Selling Out (10 page)

He recovered his car and reviewed the list of suspects that had been trawled up after a forensics sweep of the old clunker Lila had found near Zal’s recording studios several days before. They didn’t match up with the unidentified fey driving the tankers that had successfully primed Zal’s kidnapping and Malachi didn’t recognise those drivers either. Given the talents for glamour in his world he didn’t hold out any hopes from a photograph and the vehicles themselves had been burned out comprehensively, leaving nothing behind to use as a tip. The suspect list on the listening devices did include names he knew however. But his mind stubbornly refused to focus to the degree necessary to divine their whereabouts so he could go spy on them. He kept thinking about the way Lila had rushed off to Demonia like it was some kind of escape chute, barely enough time to grab her updates and the pretence of a cover story about being an ambassador and off she went. He would have bet his entire wages on her not having read most of the Demonia material. In her references from her diplomatic job they mentioned how diligent she was, what attention to detail she always paid . . . Malachi didn’t recognise her from the descriptions. She sent his fey senses twitching with alarm signals that told him here was a person who did not deal with matters they found painful but had learned to sweep them under the carpet and the carpet would soon be big enough no more.

Such information was always of use to a faery of his situation, for whom sifting through the trash for truth was an essential preoccupation, an obsession, an unscratchable itch of curiosity that knew no fear or boundary. Many humans were like Lila in this way, but none of them happened to go around equipped with high-technology weapons on matters of interdimensional sensitivity. Upon this point he was in complete agreement with Lila’s psychologist, Dr. Williams. But the doctor, himself, and Lila’s mentor were no match for the determination of the agency and its addiction to speedy actions. For that to change there would have to be a spectacular disaster and thanks to luck and poor judgement on many parts the last opportunity for spectacular disaster had been averted. The elf insurgents seeking to divorce themselves from a dangerous continuum had been thwarted, Zal had been rescued, and all unpleasant matters that might have resulted had been forgotten as the elves commenced their largest ever civil war; a conflict that was waged across lines of class, species, heredity, magic, and almost any other parameter of power one could name so that even meticulous spies such as the Faery Fee could barely keep track of who was doing what to whom and why. Malachi was much less interested in the elven war than he was with Lila’s carpet however.

The combination of her and Zal was, at the very least, ill advised considering the sensitivity of their positions, the instability of their personalities. And then of course Zal had to mention the one outstanding issue that bothered Malachi the most: Lila had been one of Incon’s own, saved because of loyalty they said, but he was more than sure the truth was more like she got sucked into a job she didn’t understand the depth of, was hideously damaged because of it, and could have been pensioned off with disability packages. That had happened before. But instead of that she was made into a one-person army and there were other things that did not involve experimental, pioneering technologies. The word “victim” kept playing through his mind like a bacchante’s distant screech.

He decided to pay a visit to Calliope Jones.

Calliope was a brinkman, or, as they were known in Faery, a strandloper, one who was able to wander the edges of worlds. Even among strandlopers she was unusual, because Calliope was made, not born, with her talent. She had started life like Lila, unsuspecting and human. Unlike Lila, Calliope was made by accident and so far as he knew she was the only human ever to have seen one of the Others. Thus today she was good for two reasons and that set his intuition on a happy road, so he went to her.

The white body of Teazle was easy to track until he vanished in midair over a broad canal that lay between the mainland and the many islets and sandbars of Bathshebat proper. Lila saw him fade from view against the dark background of clear water reflecting the night sky. At the same moment all trace of him slipped from her heat sensors and radar. Whatever he was pursuing continued to flee, a blinking enhanced dot in her AI vision, but then, in midflight of its own, it crumpled for apparently no reason at all and then plummeted directly into the water below. There was a splash of white water to mark the spot and, a few seconds later, a bobbing body in the wavelets.

Lila slowed her swift descent and stood on her jets. Thanks to the speed of the flight and her nakedness she was now freezing cold and although many demons wore little or nothing she felt uncomfortable and vulnerable too. Without thinking about it she moved into defensive mode. Looking down she saw that the person Teazle had pursued was entangled in a silvery net which sparkled with magic. She was not used to magic, even now. Her human senses were not the rare kind able to sense whether such an enchanted thing was hostile or friendly to her and she didn’t want to touch it. The trapped person thrashed about ineffectively and then became more still as they managed to get their head above water. So, they had to breathe at least, she thought and looked around for any sign of the demon.

A hot, damp breath passed over the back of her neck. She scanned —nothing there apparently, but on the instant that Tath whispered,
Chameleon . . .
she had already come to the same conclusion and did not move. Undetectable even to machine targeting and scientific methods, gifted with nonspecific, nebulous white power—she could easily understand now why Teazle was among the deadliest of his kind. If he had wanted to kill her she would be dead already, so instead of bothering with fear she said, “Who is that?” and pointed into the water. Her jets roared softly, making the patch beside the floating captive into a blur of frothy white and steam.

“Your prisoner,” came the soft reply. “Your rules. I leave you to choose their fate.” There was a hesitation, then, “If you decide to slay them for their insult I only ask you do it at the party, for my mother’s sake. It would make her so happy.”

Lila took a breath automatically to give her opinion on such an idea but there was a crack like a lightning strike, only without light, and in that instant she knew Teazle had dematerialised. Simple air rushed in to take his place.

Pathetic, abominable barbarianism
, Tath said with real venom.
Disgusting excrescence of intolerant stupidity!
His sudden burst of hate for all demonkind and everything they stood for was hot and fearful in her chest. Lila reeled for a second with the impact. It was short lived. Tath got hold of himself in another moment and shrank down again to near indetectability; a residual shimmer of loathing.

“He teleports,” she said aloud to herself, with considerable dismay.

There was some more thrashing in the water below and a few audible gasps for air. Lila extended a narrow fibre line from a reel in her right forearm and bent down to her lower leg where there were some small containers holding a few lengths of metal rod. Taking one out she bent it into a grappling hook and affixed the line to it with several carefully made bow lines. Then, careful of her jet wash, she manoeuvred herself into a position where she could catch a good hold of the net. In a few moments she was confident that everything could take the weight and locked her hands together to stabilise her grab. Moving slowly but surely she raised her captive from the water and began a stately progress up and up, over the water, rising until she was able to safely clear the approaching rooftops.

She did not head back towards the mountain retreat but instead took a route towards the flat landing deck of the Ahriman family mansion. At the end of her rope the prisoner, a relatively lightweight hundred and fifty pounds, twirled and dripped in silence. Then Lila felt a small vibration through the line and realised they were attempting to cut free. At this point they were several hundred feet in the air. Beneath them lay a labyrinth of tiny streets and narrower canals, covered alleys and tented squares. No doubt the fall was a risk worth taking. Lila would have taken it. Now she ground her teeth in annoyance, stood up on the jets, and gave the cord a furious jerk.

The net and its contents sailed up towards her and she dropped towards it efficiently, reaching out and taking a firm hold on the wet, cold body and the netting together. She exerted a great deal of pressure and heard the satisfying whuff of someone’s lungs losing a lot of air very quickly. They struggled and she increased her grip to vicelike, then they stopped. With a subdued roar and careful manoeuvres Lila deposited both of them on the smooth landing surface of the roof.

The glowing lamps that ringed the area gave enough light for her to see well by without adjusting her vision, but no matter how she adjusted it she found she could not properly see the person she was holding. The net was clear as day, wet and fine and spiderlike, glistening with tiny silver sparkles of charm. The body did not glisten. It was greyish and matte, like a shadow.

It is a dark elf
, Tath said with surprise and contempt.
Aether suckers . . .
his tone became disgusted.
Like Dar, but this one is magical and he was . . . less so. It is in shadow. If you release the net it will disappear into the wind.

It feels solid enough
, Lila objected.

The person was like a thin, two-dimensional silhouette to look at, but three-dimensional to hold. It was extremely disorientating. Breezes from the lagoon drifted around her, making her suddenly cold. She wished she had worn her usual clothing and not the stupid demon dress. She wished she had not made such a grand gesture as to throw the stupid dress away.

Anyway, why are you so hostile? I thought all the elves were of one brotherhood.

We are a divided species. Zal and I are of the diurnal type. This is nocturnal. We collect aether. They hunt it. They are the vampires of our kind. I thought you would know all this, you being the favoured human of such a mighty elf as Sarasilien
, and he said the name with sarcasm.

Suddenly the complexity of your civil war makes perfect sense
, Lila said to him, losing patience with his casual bigotries.
So, Dar was loathed because of his caste
and
his kind?

That is correct. Loathed only in the light court of course. But no great deal to the dark court either, because he was not truly theirs. People like Zal and Dar are of no value to anyone, because their loyalties lie only with themselves. This is why Zal can never return to Alfheim.

I knew there was a reason it wasn’t so bad to kill you
, Lila sighed.

It is not a good idea to be powerful yet valueless
, Tath said sharply.
I am surprised the school of politics, economics, and international relations lets you out alone.

The simmering tension between them disappeared. Lila reckoned they were about equal.
What do I do now, then?

It is entirely up to you
, Tath said.
But if you plan not to slay your would-be murderer you will need to neutralise them some other way.

You could talk to them.

I could, but then they have power over you, by being able to betray me to anyone here. Knowledge is power and whatever you have over someone else you should use only when it may be lethally employed. Value. You would be a fool to hand over knowledge without a great cause and this is not one. You will have to deal with it yourself.

Lila groaned inwardly, resenting Tath’s schoolteacher primness and hating the fact that he was right. “Hey you,” she said to the shadow elf. “What’s your name?” She didn’t expect an answer and didn’t get one. “Great,” she said to them. “And while you’re at it don’t thank me for saving you from drowning when you were ready to finish me off. Speaking of which, why were you trying to shoot me? Oh, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. It hardly matters. But if you have any tips for getting you into safe custody before everyone else here decides to barbeque you for dinner, that’d be handy.”

The elf took a small, shuddering breath and spoke a word. The world went pitch black and utterly silent. Lila did not lessen her grip. The net held. The prisoner cursed.

Light and sound banishing
, Tath said.
That takes a lot of aether. Just hang on. It will get tired before you do. At least there is one advantage to your mundanity.

She was almost dry by now but she felt even colder in the absolute darkness. She closed her eyes and when the elf moved she tightened her grip until it could barely breathe enough to live. After a long time the glowing lights of the landing began to glimmer faintly, or she imagined them, but then the Bathshebat night returned, soft and full of the sound of insects and many kinds of music.

If you want to get your answers, wait for dawn.