Henry opened his eyes.
He was in a strange bed in a strange room with a weird ceiling that made it look as if he was outdoors. Soft music was playing somewhere, but there was a funny smell that reminded him of hospitals. Was he in hospital?
He tried to sit up, but the bedclothes were so tightly tucked around him that they held him like straps. He struggled and while they loosened slightly, the effort showed him he was feeling weak. He had to be in hospital. Except it didn’t look like hospital. There were jars beside his bed full of misty things that writhed and floated, like those novelty aliens they made for little kids.
Maybe the car had knocked him down.
He made another effort to sit up and this time succeeded in loosening the bedclothes. He could remember having to walk home because his rotten mother didn’t pick up the phone. He could remember the headlights of a car behind him. After that… nothing.
There was a dull ache along one side of his nose and a shooting pain into his eye. Maybe he’d fallen down and hit his head.
There was a small mirror on the far wall. He tugged at the bedclothes and finally managed to swing his legs on to the floor. He was wearing some sort of silken gown that left his bottom bare, which meant he had to be in a hospital. But the bed didn’t look like a hospital bed and there were no machines or stuff like that in the room.
He walked over to the mirror. There was a bandage running along the side of his nose to the corner of his eye. Otherwise there was no sign of any injury, not even bruising. He was feeling stronger by the minute too. If he was knocked down by a car, it hadn’t done him much damage.
But where was he?
Underneath the hospital smell there was another smell that seemed strangely familiar. It was almost like the smell of the Lethe cones he used on his mother to make her forget when he -
Henry stopped dead in a moment of rising excitement. He couldn’t be, could he?
He didn’t want to try the door in case he met somebody with his bottom bare, but there was a wardrobe in the room and when he opened it, there were his clothes all freshly washed and neatly pressed and there were other clothes – his size! – like this cool green tunic and that meant he had to be, he just had to be back in the Realm, back in the Purple Palace, although he’d no idea how he got here.
Henry threw away the silken robe and got dressed faster than he’d ever done in his life. Then he threw open the door and stared down the sumptuous corridor and knew, with absolute certainty, he was in the Purple Palace. This was so, so good.
He thought he might see if he could find Blue.