Keeping It Real (45 page)

Lila was astonished, though this was nothing to Zal's incredulity as he saw Tath through her connection

and made all the same leaps of understanding himself
.

Longing won out
in Tath. He relaxed, expanded, and Lila, delirious with the possession of Zal's

andalune,
felt
the two beings meet
inside her chest.

Zal snapped backwards in shock and left Lila so fast
that
she had to fight to stay standing. Her body

reeled after him, smarting with grief at the loss of his presence, burning with hunger to have it
back.

Tath bloomed outwards, almost to the surface of Lila's skin, in a turmoil of emotion
.

Zal didn't say anything. He was panting and his upslanted brown eyes were hugely expanded with

pleasure and surprise
.

Lila didn't trust him or herself to speak, and the only way she knew or wanted to forestall it quickly was

to reach out and, this time, kiss him
.
She put her hands either side of his head, over the beautifully

unfamiliar shape of his long ears. It took less than a second to activate the speaker-films inside her palms,

as she had done to play the music to Dar. This time she whispered through her hands,

'Don't show that
you know about
Tath, or we're toast. Arie thinks he's here playing me to get you to

lose the Game so that
you'll lose all your connection to Demonia and go along with her plan.'

Lila felt
the full gamut of Zal's astonishment and delight in the revelations. It dampened even his guarded

self-possession for an instant. His mouth smiled against hers and she saw him, fully present and laughing

in the eyes that looked into hers, 'Well,' he murmured through both the
andalune
and lip contact,

respectful and amused, 'fuck me sideways.'

Lila's brief lift of spirit
and moment
of pleasure were broken by a flash of gold in the corner of her eye.

The wall beside them bulged inwards suddenly and then recoiled back into place with a snap. A dull

boom and vibration rocked the cell and shivered the lake water. She drew back from Zal and turned in

time to see the dragon gliding off into the darkness at
speed, its tail driving it strongly through the water.

I
t
hink i
t
likes you,
Tath said drily, though he was jittery with fear.

'The Game magic,' Zal whispered to her, 'They're attracted by it. We must
discharge it
or stop. Didn't

your friendly inboard necromancer bother to tell you that?'

'He is
no
t
my . . .' Lila began but she didn't get to finish. A golden face, as big as she was, loomed

suddenly from the depths beneath them and slid up the side of the cell wall. The five-pointed black star at

the centre of its eye narrowed as the candlelight struck it. Close-to she saw the hairlike fronds of the

beard around its long, saurian mouth reach out and feel the bubble-shield of their cell, tasting its magic. It

opened its jaws and a long, black tongue dipped between razor sharp diamond teeth and touched one of

the trickles of wild magic that
were rising from the deep lake bed. The eye narrowed again and blinked at

her.

An idea, in words and images not her own, appeared in Lila's mind and she saw herself and Zal for an

instant, as though through a strange lens, every place they touched one another attracting the snap and

tang of the wild aether.

Elfheart machine-woman and demonheart elf-man. Walking four worlds inside the forfeit bond. Sing

the two, eight, eighteen canticle, the shape of things, the weird of breaths, the soft hand in hand dance,

and, as all water is one across the worlds and sings each to each unbroken the lowest notes of sweet

lament, we shall bend our mind to thy curious measure.

'What?' Lila said aloud without
meaning to as she snapped back to herself and found Tath churning

and terrified, a panicking bird inside her chest
.

Zal put
his hand over her mouth. 'Listen,' he said.

Lila smacked his hand away. T am listening to the . . .'

'Not the dragon.' His long tipped ears were moving subtly and he let her go and moved back. As he

did so the dragon abruptly slid away from the wall, its body flashing past and wake buffeting the cell so

that they both had to fight to keep their footing.

She refined the search and tune pattern of her AI hearing.
A
r
ie has seen
t
ne dragon alongside us.

Wha
t
ever we are abou
t
t
o
do
,
we
mus
t
do i
t
now,
Tath told her, back in command of himself now that the dragon had gone.

'Plan?' Zal asked her, raising his eyebrows, body tensed for flight
or fight.

Lila ran everything through her Al-system, making the second she actually had into an approximate

minute of ordinary thinking time. Like calculating the moves in chess she played and replayed the

possibilities and permutations of the situation, but it was so complex she could not see beyond a second

manoeuvre anywhere, could not calculate a significant favourable move. Their original idea was as good,

or as bad, as anything else.

'Pretend to lose,' she said in desperation, hearing the guards' boot-steps outside and the singing of

swords being drawn.

Zal dropped to his knees in front
of her. Where his hands caught
hold of her metal legs she felt
the

sting of magic crackling, making the candleflames sputter and shoot high into the air. From the green

darkness the dragon barrelled out
at
them as though it was about to ram the wall, then at the last instant

ducked beneath. Its bow wave rocked the room as the guards came in. Lila felt
Tath reach down

through her and connect briefly with Zal. Tath said some elvish words and Zal repeated them under his

breath too, humming them into a desolate melody. The coils of aether surrounding them suddenly drew

in, as though inhaled by a breath, and the air snapped fiercely with the spit of releasing energy. After it,

the wild magic had gone.

Zal slumped down and let go of her as though defeated.

Par
t
y
t
rick,
Tath said. He was tense and afraid, as Lila herself was, both of them knowing quite well

that some, if not all, of their cover was surely gone. Worst of all, they had never got their story straight

with

Dar. Any wrong move by him now could undo everything. It was a desperate, terrible situation.

The guards took Zal away, and waited only for Lila to reclothe herself in Tath's gear before marching

her off in the same direction. As she went
she combined a few drags for herself, to boost
her calm, to

stop her shaking, to help her maintain her cool. Her supplies of basic composites were running low. She

would have to be careful, she thought, and then she felt Tath react to the influx of chemicals in her blood,

as though he was truly a part of her.

What
did
t
he dragon mean?
she asked him, feeling him calm down.

T
he
fo
r
fe
i
t
bo
n
d i
t
spo
ke of
is
t
he
Game w
i
t
h Zal. As for
t
he r
e
s
t
I
can ga
t
her
on
ly fragmen
t
s. A
can
t
icle in
T
hana
t
opic magic
i
s
a
summoning
o
r banishing song
to co
mma
n
d
t
he
De
ad
The
wa
t
er
reference is really
t
o wild magic mos
t
likely, al
t
hough wa
t
er-elemen
t
adep
t
s, like Aerie, say
t
ha
t
t
he
wa
t
er in all worlds is one sea. I
don t k
now abou
t
t
he res
t
.

He spoke rather easily for Lila's liking. She wasn't
sure he was telling her everything. She knew what

the numbers meant
though, remember-ing her chemistry classes
.
Two, eight and eighteen were the

numbers of electrons that
completed each shell of an atom with three energy levels. But, even though this

gave her a fresh insight into the links between magic and science across the realms, it did not help the

dragon's statement make any more sense. The time for puzzling was over however.

They had come to a vast cell like a cavern in the lake's black depths. Above them they could see the

rest
of the Palace of Aparastil shining like silver spheres, glints and glimmers of light dancing within. To all

other directions they saw only their own reflections against
a black background, with tiny bubbles of air

or motes of silt
briefly illumined as they brushed against the walls. Glistening pockets of gases from the

deep which had become trapped beneath them moved under the clear floor in silvery undulations
.
They

collected like mercury where the floor had been shaped deliberately into the largest
and most

complicated series of magical circles Lila had ever seen.

There signs and sigils bristled against one another for space and fizzed and glowed in the air above the

ground
.
Artefacts of power: swords, flails, whips, wands, cups, candles, digital crystals, ropes and

witchlights littered every available inch of space to either side of a clear walk that led directly to the heart

of the circles. Shrines to the

magical elements of earth, fire, water, wood, metal, air and space were arrayed around the walls. The

room hummed with chant and incantation.

Arie's courtiers stood demurely waiting, clad in black and silver. There was a demon there, Lila saw

with shock, his sapphire blue skin roiling with lightning streaks beneath its thick surface, his horns curled

close to his head and dripping with grey smokes that
trailed around him in the air. He was busy at
his

allotted station, working over a heavy stone thurible, stirring something with a bone held in the curl of his

forked tail.

A l l her mages are here,
Tath said. Th
a
t
o
ne
is Zal's replacemen
t
, bough
t
or
b
ribed
o
r
co
er
ce
d i
nto
ac
t
ion,
o
r a
t
rai
t
or
t
o his kind.

Who replaces you?
Lila asked as she was pushed on towards the Lady herself where Arie stood with

Dar and her entourage of attendants.

Tath did not answer.

Tath? But it had already come to her in a moment of horrible insight. There was no replacement for

Tath, because he was here.

Lila tried to exert a compulsion on Tath, to make him speak and admit where his loyalty lay, but
he

resisted her easily. Meanwhile the dragon's words echoed in her mind. Water, water everywhere . . .

Meantime they had been brought to stand in Arie's presence. Her
andalune
body touched Tath's

briefly and he was comforted. 'Come, Voynassi,' she said to him gently, using his honorific name. 'It is

time for you to resume a better form and occupy a vessel fit for the work ahead and your life beyond.

Your sister here agrees to carry you until you can be made whole.'

Behind Arie, Lila could see Astar standing absolutely still with terror,
andalune
body completely

withdrawn
.
Dar was expressionless, his aethereal self barely visible to Tath, it
was so restrained
.
He

didn't
even glance at
Lila but
maintained his position among the courtiers
.
Arie held out a white daisy in

her hand towards Tath
.
'Come, Lady Astar, take the hand of this golem and prepare to receive your

brother's spirit
.
' Arie's lovely face glowed with warmth and kindness.

Golem!
Lila thought, her anger almost igniting despite the rushing cool of the drugs in her system.

Astar came forward, staring into the glamour of Tath's likeness on Lila with a feverish intensity,

searching the face for any ounce of hope. Lila knew there was none now, with the possible exception

that Arie

may not discover the extent
that
Lila herself was in command of her faculties and not
under Tath's power.

She saw Dar look at
her, his gaze already the vibrant
watchfulness of someone who is striving to take in

every part of an experience.

The Lady took Lila's hand and placed Astar's upon it
over the daisy. Astar's
andalune
surged forward

to cling to Tath's and a swift current ran between them. Lila felt
herself freeze as Arie sang a few pretty

notes and spoke her charms aloud. There was a moment in which all the room waited for the exorcism to