by Leslie Chase
The driver stepped down to help her out of the vehicle, and she was left standing in front of the imposing doors of Delmonico's restaurant. Now's my last chance to walk away. I can get another cab home and forget about all this.
Lilly knew herself better than that, though. She could no more walk away from this mystery than she could fly. Steeling herself, she approached the door.
The maître d' smiled politely at her, and she took a deep breath to steady herself.
"I'm here to meet, ah, Mr. Jaranak," she told him, suddenly unsure that would be the name he'd have used. But the maître d's smile broadened and he bowed, gesturing for her to follow him.
The restaurant was impressive, and so were the patrons — Lilly was left feeling distinctly under-dressed as she was lead through the main room. But she needn't have worried about standing out, because the man she was coming to meet was drawing all the attention. Seated at a table near the back wall, Jaranak stood as he saw her approaching. He looked magnificent in his new suit, but his blue skin marked him and while no one was so rude as to stare, many glances were being thrown in his direction.
If that bothered him, he didn't show any sign. Bowing slightly to Lilly, he welcomed her to his table and held her chair for her to sit down.
"I am sorry about all the attention," he said quietly as she glanced around. Their table was as private a setting as possible in the public restaurant, but that wasn't saying much. "They offered me a private room, of course, but that would have defeated the point of a public meeting. I wanted to be sure you'd feel safe."
Lilly laughed at that. "Don't apologize, being seen is the point. And if I have to make a scene here, I will."
He nodded. "I've no doubt of it. Anyone willing to go as far as you have for the truth isn't likely to be deterred by a little fuss if needed."
A waiter appeared with menus, and Lilly glanced at hers. It was overwhelming: most of the dishes were out of her price range completely, and several she didn't even recognize. A helpless glance at Jaranak let her see him frowning down at it as well.
"I don't know what half of this is," she whispered to him. He laughed.
"You know better than I do, I barely read the language." Putting down the menu, he shook his head. "Bah! I'll not be defeated by this. One moment."
Waving over a waiter, Jaranak handed back his menu. "I am a visitor from a far kingdom, and do not know your foods as well as you will. Choose for us, please."
The waiter smiled and nodded, seeming to think that only sensible. He glanced at Lilly, but she simply nodded, glad to have the choice taken out of her hands. With that confirmation he took her menu and vanished.
"Your commitment to your role is... strange," Lilly said. Jaranak shook his head.
"It's not a role, at least not the way you think," he told her. "I really don't know your customs, or your foods for that matter. Though I am enjoying learning about them."
"I'm not sure I see how you expect to convince me," she told him. "I know for a fact that your story isn't true. You're not from the South Seas."
"You're right about that," he admitted. "But how can you be so certain?"
"My parents were explorers, and they traveled there extensively," Lilly said, shrugging uncomfortably. "They met several cultures that were previously undiscovered, and I've read about them all. Your stories don't fit, and the language you and your friends speak isn't related to any of the languages in the area."
Jaranak smiled, sipping water from a glass before responding. "Ah. then you are well educated. And I can't fault your reasoning. But is there no way that they could have missed an island?"
That question made no sense to Lilly. Of course they could have, there could be any number of small islands in the vast expanse of the ocean that simply hadn't been discovered yet. But Jaranak didn't seem to be making a rhetorical point, he was genuinely curious, and Lilly wasn't sure how he could not know that.
"That's not the point," she said with a frown. "Even if you were from a completely unknown island, you'd likely speak a language related to a known one. I might not be able to speak it, but I'd recognize it. And, at that, your grasp of English is far too good for someone who's only recently encountered it."
Jaranak's nod was thoughtful, and he pursed his lips. He looked disappointed in himself, more than anything else. "Ah. Yes, you spotted that right away, didn't you? I should have realized sooner that would be a problem."
The conversation paused briefly as the fish course arrived, the waiter setting down their plates and pouring wine for both of them. Both Lilly and Jaranak turned their attention to the food, and it was well worth it. Lilly had rarely eaten something so good, and a quick glance at her host showed that he was savoring every bite.
It couldn't distract her for long, though, and as they ate Lilly organized her objections.
"Then there are the animal pelts you've sold," she said. "Some of them might be real, of course. The feathers were perfectly believable, there could be any kind of birds out there. But a big cat with horns? No. It's a good fake, but it must be a fake. Aside from anything else, it would need a big range and that makes an undiscovered island rather unlikely."
Another nod from Jaranak, and a sigh. He didn't seem to be inclined to argue, and gestured for her to go on.
"And then there's blue paint thing," Lilly continued, warming to her theme. "It's exotic, of course, but it's also ridiculous. So overdone, especially with all your men wearing it too. For ceremonial purposes it might work, but everyday you're out in public like this? No."
He surprised her by laughing at that. "I couldn't do much about that if I tried, I'm afraid. It was the best lie we could come up with."
"Because under the paint you're too obviously not from where you're claiming to be?"
"No. Because it's not paint."
Lilly blinked, feeling her forehead crinkle into a frown. She looked at him again, more carefully. They were close enough to touch, now, and unlike last time she wasn't in fear of her life. She could see the details, like the fact that the blue of his skin didn't seem to end at his hairline, and was seamless around his eyes and mouth. Indeed, those piercing golden eyes that looked at her so intensely were impossibly natural too. No one had eyes like that.
That's not possible... is it? It has to be makeup. Good makeup, put on professionally? But even in the theater, the makeup wasn't seen so close up.
His hair. It's not black, it's very dark blue. That was the strangest thing. Why would someone bother with that detail? From a distance it was unnoticeable, and close up it simply looked wrong.
Swallowing, Lilly sat back and put down her knife and fork.
"That's both hard to believe and hard to doubt," she said, keeping her voice level with an effort. She wasn't sure what he was building up to, but it had to be something big.
He nodded. "I will tell you, but first you must promise that you will keep the secret."
"I give you my word." She couldn't refuse. After all this, she had to know.
His golden eyes flashed and he smiled slightly.
"Very well, then. I am a foreign dignitary, of sorts, but from a lot further away than I let on. I come from another world, and am trying to get home."
Lilly gave him a hard look. "After all this, you want to treat me to another lie? One that's even less believable than the story you've already been telling? You can do better than that, Jaranak, or whatever your name really is."
This time his sigh was weary. "Jaranak is my name. Jaranak Avi-Stronar Kra Vost, if you want the whole thing. I'm even a prince, or at least that's a reasonable translation of the title — my father is the leader of my people, and I'll inherit his position. If, that is, I can get off this damned planet and make it home."
The frustration in his voice made him more convincing, somehow. Lilly shook her head. The story was ridiculous, but it was so ridiculous that she had to admit he could almost certainly have come up with something more believable. Did that make it more likely that the
story was true?
She couldn't bring herself to believe it, but his tired acceptance of that was more compelling than any impassioned defense would have been.
"Do you seriously expect me to believe that you're one of Mr. Wells' men from another world?" she asked, trying to keep her voice down. "A man from Mars, is it?"
"I don't know who this Mr. Wells is," Jaranak answered. "I come from considerably further away than Mars, though. My home is around another star, far towards the center of the galaxy."
"Then what are you doing here? Why are you on Earth?"
"Why did your parents travel the South Seas?" he answered her question with a question. Lilly's answer was interrupted by the arrival of the next course, a fillet of beef prepared in a wonderful sauce. Under other circumstances it would have commanded Lilly's undivided attention. Now she just wanted the waiter out of the way so that she could continue this infuriating conversation.
"You're an explorer, then? We're some untouched island to you?" she asked when the waiter left. Jaranak nodded.
"Not quite untouched, but yes. Another explorer arrived a little while ago and crashed somewhere near this city. We're here to find and rescue her, except that our own ship crashed too. So now we're looking for our colleague and trying to repair our ship."
It was the simple conviction with which he said these things that kept Lilly listening. He didn't sound like he was trying to convince her of something, just telling her the truth. The truth as he saw it, at least. She couldn't decide whether he was lying, crazy, or (just possibly) telling the truth.
She distracted herself from the question with the food, and that proved to be an excellent choice. The first bite took her mind off everything else with its delicious flavor. They both paused to give the meal their full attention, which the perfectly cooked beef deserved. It was only when they were finished that Lilly laid down her fork and looked up at Jaranak again.
"Say that I believe you," she started. "I don't of course, but say that I do. What does that change? You're still deceiving people."
Jaranak looked away, a little discomfort showing on his strong features. "You're right, of course. But what choice do I have? I am responsible for myself and my crew. And Hrail's, if any of them are still alive. I wanted to make as small an impact as possible while we repair our ship and then get out of here."
"Taking advantage of people isn't the way to go about that."
He sighed. It was the sound of a tired man, unhappy with the choices he was making — or that's what Lilly read into it. Is that real, or is it what I want to hear? She wasn't sure.
"I wish I could avoid it, I honestly do. But it's not as though I am selling them fakes. In fact, the pelts they are buying are rarer and more exotic than they know — they come from a dozen different worlds."
Sipping her glass of wine, Lilly thought about that. It was crazy to consider that it might be true, but she had to admit that she had no way to disprove it. Did it make any difference if people were buying pelts of an animal from a distant island or a distant star?
This was all too confusing. It couldn't be true, of course it couldn't, but it was consistent and fitted the facts that she'd learned. Lilly's mother had taught her to judge things by the facts, not by what seemed plausible, and using that logic here meant taking Jaranak's claims seriously. No matter how outlandish they were.
The waiter was back with a lemon sorbet for dessert, and once again she let that distract her. Better to focus on the food than to have her mind spin in circles chasing an answer she couldn't find.
But the sorbet, delicious as it was, couldn't occupy her for long. Pushing the empty bowl away, Lilly took a deep breath.
"Okay, I don't believe you but I do have to admit I don't know what else to believe."
"Does that mean that you'll give me your information? I've told you my story, after all."
Now it was her turn to sigh. She'd almost forgotten that bargaining chip, but was it time to give it up?
"Not quite yet," she said. "There is one thing that you can do to convince me, if your story is true. Show me your spaceship."
Was that a flicker of doubt on his face? Lilly leaned forward, trying to read the man. It wasn't easy, but she thought he wasn't comfortable with the idea. That was the first thing that made her doubt whether he believed his impossible story.
Which meant, in turn, that she definitely wanted to see his ship.
Putting down his spoon with a careful, deliberate movement, Jaranak watched her. Reluctantly, he nodded.
"That's not a small thing," he said. "It's true that the ship would be convincing, but there's a lot of risk in me letting anyone see it."
"I'm already taking a risk by talking to you," Lilly pointed out. "And while I'm willing to listen to your story, I don't believe it. Not yet, not without some kind of proof."
For a moment she thought they'd reached the limit of the conversation. That Jaranak wouldn't move on this point, and the evening would end there. Lilly was surprised by how much she didn't want that to happen. It wasn't just that she wanted to know more, that she wanted actual answers that she could believe. She was also enjoying spending time with Jaranak, and the back and forth between the two of them.
She didn't want the evening to end.
Perhaps Jaranak didn't, either. Or perhaps he weighed the risks more dispassionately than that. Lilly wasn't sure what prompted his nod, but once his decision was made he committed to it.
"Very well, I will take you there now," he said. "It's in the South Street Seaport, not far from here."
Lilly raised an eyebrow at that. Docked in the port for all to see? That was hard for her to imagine. Jaranak laughed. "It's disguised, of course. Hidden inside the ship we sailed here. I suspect you're thinking of something larger than you'll find, in any case. This is not exactly one of your ocean liners."
Now she had more doubts. How could a vessel that sailed between the stars be smaller than one that sailed for Europe? I suppose I'll see soon enough, she thought as he waved for a waiter.
Stepping outside into the cool evening air, Lilly walked alongside Jaranak towards the port. It really wasn't far, and Lilly wondered if he'd had this in mind from the start. Or perhaps he simply didn't want to be far from his ship?
It was only as she considered those thoughts that she realized that she had begun to treat his story as true. Frowning, she looked up at him as they walked, not entirely happy that she'd been taken in. But his casual sincerity was hard to doubt.
If he is a con man, then he deserves some success, she thought. He's selling an unbelievable story extremely well.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement. That wasn't strange, there were plenty of people out on the street, but there was something about it that drew her eye. Something that called her attention away from her questions.
Trying not to be obvious about it, she glanced back. There! A little behind them, far enough back to be hard to spot, she saw the man who'd threatened her and Margaret. She was sure it was him, though his hat was pulled low to cover his face — he'd made enough of an impression on their first meeting.
"I think we're being followed," she said quietly to Jaranak. He nodded.
"He's been behind us since we left the restaurant," he told her, just as quietly. "I know the feeling of being hunted."
Taking her arm, he steered her down an alleyway. Now that she knew they were being followed, she could feel the tension in him, a certain readiness for action that made her feel better and worse at the same time.
His steps sped up as soon as they were out of their pursuer's sight, and she hurried to keep up. But before they could reach the far end of the quiet alley, two men stepped out in front of them. Both were heavily built, and one carried a revolver in plain view. He didn't point it at them, but the threat was clear.
"You don't make any quick moves," his companion said conversationally. "Our boss wants a word, that's all. Come along quietly and no one gets hurt."
&nb
sp; "Your boss can come and talk to me at my hotel in the morning," Jaranak said coldly. "I am enjoying a walk with my lady friend here. Get out of our way."
Lilly resisted the urge to hide behind him. If he could stare down these thugs then so could she, though she felt a tremor of fear run through her. Footsteps behind them told her that the other man had caught up. Had he driven them into a trap? If so, he was better at this than he seemed.
The two men in front of them seemed amused by Jaranak's defiance. "When the boss wants you, the boss wants you," the spokesman said, and his friend raised the revolver to aim at Lilly. "We don't want the hassle of cleaning up a body, but hey, if you make us shoot her that's on you."
Lilly gulped, looking down the barrel of the gun. When the man had threatened her before it hadn't quite felt real. This was much more immediate, and fear paralyzed her. All she could do was stare at the gaping barrel, which seemed large enough to fit a train down.
Beside her she felt Jaranak tense. Anger radiated off him as he stepped forward with careful, deliberate slowness to stand between her and the gun.
"The girl has nothing to do with this, whatever this is," he said. "Let her go and I'll come with you."
The man laughed. "I don't think so. If you're willing to take a bullet for her, she's worth keeping around. Now turn around, slowly, and we'll head back to the car. Understand?"
Jaranak's shoulders stiffened, and Lilly felt faint with fear and rage. How dare these people try to use her as a bargaining chip? But the biggest surprise was that it seemed to be working — Jaranak turned as they'd told him to, his face a controlled mask of fury.
"I'm sorry, Lilly," he said as they began to walk back towards the busier street. "I didn't want to get you involved in this."
What do you have to apologize for? Lilly wanted to ask. It wasn't him who'd pulled a gun on her, that was the responsibility of the men behind her. And it wasn't as though he'd dragged her into this mess. She'd done that to herself.