Tanith Lee by Indigara--Or Jet & Otis Conquer the World

Author:Indigara--Or, Jet & Otis Conquer the World [Indigara--Or, Jet & World, Otis Conquer the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-12-12T02:16:59+00:00

Jet’s Journal (cont. VOD)

When I woke up again, I was lying in this enormous room. I stared up and up at the ceiling about eighty feet over my head. It was polished marble like in a museum. Everything was lit by these tall gold lamp holder things, the shape of giant fish standing on their tails, with the glowing lamps clenched in their mouths. There were pillars. And some plants in big vases with perfumed flowers. The couch I was lying on felt like silk, and it was scattered with plum red pillows. Otis was lying on my feet and was staring around like I was.

But everything there was nothing compared to the other thing.

The room was full, wall to wall, floor to ceiling, with water.

You could see through it. Now and then, it gave a little ripple. And now and then, too, some schools of little fish would come swimming through, darting and playing, not seeming bothered about anything. Some even perched on the flowers in the vases. One came up and circled Otis’s head. Otis snorted—never heard him do that before—and the fish took off.

I’d opened my mouth in a gasp of amazement, and when I let my breath out, I realized I’d inhaled the water into my lungs. Then I realized I must have been doing it the whole time and wasn’t uncomfortable. I hadn’t drowned.

I must have looked terrified. Otis put his paw on my knee. He said quietly, “This isn’t real water. That is why it’s breathable. It’s a special effect.”

“I T Supremistics. Imaging. But it feels real … ”

I sat up and swung my legs off the couch. I felt fine, though something must have knocked me out (I hadn’t passed out. I don’t), and I was breathing water. I swooshed my hands about, and ripples wildly sped in all directions. But even weirder, my hair wasn’t swirling about the way it would in ordinary water. Otis’s coat lay flat and tidy. “Look at the lamps,” I added to Otis. (Our voices sounded perfectly normal, too.) “They’re burning, the flames in them are burning in the sea—and they flutter only a bit, as if there’s just a slight breeze …”

There was sudden loud splashing, though, in a big open window across the room. The window showed a background of cascading seaweed, and an old woman who was rushing up through it, splashing.

She was a crazy old woman, too, with spiky, raggedy gray hair standing on end and a long dark epic-movie-type robe. She thrashed her arms and made faces at me. Then she screamed, “Beware the dragon of fire!” And vanished behind the weeds.

I might have discussed this with Otis, but the next second two big doors opened and a couple of girls sort of flew into the room.

They started laughing as soon as they saw me. But, oh my. They had the best hair and all wound through with pearls and shells, and elegant long dresses, and really great makeup, which hadn’t washed off.

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