Page 130 of Carousel

Meg has joined Dezeeves by his side. He pats her on the shoulder.

“Thank you, Meg. You may have just saved the lives of many in this room.” He nods at Ephraine. “Let us continue, shall we?”

Everyone is now looking at me.

Many of them look scared.

Scared of me.

If only they had osimidite. They would never feel fear, or hatred, or anger again. Forget Cosmer’s idea of just getting people to look up more, to end wars. Happiness, peace, can be found in a tank.

Cosmer.

Where is he? Why isn’t he here?

Dezeeves bends down to me. Offers me a pleasant smile, and his hand. I take it.

He helps me the couple of steps to my chair and even pulls it out for me. A Rhavnan gesture. He’s quite thoughtful, really.

I resume my seat.

“Can you hear us well, Ara?” he asks, when he is seated again himself.

I nod. My head feels heavy in the mask.

But my brain is light as feathers.

“Good. We’re going to take off the mask now and ask you some questions.”

Ephraine, now behind me, pulls the metal off me.

My first breaths without osimidite feel laboured. Awkward.

Normal air is disappointing.

“We’ll start with a simple one,” Dezeeves says, twining his hands together. “Did you have a happy childhood, in the Palace?”

“The happiest,” I say at once. “It was magical.”

“Tell us about it.”

“I loved the library. My friends. The insects in the gardens. Even the spiders and the crane flies. They were as big as fists.” I add, because I can’t seem to stop talking, “I saw a crane fly burn itself alive once – it flew straight into a flame. Singed its wings.”

“Fascinating,” Dezeeves says. “I do believe we have much to learn from insects. Now, did you do much travel, in your time in the Palace?”

What a strange question. I wish I could have talked more about the crane flies.

“Travel? Only to the beach, sometimes. The dome had everything we needed.”

Like my village in Hevalla. That had everything I needed, too.

It had my family, and Cosmer.

Cosmer was led away.

He has a lot of charges.

He could be executed.