Sebastian of Mars Read Online Free Page B

staring at the empty bed and the
book on it, then at me. “Sebastian!” There was confusion and fright
on her face.
    I began to breathe again, but her look of
fear didn’t dissipate.
    “Did my sister put you up to this, to scare
me?”
    “No. I –”
    She looked vulnerable, something I had never
seen this boisterous companion of my sister’s – wild, mischievous,
pretty in a tomboyish way with huge brown-gold eyes and light
silver fur – look. In recent weeks she had begun to look older,
less kitish. “I had to speak to you, Sebastian,” she said.
    “To apologize again for tripping me up? I’m
still limping, as you can see.” I took a few steps, exaggerating my
affliction.
    “Not that.”
    “Then stop staring at me like you’ve never
seen me before! You had the same stupid look on your face this
afternoon!”
    “That was when I found out. But I didn’t know
who to tell, who I could trust.”
    “What is it?” I lost my flippancy, and walked
slowly forward, facing her across the bed. “Tell me what’s wrong.
Perhaps I should summon Thomas –”
    “No! I mean, please don’t. I don’t want
anyone to get in trouble. But I had to tell you that you’re in
danger.”
    I almost laughed, thinking that perhaps Amy
had put her up to pulling a trick on me after all. But something
about the seriousness and terror in her face stopped me.
    “Then if you won’t tell anyone else, tell
me.”
    “You must promise me that my father won’t get
into trouble.”
    “Your father! What has Senator Misst
done?”
    “Nothing! But I overheard . . .”
    She lowered her voice, and I thought again of
Thomas’ warning that things in this room could be overheard. Was I
the only one who didn’t believe it?
    We leaned across the bed toward each other,
and she whispered, “Yesterday, after I was scolded for tripping
you, my father said a curious thing. And it bothered me.”
    “What did he say?”
    “He said, ‘Soon we will not have to apologize
to anyone from the J’arn Clan.’ And when I asked him what he meant
he got very angry and told me not to repeat what he had said.”
    “That’s it?”
    She nodded. “But it was the way he said it.
And I saw him talking to Regent Parum later, and thought perhaps
they were plotting against you –”
    She looked down.
    “You thought perhaps they were
plotting against me! And heard your father make an off-hand remark
about our two clans, which have never gotten along anyway? That’s it ?” I laughed. “You would have me put your father on trial,
or thrown him in a jail cell, for this?”
    “No!” She looked up at me again, her eyes
very wide. “I would never want my father to get into trouble. But
Amy is always seeing plots, and this was such a strange thing for
my father to say, and if anything ever happened to you I would die
because I love you –”
    She gasped, and put her paws over her mouth.
“Oh! I didn’t mean to say that!”
    I was stunned. I stood up straight, and
stepped back from the bed. Suddenly I didn’t know what to do. I
felt self-conscious and awkward.
    “Perhaps you should go,” I said.
    “Sebastian, please, don’t tell anyone!”
    And then she turned and fled, waking the
guard in the hall, who woke up with a snort.
    It was a long time before I got back to
sleep. The guard was replaced and reprimanded, and I sat staring at
the book of the Old Ones without further interest in it. Finally I
put it back in its hiding place. I lay back in bed with my paws
behind my head, the lamp off, and stared at the ceiling.
    So Charlotte, my sister’s playmate, a rowdy,
loud presence in my life since I was a kit, who, just the day
before, had strung a wire across a hallway to trip me up, was in
love with me. This was a startling and interesting development.
    Those huge brown eyes, that fierce
playfulness, that devilish demeanor, were all hiding a burning
passion for the royal runt, Sebastian of Argyre.
    And she wanted to marry me, not for political
purpose, but