"Floreste shows a few perplexing incidents, then comes out on the;
stage to demand money, and no one even laughs at him."
The orchestra had begun to gather in preparation for the Grand , Masque. Glawen said: "The first dance is always the "Courtesy Pavane'y';
they're almost ready to start and I must step it off with Sessiiy, even ^ though I don't like leaving you alone.
Perhaps you'll join the dance?"!
Wayness looked at Milo, but found no encouragement.
"I
think| we'll just sit here and watch." ^ "Sessily has probably finished changing from her wings," said^ Glawen.
"We've arranged a place to meet, and if you'll excuse me, I'lll go wait for her."
Glawen went to the designated rendezvous and stationed turns where he could look along the passageway which led both back st and to the kitchens.
At the moment the results of the wine competitions were announced from the stage. As usual, the Wook winery took the) award for overall excellence and the single best wine, with other ho winning awards for special products, such as Clattuc House's Zoquel.
The announcements were completed. The orchestra began to tune and along the Quadrangle couples took their places for the "Courtesy Pa vane." Since Wook House had won the award, the place of honor went to Wook Housemaster Ouskar Wook and Ignatzia, his spouse.
Glawen became restive. Where was Sessily? If she did not hurry, they would miss the start of the pavane ... Could there have been a mistake in the rendezvous? He thought back over the conversation. Directly behind him stood the bass violist, with his imposing instrument.
Glawen caught sight of Miranda and called to her. She ran up bubbling with excitement.
"Did you see me, Glawen? I was the number three imp--the one who was killed by the wisselrode bug."
"Certainly I saw you. You died with great pathos. Where is Sessily?"
Miranda peered down the passageway.
"I haven't seen her. Our dressing rooms are different. We've got just a little closet backstage;
Sessily has what is called the Ladies' Dressing Room, out along the dock past the kitchen."
"Would you go see if you can find her? Tell her to hurry or we'll miss the pavane."
Miranda paused only an instant, to ask: "If she's sick do you still want her to dance?"
"No, of course not! Just find her. I'll wait here in case she shows up."
Miranda ran off. Five minutes later she returned.
"Sessily is not in the dressing room, and the maid says she hasn't been there. She's nowhere along the way."
"Could she have gone home? Where is your mother?"
"She's stepping the pavane with my father. Glawen, I'm frightened. Where can she be?"
"We'll find out. How are your parents dressed?"
"Mother's the Sea Queen: see her there in green? Father is the Dombrasian Knight."
Glawen went out on the dance area, and accosted Carlus and Felice Veder where they performed the ritual measures of the pavane. Addressing Carlus Veder, Glawen said: "Sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but we can't find Sessily. She was to step the pavane with me, but she never came out from backstage, and she's not there now."
"Come, let's go look!"
A search revealed no trace of Sessily, nor was she discovered later, even though the grounds were carefully examined. Sessily was gone, without a trace of her going.
An aura of tragic glamour surrounded the disappearance of Sessily Veder. Standing high on the pedestal, face exalted, body taut, wings and arms raised in farewell salute, the girl-butterfly became an image of primordial glory, and never would anyone present recall the occasion without feeling an eerie thrill along the nerves of his or her back.
A frantic search revealed no trace of Sessily; it was as if she had been whisked away into another dimension. Araminta Station was then examined again, more thoroughly, with no better result.
Everyone immediately supposed that she had been carried away in a flyer, but records at the spaceport revealed that neither flyer nor space vehicle had used the sky above Araminta Station during the critical period.
Perhaps, then, a boat or a surface vehicle had been used to carry her away? A similarly explicit assurance could not be made; still, when cars, trucks, vans and power wagons were checked, all were found to^e in their accustomed places, and no one reported suspicious movements. As for boats, such employment downstream of the Or- pheum--which was to say, parallel to Wansey Way--would have been instantly conspicuous, and could be ruled out upstream by reason of the reeds which fringed the riverbank. Forcing a boat to shore through the reeds or the transport of a body out to a boat would have left obvious and unmistakable traces. The same could be said for the possibility of carrying a body into the river, so that it might drift downstream and out to sea.
Mysteries of this son were rare at Araminta Station though not unknown. The typical victim might be a Yip girl who had resisted a conventional seduction, with unhappy consequences." The perpetrator, upon definite identification, was forthwith hanged, or, at his own option, dropped into the ocean a hundred miles offshore.
Crimes at Araminta Station, or anywhere about Deucas, were invea";
tigated by agents of Bureau B, an IPCC affiliate.2 Director of Bureaff||
' Almost any Yip girl would willingly perform sexual services if the remuneratioilt^ were adequate.
(Knowledgeable consensus held the money to be wasted, by reason tffc'H apathy.) In Yipton, a place called Pussycat Palace had been set aside for the amuse nit l|| of tourists;
