Page 44 of North Queen
“Go inside your mind,” he continued. “Imagine yourself sitting in a room.”
She imagined herself as she was now, sitting on a floor cushion in Nemus’s home.
“You must see it in your mind,” he told her. “The room. Do you see it?”
Norah focused on the visual. “Yes,” she said.
“Don’t be alarmed,” he told her.
Why would she be alarmed? There was a faint flutter around her, and suddenly she saw a man before her in her mind. Norah startled, and Nemus chuckled.
“Happens to everyone the first time.” He was younger, much younger, and he gave her a small smile.
“Is this how you are in this world?” she asked him.
“I am however I want to be.” His words were different now, not heard by her ears but from inside her head. “I project into your mind, and I can control how you see me.”
“Are you able to be someone else?” she asked from inside.
Nemus frowned. “If I know the intricacies of their looks, yes. But I prefer being myself.” He glanced around, noting that the room was his own. “This looks familiar,” he told her, and she gave an awkward smile.
He reached out his hand. “Come,” he said. “Let’s walk around, shall we?”
She took his hand and stood, and suddenly the cushions they had been sitting on were gone. Norah looked around the room and noticed a series of doors. There were more than there had been before. He motioned to one, and they went to it. He pushed it open, and they stepped inside. It was her chamber in the castle.
Nemus turned, looking all around him. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the castle, any part of it. This is your room today?”
She looked at the ornate bed and the west-facing windows. “Yes.”
He nodded. “Let’s try another.” He led her back to the door they had come through, but instead of opening back up to the room in Nemus’s home, it opened into the small homestead that she and Alexander had sheltered in before coming to Mercia, where she’d slept on the bed by the fire while Alexander kept watch by the door.
The walls fell away now, and she followed Nemus through what seemed to be stages of her memories. One after the other she saw: meeting her grandmother, meeting the council, Alexander taking her through the library.
Nemus shook his finger at the lord justice and sighed with a crease in his brow. “That boy is everywhere in here,” he said as he looked around her memories.
Norah couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped her. Nemus looked young, but he had the vexation of an old man.
“He’s been a large part of my time back,” she admitted.
“And in your long-term memories, judging by the clarity.”
In her memories… Where?
He looked around again, and Norah noted a wall with another door. Nemus reached out to push it open but was met with resistance. A look of confusion flashed across his face, and he pushed on the door more firmly. It still didn’t move.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“It won’t open.”
Obviously.“Why won’t it open?”
He looked at her. “It’syourdoor.Youput it there.”
“What do you meanIput it there?”
“Mind workers can’t put things into your mind like this, not permanently.” He sighed. “Let’s try together.” They both reached out and put their weight against the door, but it wouldn’t budge.
Suddenly, Nemus fell to his knees, as if something had struck him. He disappeared from her mind, and Norah opened her eyes. They were once again back in Nemus’s home, sitting on the cushions.
