“Well, actually—no, thank you,” the detective said.
“Miss?” Hogar said, offering her the dish.
She refused, picked up the pen and signed both Brutus’s and her own name to the register. When she looked up, she saw that Hogar seemed to be hurt by her rejection of the candies and, being Helena, she said, “Well, you see, I just had dinner, and I haven’t any room for anything else just now.”
Hogar frowned and stared more closely at the mints. “They aren’t dusty, are they? Sometimes, in an old mythical place like this, the dust settles. If I don’t keep changing the mints every day they get all grimy.”
“It isn’t that,” Helena said. “The mints are fine. As I said, I’ve already eaten—”
“Here, then,” the alien innkeeper said, shoving the dish into her hands. “You take them and have them later on, in your room, compliments of the house.” He smiled at her: greasily.
“I couldn’t—”
“I insist,” the maseni myth figure said.
“Thank you,” she said. She took the mints, holding the dish as if it were a time bomb.
Tesserax signed the register and got their room keys. “No need to send a porter with us,” he told Hogar. “We have our own mechanical to get the bags, and well find the room ourselves.”
They followed the robot as it wheeled the luggage cart to the elevators which, Tesserax explained, were physical additions to the myth structure, since no elevators had existed when the Gilorelamans Inn was first imagined.
The second floor ambience was much like that of the first floor, though the carpeting here was a deep, cool green. Jessie, Helena and the hell hound had a two-bedroom suite at the far end of the long, main corridor, while Tesserax’s room was right next door. The drawing room of the suite was exquisite, with golden tapestries and heavy velvet-like draperies, comfortable furniture, an indoor fountain where three maseni myth figures spouted water onto one another’s heads. Like all maseni rooms, this was a large one, far larger than they required, with a fourteen-foot ceiling of alternating squares of dark and light wood in a stunning parquet. The bedrooms were identical, spacious, and lavishly appointed.
“I think I like this place!” Helena said, flopping down on a bed that was ten feet long and seven wide.
Tesserax showed them where the baths were. “These, too, are additions, realities intrude on the original make-believe. But what good are myths if they aren’t useful? And how useful would a hotel be, these days, without bathrooms?”
“True enough,” Jessie said.
As they stepped out of the third bath and back into the drawing room, a knock sounded on the door.
“Come in,” Tesserax said.
Tooner Hogar entered, bearing a wicker basket full of fruit, all wrapped in plastic. “Compliments of the house,” he said, smiling slickly and handing the basket to Jessie.
“I—uh—well, thank you,” the detective said.
“Try one of those,” the innkeeper said, pointing to a large red fruit that looked like a combination between an Earth apple and an Earth raspberry, purple and nubbly.
“Well, maybe later,” Jessie said.
“Perhaps the lady would like something,” Hogar said, as Helena came out of the bedroom to see what was going on.
“What might I like?” she asked, stepping closer to see.
Hogar reached out and tore the sheet of plastic wrap from the gift basket and, bowing slightly toward Helena, he said, “Some home world fruit, dear lady. This is a marvelous collection. I believe you will find each piece delicious, fresh and clean.”
“I don’t know if I should eat any alien—”
“Oh,” Hogar said, “you will find our home world fruit perfectly compatible with your digestive system. Haven’t you eaten any imports, back on your own world?”
Helena said, “No, I—”
Hogar plucked the raspberry-apple from the basket, rubbed it against one sleeve to polish it, and held it toward her. “Here. Eat, eat! There is nothing to be afraid of!”
Before she could find some new way to refuse the poisoner’s gift, their conversation was interrupted by a booming laugh so loud it shook the walls and hurt their ears. Immediately following this came a crashing sound that slammed through the hotel like an explosion in its foundations.