Inventing a Tinker

Part 5

I awoke again as soon as slumber took me. The beach was gone, as was the sky above. I was in a darkened room, lying on a lumpy mattress. A warm hand rested on my bare chest—but I remembered falling asleep fully clothed. The hand belonged to Jennai, but a different blanket covered us than the one we had on the beach. She shifted in her sleep.

I shrank away from her as best I could while pinned beneath her arm. Wine was no fit excuse for taking advantage of a sweet, innocent girl. Jennai stirred. "Erefan, what's wrong?" she mumbled.

Before she spoke, I was considering slipping out of bed and slinking away like the cur I'd behaved like. But a question jumped from mind to lips before prudence could intercept it. "Who is Erefan?"

Jennai awoke fully. She pushed herself up on one elbow, looming over me with her hair dangling in my face. "Eziel's hand! Cadmus, you made it!"

"Where are we?" I demanded. "Who is Erefan?" My shame boiled away in the fires of freshly kindled anger. If Jennai had some other man, I felt I had a right to know.

"Calm down, Erefan," Jennai cooed, in a vain attempt to soothe me. She placed both hands her on my chest and pushed me down gently as I tried to rise. "You are Cadmus. You are also Erefan. This is more than a little confusing, I know. Take it slowly. What's the last thing you remember?"

She was bloody well right. It was as muddled as an over-wound clock. "We fell asleep on the beach," I replied. It seemed apparent that much had happened afterward, but I couldn't lie and tell her I remembered precisely what.

"Good," Jennai replied. "That was two minutes ago, tops. Now here's the twitchy part... we're still on that beach."

"So we're what... dreaming together?" Had she slipped something into the wine—some drug to co-mingle sleeping thoughts? I knew little enough of chemistry that I couldn't dismiss the possibility of such a concoction. It was easier on the conscience than thinking I had forced myself on her while drunk.

"No, this is all real," Jennai said. "So is the beach outside Buou. You're twinborn, like me. Connected between worlds."

In the darkness, Cadmus brought up a hand and rubbed his eyes. "I've got to quit drinking. I don't have a head for it."

"You're being dense," she said with a furrowed brow. "This world goes on all by itself. So does the other one. Here you're Erefan; there you're Cadmus. You've been seeing snippets of this place in your dreams—for most of your life, probably. But you're starting to become truly aware in both, and you're making a muddle of it. If anything, Erefan shouldn't be able to remember Cadmus, not the other way around."

Jennai shifted off of me. There was a click. Overhead, a lamp flickered into luminescence. The room was small, with gray brick walls held together with sloppy mortar. A table in one corner was cluttered with papers, and a set of clothing I'd never seen in my life were draped over a chair, yet I knew it was mine. Jennai stretched out beside me with her hand on a wall-mounted switch. She turned back with a satisfied smile. She wore a flimsy nightdress that hung from her thin shoulders. I averted my eyes by reflex of propriety.

"Eziel's mercy, Erefan," Jennai said. She crawled over to look me in the eye. "We've shared this bed for years. You've sketched me wearing less. Even though I came out looking like a blueprint, it was sweet of you to try." She paused for a response. "None of this is coming back to you?"

"No." It was an understatement. If 'no' had a supervisor, I'd have asked to speak with it.

Jennai frowned, looking more frustrated than angry. I was caught completely off guard when she dove atop me. Her lips were on mine before I could think to protest, and the sweet warmth melted my thoughts away like wax from a burning wick. I lost all track of time, despite a faint ticking coming from the bedside table. When Jennai finally released me, panting for breath, she cocked her head and raised her eyebrows.

"That spark any memories?" she asked.

A number of philosophers had contended that when it came to women, honesty was far from the best policy. But I had always considered a philosopher to be a waste of an educated mind. "Jennai, I'm sorry, but—"

"Well," she snapped. "There's plenty more where that came from—plenty more—but not until you remember my name. I'm not Jennai here." She rolled over and slid off the bed. There was a dress lying on the floor, which she proceeded to change into. Despite her proclamation that it was a commonplace sight, I still couldn't bring myself to ogle her as she dressed.

I listened until I surmised she had finished dressing, then turned back to look. Jennai was dressed in a homespun brown frock. She was different; it was no illusion. Jennai was thin, but this girl was thinner yet, to the point of underfed. Her hair was jaw length, but Jennai's had fallen below her shoulder blades. Yet at the same time she was identical in features and demeanor. "None of this is making much sense," I said. "Where are we? What is this place?"

"This is Eversall Deep," the other Jennai replied. "And you need to get to work. Your clothes are on the chair. I don't know how you're going to get through the day this muddled, but you're going to have to try."

"Work?" I scoffed. "But I don't even know where I am, let alone how to get to Buou from here."

"There is no Buou in this world," Jennai said. She bent over to lace up a pair of blocky shoes. "You're Erefan; remember that. You work at the Office of Patents, third floor. You've got a desk with a little name plaque on it. Find that and sit on your hands until you remember who you are."

"Where is this office?" I asked, leaving my tone as meek as I was ever able to manage. Admittedly, it may not have been quite meek enough just then.

Jennai stopped. "Erefan, I love you more than breathing, but if I find that you're putting me on, Eziel help me, I'll castrate you."

Instinctively I squeezed my knees together and shook my head.

Jennai sighed. "Get dressed and be quick about it. I'll be late for work, but I'll take you to the patent office first."