Nightmare Kingdom: A Romance of the Future by Barbara Bartholomew

him to awareness. He didn’t know how the attack would come, but he knew it would come. Soon.
    “It’s me.”
    “Come on in, Isaiah,” he called, waiting for his friend to come in before seating himself on his bed.
    The room lay in total darkness since there were no windows to admit even star light. He heard Isaiah fumbling past a chair, stumbling and then righting himself. Good old Isaiah, he was always having small accidents as his body and mind didn’t always work together because his brilliant brain was always out there, thinking, calculating, and not aware that he was tripping over something.
    Jamie turned the lights on low and saw not only Isaiah standing there, blinking at him like an owl caught in a sudden glare, but George, still standing in the doorway.
    They were both fully dressed and had obviously not been sleeping. Isaiah plopped into one of Jamie’s two chairs, while George eased his arthritic body into the other.
    Jamie waited for what they had to tell him.
    Looking so weary that his face seemed to sag, Isaiah nodded to George. “Mack’s boys slipped out to do a little spying,” the older man said without drama. “Found out that the little boy emperor is showing signs.”
    Jamie didn’t have to ask what signs. “He’s a far speaker?”
    “Possibly. Everybody’s hoping.”
    “Claire?” It was the logical next question. Even the former empress would be sacrificed if the health of a far speaker was in question. And yet, he reminded himself, Mathiah had gone for years without negative symptoms. Only in the months before his death had he become ill. Claire and her daughters might still be safe.
    Isaiah answered the question only indirectly. “They’re worried about him.”
    Jamie sat still, betraying no emotion, while he remembered the emperor’s older brother who had not been a far speaker, but yet had suffered from the genetic illness that went with it. Neither his life nor his death had been desirable and he’d taken at least one Earther life with him.
    “You’ve told Kevin.”
    “Mack and Karen took the boys to him first thing. He got all hot and bothered because they’d dared wake him up.” George grinned, showing what was left of his teeth. “Then he fussed at them for sneaking into the city.”
    Jamie felt the lines deepen on his forehead. “He didn’t consider this ominous?”
    “Said we should be glad for the Gare that they have a new leader.”
    “The man’s a fool,” Jamie said quietly.
    “No need stating the obvious,” Isaiah said.
    Old George only raised his thin eyebrows to indicate unsurprised agreement.
    “You’re somewhere around a hundred and ten, George.” Jamie relaxed enough to tease. “And you look more wide awake than either of us.”
    “That’s ‘cause I don’t waste much time sleeping these days,” George responded.
    The next visitor didn’t bother knocking on the door. Karen Russell came bursting into the room, not even looking slightly embarrassed to break in on Jamie’s supposed privacy or that he was clad only in the underwear he’d worn to bed.
    But then Karen was rarely embarrassed, having been over-endowed with confidence at birth. “Something’s going on,” she announced breathlessly.
    That was enough to get Jamie off the bed and pulling on his pants and boots. Another quality Karen possessed was poise. If she was concerned, then there was something to be concerned about.
    Mack was only a couple of minutes behind her, his two sons crowded into the small room after him.
    “What is it?” George asked.
    “Space ship. Looks like it’s heading for a landing just outside the city.”
    “Earth ship?” George asked. For the rest of them, the ship that had brought them here from their home planet had been the last they’d ever seen, but George could remember a time when Earther ships paid somewhat regular visits.
    “Naw,” David, the younger of the two boys, answered. “Looks like an imperial cruiser to me.”
    Mack nodded his