"Ye'd hypnotize me?"
"Aye ... and I don't think it would be for the first time." He made the shell dance a bit faster - now east along his rippling knuckles, now west. "May I?"
"Aye," she said. "If you can."
12
He could, all right; the speed with which she went under confirmed that this had happened to Susan before, and recently. Yet he couldn't get what lie wanted from her. She was perfectly cooperative (some sleep eager, fort would have said), but beyond a certain point she would not go. It wasn't decorum or modesty, either - as she slept open-eyed before the stream, she told him in a far-off but calm voice about the old woman's examination, and the way Rhea had tried to "fiddle her up." (At this Poland's fists clenched so tightly his nails bit into his palms.) But there came a point where she could no longer remember.
She and Rhea had gone to the door of the hut, Susan said, and there they had stood with the Kissing Moon shining down on their faces. The old woman had been touching her hair, Susan remembered that much. The touch revolted her, especially after the witch's previous touches, but Susan had been unable to do anything about it. Arms too heavy to raise; tongue too heavy to speak. She could only stand there while the witch whispered in her ear.
"What?" Roland asked. "What did she whisper?"
"I don't know," Susan said. "The rest is pink."
"Pink? What do you mean?"
"Pink," she repeated. She sounded almost amused, as if she believed Roland was being deliberately dense. "She says, 'Aye, lovely, just so, it's a good girl y'are,' then everything's pink. Pink and bright."
"Bright."
"Aye, like the moon. And then . . ." She paused. "Then I think it becomes the moon. The Kissing Moon, mayhap. A bright pink Kissing Moon, as round and full as a grapefruit."
He tried other ways into her memory with no success - every path he tried ended in that bright pinkness, first obscuring her recollection and then coalescing into a full moon. It meant nothing to Roland; he'd heard of blue moons, but never pink ones. The only thing of which he was sure was that the old woman had given Susan a powerful command to forget.
He considered taking her deeper - she would go - but didn't dare. Most of his experience came from hypnotizing his friends - classroom exercises that were larky and occasionally spooky. Always there had been Cort or Vannay present to make things right if they went off-track. Now there were no teachers to step in; for better or worse, the students had been left in charge of the school. What if he took her deep and couldn't get her back up again? And he had been told there were demons in the below-mind as well. If you went down to where they were, they sometimes swam out of their caves to meet you . . .
All other considerations aside, it was getting late. It wouldn't be prudent to stay here much longer.
"Susan, do you hear me?"
"Aye, Roland, I hear you very well."
"Good. I'm going to say a rhyme. You'll wake up as I say it. When I'm done, you'll be wide awake and remember everything we've said. Do you understand?"
"Aye."
"Listen: Bird and bear and hare and fish, Give my love her fondest wish."
Her smile as she rose to consciousness was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. She stretched, then put her arms around his neck and covered his face with kisses. "You, you, you, you," she said. "You're my fondest wish, Roland. You're my only wish. You and you, forever and ever."
They made love again there on the bank, beside the babbling stream, holding each other as tightly as they could, breathing into each other's mouths and living on each other's breath. You, you, you, you.
13
Twenty minutes later, he boosted her onto Felicia's back. Susan leaned down, took his face in her hands, and kissed him soundly.
"When will I see ye again?" she asked.
"Soon. But we must be careful."
"Aye. Careful as two lovers ever were, I think. Thank God thee's clever."
"We can use Sheemie, if we don't use him too often."
"Aye. And, Roland - do ye know the pavilion in Green Heart? Close to where they serve tea and cakes and things when the weather's fair?"
Roland did. Fifty yards or so up Hill Street from the jail and the Town Gathering Hall, Green Heart was one of the most pleasant places in town, with its quaint paths, umbrella-shaded tables, grassy dancing pavilion, and menagerie.
"There's a rock wall at the back," she said. "Between the pavilion and the menagerie. If you need me badly - "
"I'll always need you badly," he said.