She sighed when the door had closed behind them both and glanced at the clock on the wall. It would be an hour before he finished having breakfast with Lady Jane. No need to rush. She sat on the bed and pressed a button on the bedside table. Ceri appeared almost immediately. Persuading Prince Caspar to make Ceri her personal servant was, in Jan’s opinion, her most positive achievement since becoming the Prince’s lover. Neither Mary Anne nor Prince Magid had been pleased with this development but they had to bow to Caspar’s will.
Jan motioned Ceri to be seated in one of the bedroom’s armchairs and said, “I’m exhausted.”
“Another job well done?” asked Ceri dryly.
“I think I can safely claim that,” Jan said. “Mother God, he has incredible sexual stamina. It’s a pity he’s so useless at making love.”
Ceri studied her for a while then said hesitantly, “May I ask you a personal question?”
“You, of all people, should know you can ask me anything you want,” Jan told her with a smile. “What do you want to know?”
“How … how do you feel when you make love to the Prince?” Ceri asked her seriously.
“How do I feel?” Jan raised her eyebrows. “Do you mean do I enjoy it?”
“Well … yes.”
She shrugged. “Well, yes, I do get some physical pleasure from him, in spite of his incompetence.”
“And in spite of him being a man?”
Jan gave Ceri a sly smile. “You want to know how I, a Minervan, can bear to make love to a man, yes? But I’ve told you before, I’m sure, that Minervan women didn’t sleep exclusively with women. In fact younger women like myself were actively encouraged to experiment with men so that we would be familiar with the experience when the time of breeding came.”
Ceri frowned. “Yes, but basically you prefer sleeping with women, don’t you? I mean, surely you get more satisfaction from Lady Jane …?”
“Well, yes. But that’s mainly because she’s much more sexually skilful than Caspar, not just because she’s a woman. But I get no real emotional satisfaction from either of them. Yes, I find both of them attractive, despite of who they are and what they are—but I shut that out of my mind when I’m with them—but I have no love for them. It’s you I love, Ceri.”
Ceri winced. “I thought we’d agreed not to discuss that again.”
“You brought up the subject of my sexual preferences, not me,” said Jan. Since that one night, the day of her presentation at court, Ceri hadn’t slept with her again. She had made it clear that their love-making on that occasion had been a one-off event. It had been a special act of friendship but, given her freedom of choice, Ceri preferred not to sleep with women. She allowed Jan physical contact with her—hugs, even kisses—but nothing more. And Jan had been in an agony of frustration ever since. “I wish you’d reconsider, Ceri,” pleaded Jan. “If people love each other it doesn’t matter what sex they are. And I do love you!”
Ceri looked uncomfortable. “Please, Jan, don’t talk this way. You don’t really love me. It’s just because I’m the first real friend you’ve had since coming on board the Lord Pangloth. And because you’re a Minervan, and young. You’re infatuated, that’s all, but it’s not real love.”
“I think I’m the best judge of my own emotions,” Jan told her firmly.
“No one is the best judge of their own emotions,” said Ceri.
Jan made a groaning sound. “That’s the sort of thing Milo would say.”
As usual Ceri scowled at the mention of Milo’s name. “If you did love me you’d heed my advice about that creature…. ”
“Don’t change the subject,” said Jan quickly. She was only too well aware of how Ceri felt about Milo. She remembered the time when she’d recounted Milo’s story to her. Ceri had been incredulous. “He said he’s from Mars?”
“Yes. And he was very convincing.”
“You mean you believe he’s an alien from outer space?” Ceri had laughed.
“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had been but no, he says he is human. There’s a colony on Mars, he says, which was established before the Gene Wars and that’s where he was born.”
Ceri had frowned. “There are stories of such a colony, and of habitats in space, but surely, without support from Earth, they’d have died out years ago.”
“Well, according to Milo the colony on Mars is still flourishing.”
Ceri had remained sceptical. “So how did he get to Earth, and why?”
“He came in a spaceship that crashed in the sea. But as to why he won’t say yet.”
Ceri had shaken her head in disbelief. “So why didn’t he tell us all this stuff about Mars? Why did he lie to us about coming from another sea habitat?”
“He said he had his reasons.”
“Yes, I’ll bet he did. Jan, I don’t know how you can be so gullible! You know how much he’s lied to you in the past. And now you’re willing to trust him again; willing to partake in some crazy, downright dangerous scheme involving the machinery in the control room?”
In anguish, Jan had said, “I have no choice, don’t you see? I have to trust him again! He has promised me the means of vengeance on the Lord Pangloth! I won’t have peace of mind until I do!”
“But you told me that when you had the chance to destroy the Lord Pangloth you couldn’t go through with it. I’m not complaining, mind, but what makes you think you’ll be able to do it if Milo provides you with a second chance?”
Jan had shaken her head. “He’s not talking about destroying the, airship but taking control of it somehow.”
“But he won’t tell you how?”
“No,” Jan had admitted. “Not yet.”
Ceri had given her a despairing look. “I’m beginning to think your first opinion of Milo was the correct one. That he’s a sorcerer. He certainly seems to have performed sorcery on your good sense.”
Nothing had happened since then to alter Ceri’s opinion of either Milo or Jan’s involvement with him and Jan had given up trying to argue with her. “We’re talking about us, not Milo,” she told Ceri.
“Not any more we’re not,” said Ceri firmly. She stood up. “When the Prince finishes his ritual breakfast with his beloved mother he will expect to find you all dressed and ready to go. Come on, I’ll run you a bath. And while you’re taking it I’ll go fetch you some food.”
Jan looked at her and sighed.
The doors of the elevator slid open and Prince Caspar entered the control room. Jan, keeping a dutiful few steps behind, followed him. The twelve Engineers in the room were all standing stiffly to attention. They raised their right arms, the fists clenched, in salute to the Prince as he took his seat on the throne on the dais at the rear of the control room. Jan took her place beside the throne, her arm resting across its back, while Dalwyn remained by the elevator doors.