Going Under (15 page)

Ptyyouher yettokeep t, is, she heard Tath say of the experience but
even that didn't disturb her. Far off she was aware of Sorcha, strangely
gleeful in the way only demons were at any and every turn of fate. Here
only Tath and the wild demon struggled.

Can I do something?

His response was negative. She was not a necromancer. She didn't exist where it mattered right now. The fight for souls may be on, but commanding souls was a matter for those with aetheric power who had tuned themselves beyond death's gate. Lila knew herself to be part of an epic struggle, but she couldn't feel it. She saw Tath thinning, his grip on the two of them making his own hold on the material plane hard to maintain and his lack of attunement to Sorcha's demonic nature making his grip on her even more difficult to keep. Sorcha was floating, looking at the other thing that had grabbed her, curious about what it would be like to be consumed; knowing it didn't matter-she would never be that other creature. One could not be changed. She felt a trace of disappointment leak through from Sorcha, who had been speculating on the possibility of leaping forwards and, in her last moments, dealing some kind of ferocious and maiming attack. The only thing that held her back was that she couldn't think of a way to do it.

In the real world almost no time had passed. They were fixed, each in their odd positions. Lila saw narrow tentacles, almost feelers, emerging from Teazle's open mouth. From her great height she saw them seize hold of the astral form of the attacking demon. That was interesting. She hadn't known that demons could do this sort of thing. Not that she had known or believed much in this sort of thing. Most humans could accept the small magics and sleights of hand they encountered in aetherically poor Otopia, but hard information on aetheric battle and astral war was still the stuff of paranormal speculation and still, these short years after the Bomb, considered beneath scientific examination-mostly because no human scientific equipment had managed to detect a trace of it and the extensive evidence of human psychics was anecdotal and, to the prevailing paradigm of strict materialism, symptomatic of derangement. She tried to cue a recording but of course all that was down there in her body so nothing happened.

Time dragged as they began to slip slowly towards the invisible demon. Lila turned to look back at Zal, and she forgot what was going on for a moment. From where she was he was visible in an entirely different way, like Teazle, and like Sorcha. What she was seeing wasn't a particular shape, it was the form of his spirit, both elf and demon. And it was singing. She could see that now, in the midst of this fight, he had no real awareness of it. It was just how he was. She was surprised and pleased to find him beautiful in this different way, as if it proved his worth beyond any doubt. She knew that she loved him, but here she didn't feel it. She marvelled at how simple everything was from this perspective. She couldn't imagine why she'd ever struggled against so much that was quite obvious and not in the least difficult or distressing ...

She looked back at the others. Sorcha sang too. And Teazle was a hunter, silent and watchful. Tath she could not see, nor herself. They were too close. The other demon ... now she realised what Tath had said and why. It was a predator and a killer in its true nature and it had refined that nature to a single hunger. It was less sophisticated than they were. It was raw. She doubted that it even had a conscious mind left anymore-and perhaps that was why it was winning.

Through their union Lila felt quite plainly that Tath was capable of stopping himself and her from being sucked away from the body they shared, but he could not hold onto Sorcha forever unless he held on and they were all dragged away. The demon had Sorcha in its grip, held in the strength of its absolute first cast. Teazle might prevent it from making two such attacks, but he had been too late for the first one.

You must let go, she said.

He hesitated. She knew for a fact, because they had been intimate so long, that if this had been him alone he would never have held onto Sorcha even for a second in such a situation, unless it would have bought him time. Tath had been a legendary cool operator, even in Alfheim. He'd betrayed his own lover for a cause he barely had a scrap of faith in. To her certain knowledge the only true bond he'd ever honoured was to his mistress and commander, the Lady of Aparastil, becoming a necromancer to suit her requirements even when it went against his own nature. He was a creature of necessity. And now he hesitated, on the verge of falling apart from effort.

He let go.

Lila was yanked back into her body with a snap. Tath went with her. In her hand Sorcha's body fell lifeless, like a giant doll, and hung there. The last of her red fire flickered out.

In front of them the demon reached back. Lila could see Teazle doing something, but now she had lost her spirit vision so she didn't know what it was. Behind her she felt the hot wash of Zal's wings, heard him scream, "No!" A wave of agony shot through her torso as she felt the shock of what had just happened, all vestiges of detachment gone.

In the midst of this she felt also something tugging at her free hand. She glanced down and saw the imp attempting to press something into her palm.

"Run, baby, run, you gotta all run!" he shrieked, pushing the small object at her. "Throw this and go." He didn't wait or try to rush up to her shoulder now but leapt away to the side and put his tiny hands out, beginning to mutter and chant and hop.

Lila pulled Sorcha to her and grabbed hold of her more firmly with that arm. She was back alive and her heart was full of pain but she still had a few neurons attached to the Al processors and she knew what she was going to do, whatever anyone else thought. Calculations fast as light had already run their course almost before the combat itself had begun. She flung whatever useless shit the imp had given her at the demon with as much force and ill intent as she could muster, and before it had even landed she turned, snatched hold of Zal around his whip thin waist, and blasted out of there.

Her actions were so fast and powerful she felt the living elf buckle over her arm and lose his breath, first from the impact and then from the acceleration of their climb into the air. His wings burned her hair and eyelashes and seared the surface of her body armour. She ignored both it and his howl of rage and took them faster and further, heading for the wall. But even as they fled she couldn't help but look back with her machine senses.

Whatever she had thrown at the demon had made it suddenly denser, more real. It had three distinct dimensions for a moment, and a form that was nothing like human, all muscle and teeth and raging, apocalyptic eyes. A blast of heat much stronger than the flames beside her rolled up and then everything went hazy. It was difficult to see any details but she got the two main points: Teazle's hands grown to an incredible size, his fingers tipped with razor talons, ripping through the creature with such ferocity that guts and matter spewed out of the gigantic gashes in a fountain; and Thingamajig, dancing on a little rock fifty metres away like one of Beelzebub's leprechauns.

She thought that Teazle's attack was surely fatal, but then she saw the wounds closing almost instantly, and the thing beginning to fade, to turn, to get some kind of grip on the white snake behind it. Then she felt the sickening plunge of fear and loathing as something it did made Teazle's body shudder and jerk. She realised then that reaching the wall was not possible if Teazle couldn't hold the thing back. But then the imp said something, words in Demonic that weren't meant for her and so sounded only like the muffled bass thunder behind some drug-ridden heavy metal song played far away. Thingamajig spat and turned his back, scratching dry grit off his rock with his foot claws and shaking his tail. The nightmare demon vanished into the earth leaving Teazle slumped flat on the baking ground.

She flew up and over the wall and made landfall on the other side in a grove of pines, startling a group of young demons who scattered into the woods, hooting and squawking. They, at least, knew better than to stick around when adults were fighting.

Zal wrenched himself free of her before she had a chance to loosen her grip and staggered back several metres, ash white, his wings flickering and dying into his back.

"I ..." Lila began, feeling Sorcha's head lolling heavily against her shoulder and neck. "I didn't ..." but she knew how it must have looked. The demon had tried to get her and she had pulled Sorcha in front of her like a true coward.

"I saw you," the words grated themselves out of his throat as he stared at her, unwilling to meet her gaze, barely able to look at his sister's body. Inside her chest Tath was silent, but she could feel his will. She let him use her mouth and his andalune body surged out again, covering her and changing her appearance with aetheric glamour so Zal would know who was speaking.

"Ilya," Zal snarled, balanced on his feet now, light and ready to attack. "I didn't for a second think you weren't involved."

"I did it all," the elf said with her voice. "She is not to blame. It was the only way to save her."

"To save yourself, you lying little shit," Zal replied.

"She had nothing to defend herself with," Tath said, as calm as Zal was furious. "I tried to save them both but ..."

Then Zal was suddenly in her face, his eyes blazing at her through Tath's translucent stare. Lila felt her heart almost stop and a huge ache open in her chest. She felt the full force of his energy hit her right where Tath was, in the solar plexus, and it was worse than any weapon strike. It took her breath away. "Don't you fucking talk to me you piece of two-faced filth," Zal whispered. The planes on his face moved slyly and his whole skin tone changed as he spoke, seeming to move into a private darkness; for the first time Lila actually saw the traces of his Shadow side. Then she felt them, as did Tath. He snapped back, leaving her exposed.

"That's right," Zal said, straight to Tath even though he was no longer visible in any way. "You run and hide in the only safe place in creation, you devious yellow-bellied fucker, because I tell you now-if I ever get one sniff of you or any clue that you are near me I will suck the life out of you just as cleanly as if I was the corrupted undead bastard and you're some dumbshit human psychic wannabe. I mean it, Ilya."

He used the first part of Tath's common name, the part for family and brothers. Lila knew how Tath felt about Zal and she knew how Zal felt about Tath now and took a step back for both of them. Tath was frozen with pain, even though he had been expecting it. Zal's rage and hate revolted him with a primal intensity that made them all the more unbearable. She could feel how much he wanted to scream at Zal, beg forgiveness, anything to get Zal's affection, which he'd never had. He nauseated himself and the effort to hold himself together and attempt to be aloof was horrible to experience. His energy vibrated violently inside her so that Lila felt sick. She still held Sorcha, in both arms now. Her body was cooling, her tail dragging on the ground, her beautiful hair blowing gently against Lila's cheek.

"It's true," she said, herself again.

Zal's glare shut her up and she felt tears start in her eyes and well out, burning hot on her face.

"Well you hating it doesn't mean it's not true!" she blurted, furious with herself for failing to find control. "There was no choice."

"There was a damn choice all right," Zal said, suddenly frigid. His tension softened and he reached out gently. For an instant Lila thought he was going to touch her and felt relief, but he ignored her and took hold of Sorcha instead, tenderly.

Lila struggled to try and remember what that beautiful detachment and clarity had been like, when she was almost dead, but all she felt was an unreasoning jealousy and anger over her own pain. "Yes, if he hadn't grabbed her then I'd be the dead one right now. Him too."

Zal just gave her a flat look, like he couldn't have cared less about that. "It was a choice," he said.

She found herself ridiculously in a tug-of-war over Sorcha's body. She didn't want to let go and have him take her, because that felt like he would be taking all the rightness and the moral high ground with him, and she felt that he hadn't been there, he didn't know, and he didn't deserve it. Their gazes locked over Sorcha's limp neck, unblinking and hostile. Zal's long, slanted eyes had never looked less human.

"You brought us here," she said, smelling Sorcha's heavy perfume, staring back and seeing her mirrored eyes in the surface of Zal's dark ones. They both looked ugly. For a moment she really thought they might fight each other, then he gave the slightest nod and let go, spun around, and howled like an animal until his breath ran out.

"Here," she held the body forwards to him. "I'm going to get Teazle."

"No you ain't," rasped a familiar voice.

She turned and saw the white demon collapsed on the ground a short distance away. The imp was crouched on top of him like a small black crow.

"What did you do?" she demanded as the resonant emptiness that followed Zal's howl filled up the valley.

"Just a spell I knew 'gainst soul eaters," the imp began and accelerated into a top-speed gabble, "but it took me a minute to remember it an' I had to get yet curse out of me bag first 'cos if it heard me it'd've got me first and you have to say the whole thing an' I couldn't throw far enough to hit it from where I was in any case and anyway you was all too fast fer me to stop it."

She digested this for a second. "And this spell ... how did you know it? How many other things can you do, exactly?"

He didn't miss the menace in her voice. "Dunno 'zackly. Takes a crisis for me to figure it out. Bit of a memory thing. I mean, imps all get curses, they're like ninety-nine percent of an imp's trade, a curse, and you can curse anything for a second or two because they're not resistible you see, they take a full conscious moment of aetherical fid- dlin' to get rid of, so they buy a bit of time even if they don't work. An' l was gettin' it out when I remembered this way of sending them as hides beyond matter right back to where they hide so they can't fiddle with things anywhere else for a bit. Banishing. That's what it's called."