Skeleton Key by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2021-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Worse Coming

Squid woke, feeling a malaise. She wasn’t sure what it was, as she was generally immune to human ailments.

Larry was still holding her hand. “Squid! Your hand is like ice!”

“I’m not human,” she reminded him. “When humans get sick they tend to run a fever; my kind tends to run a chill. It’s our way of freezing out bad bugs.”

“Is it serious?”

“I’m not sure. A chill is a reaction, not a cause.”

“I don’t want you sick.”

She looked at him. “We’re a couple of convenience. You shouldn’t be concerned.”

“We may not be a true couple,” he said. “But we’ve already been through a fair amount together, and understand each other well. I do care about you, more than incidentally. What can I do to help you?”

She was touched. “Maybe Tata can classify it.”

“Tata!” he said immediately, and in a moment and a half the dogfish was there, screen flashing, the peeve perched on his shoulder.

“It is a tentacular virus,” the peeve translated. “It tends to get in when her kind is over-stressed.”

Squid had been under plenty of stress recently.

“Do you have a treatment?” Larry asked, his worry evident.

“Not aboard this vessel. It’s a specialty order. By the time we get it in, she will likely have recovered on her own. She will have to suffer through a siege.”

“Is it serious?”

The screen flashed again.

“That depends. Usually hallucinations are impressive but harmless.”

“Hallucinations!”

“It’s all right’” Squid said. “I have had them before. They normally fade when the chill does.”

“We should warm her!”

“No,” the peeve said. “The chill is her nature’s way of dealing with the infection. We don’t want to interfere.”

“We just have to let her suffer?”

“In the absence of proper medication, yes.”

“Bleep!”

Squid smiled wanly. “Thank you for caring, Larry. I should get by.”

Then a panel opened in the wall of the cabin. Beyond it she saw a lovely garden path.

The others in the cabin faded out. She was alone with her vision.

Well, almost. Larry squeezed her hand. She didn’t see him, but she felt him, her contact with reality. “I’m going with you.”

She laughed. “On a hallucination? Let it be.”

“We were together on the simulation. We can do it on the hallucination.”

“You’re crazy!”

“Do I have to kiss you to make you listen?”

She laughed again. “Don’t do that. Tata and the peeve would not understand.”

“We’ll bring them along too.”

He was determined. “As you wish. But it may be a pretty dull excursion.”

He maintained his hold on her hand so she could not tune him out. “Just tell us what you see.”

“I see a panel in the wall, opening to a lovely garden path. I’m going there.”

“Right with you.”

She moved up to the open panel and stepped through to the path. “Now I am in the garden. I am breathing its myriad intriguing scents.”

“Continue.”

“A cluster of red berries is catching my attention. I am picking one and eating it. I like it, so am eating a second, then a third.”

“Good appetite.”

“And I feel myself rapidly changing, my clothing emulation shredding, leaving me nude.”

“Oops, Tata says those must be elderberries, aging you,” the peeve said.

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