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the food from rotting and poison.”
    Interesting. I wondered if it actually worked.
    The next room was the ballroom. I looked around, noticing details I’d missed before, distracted as I was by the fight between Fiona and Dane. The floor was wood instead of the marble that seemed to have been laid through most of the rest of the first story. There was a large musicians’ alcove at one end. The walls were vaguely reflective. On the ceiling was a chandelier so large I couldn’t help thinking it was destined to fall. On the east side of the room were a line of smaller rooms where guests would rest and refresh themselves in privacy.
    The next room had a huge piano in it, a bass fiddle, and some music stands. “Do either of you play any instruments?” Dane asked.
    We both shook our heads.
    “I always thought it strange you didn’t play anything,” Taro said to me. “Music affects you so powerfully.”
    That was a polite way of saying music could make me act like an idiot. Shields tended to be sensitive to music, to the point that a martial air could make us violent, or a love song make us willing to sleep with someone we normally wouldn’t go near. I was more sensitive than most. That was the reason I didn’t play anything. It would be particularly embarrassing if I caused myself to be stupid with my own music.
    “Fiona and I can’t play anything, either. Maybe we can get Stacin started on something. It seems a shame to leave such a beautiful room unused.” Then it was through a hallway and into what could only be a library. The room smelled of leather, the furniture brown and comfortable looking, with stacks upon stacks of books.
    “Oh, no, we’ll never get her out of here,” Taro muttered.
    Dane chuckled. “Fiona said you’re fond of books.”
    Then Taro must have told her that, for I never did. I wondered why they’d be discussing me. “I am.”
    “You’ll be interested in this.” He opened a drawer and handed me a small book, the cover made of a hard substance I wasn’t familiar with. It opened with a crack and the paper felt unlike any paper I’d seen before, very slippery. And the words . . . “I can’t recognize this writing.”
    Dane grinned. “We found it in one of the caves in the cliffs. The cliffs have shifted some because of the earthquakes. We’ve written to Academic Alex Reid. Have you heard of him?”
    I nodded. He was a noted linguist and historian.
    “He’s written back. He says he thinks this book is from the Landing.”
    I stared at him. Seriously? The Landing? When our ancestors traveled from somewhere in the stars to our world with incredible machines that had all been rendered useless and destroyed by natural disasters? That Landing?
    My awe must have shown on my face, because he laughed and gently plucked the book out of my hand. “You’re free to look at it at any time. I just ask that you don’t take it out of the library and you always return it to this drawer.” And he put it back in the drawer.
    Damn the tour. I wanted to look at the book and see if I could figure out some of the words.
    “Reid has agreed to come and look at the book, tell us what it says.”
    I would have the chance to meet Alex Reid?
    “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so excited about anything,” Taro commented with amusement.
    I closed my mouth in an attempt to look less foolish.
    Dane laughed and led us out of the library and back up the stairs.
    The second story held the titleholder’s huge study, with almost as many books as the library, a receiving room for the titleholder’s spouse, private rooms for the butler and housekeeper, and rows of guest bedchambers. Aside from the books in the study, there was nothing of interest on that floor.
    The third floor was purely for the family’s bedrooms. These were all larger than the bedrooms on the second floors, all of them with private sitting rooms, dressing rooms and water closets. They were similar to our suites in the Triple S residence