Still, I thought it best to give her a fake name. I said, "I'm Lady Tam Tam, and this is my servant girl, Allie the Wench." I might have grinned.
"I see," said Queen Autumn. "And from where doth thou hail, Lady Tam Tam?"
"I haileth frometh-"
Too much, Sam, thought Allie.
I tried again. "We hail from the County of Oranges," I said.
"The County of Oranges?" she said. "And where is this county? I have not heard of such a place."
"It is nestled along the western shores, Your Highness. Famous for its beaches, babes, and plastic surgeons."
Sam! hissed Allie in my mind.
"Plastic surgeons?" asked the queen.
"It is a special type of wizard, Your Highness, trained in the dark arts of reducing age and enlarging breasts."
"Mayhap I would like to visit such a surgeon. I have surely aged a decade or two in these past few weeks alone."
"Weeks?" I asked, confused.
"Yes. Two weeks ago to this day, my baby girl was taken from me."
I considered. What had been two weeks for her, was four months for us, since Charlie had last put pen to paper, as the writers of old used to say. Then again, it would make sense that her world hadn't kept pace with our world. Why should it? Charlie could sit down and simply start the story where he had left off, with no time elapsing in their world at all.
I said to the queen, "It is why we are here, Your Highness."
She put a hand to her chest. "I do not understand."
I took in some air, and noted it was clean and fresh and no doubt suffused with the right amount of oxygen. A good thing because otherwise, Allison wouldn't have made it this far. She glanced at me and nodded. It hadn't occurred to me to worry about such a thing, but it had worried Allison. Of course, I wouldn't have known it worried Allison, since she kept me blocked from her thoughts these days.
Focus, Sam, she intoned in my thoughts.
I nodded, released the breath, looked straight into Queen Autumn's beautiful eyes, and said, "God has heard your prayers, Your Highness. And He sent us to help."
Chapter Twenty-nine
She stared at us.
We were certainly stare-worthy. I was dressed in a black tee-shirt with the words: "Think Pink" scrawled in pseudo-lipstick across the chest. My distressed jeans had stylish tears in the knees. Viewed from her regal perspective, they undoubtedly looked anything but stylish. My sneakers glittered with silver and were as cute as cute could be. But to a princess, they might have looked, well, enchanted.
Allison was dressed in an unbuttoned maroon flannel shirt, with a black tank top underneath. Her jeans were black, as were her silver-tipped black boots. Allison tended to dress a bit bleaker-
Insert stylish, came her words.
-than me. One would think she was the vampire and I was the nerdy telephone hotline psychic.
Hey!
Ignoring Allison, I said to the queen, "We dress unusually in the County of Oranges."
"I would say so. Although, I do find your attire rather intriguing. Mayhap I could try on a pair of similar trousers?"
"Er, mayhap," I said, and wondered if Charlie could write in a village Gap store. Le Gappe Shoppe?
"And you are really here in answer to my prayers?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"And the Good Lord sent you?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"All the way from the County of Oranges?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"And you heard the Lord's call?"
"We did, yes."
Her eyes narrowed. "You are close to the Lord?"
"I am, in a way."
"You are a sort of priestess then?"
I did my best to remember if this land approved of priestesses or not, but couldn't remember. "In the sense that I have direct communication with the Creator, then, yes, you could say that I'm a priestess."
She nodded. "And how did you get past the guards?"
I glanced at the open wardrobe, which, from this side of the room, looked far more intricate and immaculate than I could have imagined.
She said, "You hailed from the wardrobe?"
"I did, Your Highness."
"Then you are from the Creator?"
"Like I said, he sent us in response to your prayers."
"To find my baby?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
She took in some air, and summoned an inner courage that I doubted even I could find within myself, in such a situation. "Then my fate, my life, my hope, my everything is in your hands."
I next did something that surprised even me, and sure as heck surprised her. I reached out and drew her in tight, and hugged her harder than I had any right to, but I didn't care. She sank into me almost immediately, and soon hot tears flowed down my neck.