It was all an accident, though. If he hadn’t been caught on an observation camera and, entirely without his knowledge, passed a rigorous screening process, he would have lived an uneventful life. He might have had a family of his own, sons and daughters he could claim. He wouldn’t have minded living in a small house, as long as he was left alone, even if it meant he made absolutely no mark on the universe, the world—or even the block of buildings around which he lived. Was that so important?

“Do whatever you think is best, Basil,” he said, “but please take care of it soon.”

He both envied and pitied whoever was going to be his successor.

56: RAYMOND AGUERRA

56RAYMOND AGUERRA

The Whisper Palace held hundreds—thousands?—of rooms, passageways, and chambers. With vast portions sealed and off-limits, the public had no inkling of how little they were permitted to see.

After he settled into his strange and remarkable new situation, Raymond had certainly never guessed there could be so much to discover, though Basil Wenceslas and the compy Teacher OX kept him under tight restraint. Every time he went exploring, he was awed and astonished by the opulence, by the conveniences and luxuries he was invited to use every single day. Just when he began to feel he could not be impressed again, he encountered something more fantastic. He could barely keep up with it all.

Raymond wished his mother and brothers could be here to see this.

Wearing a glimmer swimsuit, he bounced and slid through a water tube that crossed the ceiling and spilled him out into the heated seawater pool below. He splashed heavily when he landed, an imperfect dive, but he knew enough to clamp his mouth shut. When he had first begun learning to swim, he’d found himself coughing and choking, much to his embarrassment. But over the past several weeks, despite all the other educational activities required of him, Raymond had delighted in swimming the most.

A few times, when he was younger, he and his brothers had splashed around in a public pool. Though he had loved the activity with Michael, Rory, and Carlos, Raymond never gained any real confidence in the water. Now, with the Palace’s sea bath heated to a perfect temperature, and enough guardians and watchers to rescue him in nanoseconds if he ever found himself in trouble, Raymond let himself relax and play.

He dove under the water, swimming as far as he could, eyes open—his newly tinted greenish blue eyes—to see the artificial convolutions in the bottom of the pool. He wondered how often Old King Frederick used this spa. The King probably had a dozen similar pools for his private use. Raymond’s disbelief at all the extravagance had begun to make him blasé.