Ruler of the Realm

One hundred and two

Henry stared at him. ‘How do you know Blue’s been implanted?’

‘You just told me,’ Mr Fogarty said.

‘I wasn’t under,’ Henry said.

‘Oh yes you were, sunshine – deepest trance I’ve ever seen. You’ll remember soon – I gave you the suggestion, but it sometimes takes a minute or two to kick in.’

‘But you were right, Henry,’ Madame Cardui said.

She must have joined them while he was in a trance. It was spooky: he hadn’t even noticed. He licked his lips.

‘Right?’ he echoed.

‘The story about Beleth wanting you to mate with Blue, deeah. It was all a nonsense.’

‘It was?’ Henry asked. There were maybe about a hundred more appropriate emotions at this moment, but the one he actually felt was relief.

Madame Cardui smiled. ‘Just a story they implanted in Blue’s head and yours to distract us from the invasion.’

‘None of it really happened?’ Henry asked. But Mr Fogarty was right. He was beginning to get little flashes now. ‘I wasn’t put in a bedroom with Blue?’

‘No.’

‘I didn’t kill a demon?’

Mr Fogarty snorted. ‘Thought that was a bit farfetched from the start.’

Madame Cardui said kindly, ‘I expect you could easily have killed a demon, deeah, but none of it actually happened. Blue didn’t kill hers either – she didn’t have her stimlus with her. Those were all false memories.’

‘So I didn’t kidnap Blue?’

‘You kidnapped Blue all right,’ Mr Fogarty said. ‘The way it worked was Beleth had you kidnapped and implanted. Then they programmed you to kidnap Blue and implanted her as well. The business about the demons breeding half-human babies is true enough, but it won’t work in the Realm – the DNA is too dissimilar. But they gave you and Blue the same false memories and sent you back as a distraction from their real plans. Cunning little ploy.’

It was coming back to him now, exactly as Mr Fogarty said. He could remember the implant and the creepy, slimy feeling as black-eyed demons in white lab coats carefully layered the false memories into his brain. He started to feel guilty about the kidnap all over again. Because of him, Blue’s brain had been tinkered with as well. The thought of it left him agitated. Actually quite a lot agitated.

‘You have to get that thing removed,’ he said.

‘My deeah, it’s already been removed. That’s why you lost your memory completely.’

‘Not me,’ Henry said urgently. ‘Blue. You have to take the thing out of her head.’

‘Blue’s asleep now,’ Madame Cardui told him. ‘I shall make arrangements to have her implant removed first thing in the morning when she’s rested. Then Alan can hypnotise her too and restore her proper memories.’

‘No, now!’ Henry insisted. He wasn’t quite sure why, but it was vital they removed the implant at once.

‘Henry, deeah, what’s wrong?’

He didn’t know what was wrong, but he could feel the panic with a vengeance. They couldn’t wait until morning because if they waited until morning -

He didn’t know what would happen if they waited until morning. Something bad would happen, but he didn’t know what. Something bad would happen to Blue. Something bad would happen to the Realm. The panic was so strong now he could no longer sit still. He pushed himself out of the chair.

‘Henry -’ Mr Fogarty said.

‘Something bad -’ Henry began. Then the memories flooded back and he stopped, his eyes wide. ‘Oh my God!’ he said. He launched himself abruptly through the door.

‘Henry, what’s wrong?’ Madame Cardui called after him.

But Henry was already outside, running full tilt towards the Purple Palace.