was now a pretty blonde in a black sari, "you would have smelled something, O'Kala, with your nose."
O'Kala wrinkled his current one.
"He's playing cat and mouse with me, that's what I think," said Mavis Ming with a nervous glance at the vessel. "Oh, I'm sorry, O'Kala, I didn't mean to suggest…"
O'Kala Incarnadine made a toothy grin. "I pity any ordinary cat who met a mouse like me!"
"He's hoping I'll give in and go to him. That's typical of some men, isn't it? Well I had enough of crawling with Donny Stevens. Never again I told my friend Betty. And never again it was!"
"But you have been tempted, eh?" My Lady Charlotina became intimate.
"Not once."
My Lady Charlotina let disappointment show.
"I wish," said Mavis Ming, "that he'd either start something or else just go away. It must have been weeks and weeks he's been waiting there! It's getting on my nerves, you know."
"Of course, it must be, my dear," said Sweet Orb Mace.
"Well," the Duke of Queens reminded them all, "Florence Fawkes awaits us. Will you come My Lady Charlotina? O'Kala?"
"I have a project," said My Lady Charlotina, by way of an excuse, "to finish. Of course it is very hard to tell if it is properly finished or not. An invisible city populated with invisible androids. You must come and feel it soon."
"A lovely notion," said Bishop Castle. "Are the androids of all sexes?"
"All."
"And is it possible to —?"
"Absolutely possible."
"It would be interesting —"
"It is."
"Aha!" Bishop Castle tilted his tete. "Then I look forward to visiting you at the earliest chance, My Lady Charlotina. What entertainments you do invent for us!" He bowed, almost toppled by his headgear.
The Duke of Queens had resumed his saddle. "All aboard!" he cried enthusiastically.
It was then that there came a squeak from the space vessel below. The airlock opened. All heads turned.
Emmanuel Bloom's bright blue eyes regarded them. His high-pitched voice drifted up to them.
"So you have come to me," he said.
"I?" said the Duke of Queens in astonishment.
"I have waited," Emmanuel Bloom said, "for you, Miss Ming. So that you may share my joy."
Miss Ming drew back into the main part of the gathering. "I was only passing…" she began.
"Come." He extended a stiff hand from the interior of the ship. "Come."
"Certainly not!" She hid behind Doctor Volospion.
"So, the one with the jackal eyes holds you still. And against your will, I am sure."
"Nothing of the sort! Doctor Volospion is my host, that is all."
"You are too afraid to tell me the truth."
"She speaks the truth, sir," said Volospion in an off-hand tone. "She is free to come and go from my house as she pleases."
"Some pathetic enchantment, no doubt, keeps her there. Well, woman, never fear. The moment I know that you need me I shall rescue you, wherever you may be hidden."
"I don't need rescuing," declared Miss Ming.