‘But Alfheim is already dark. So how does that figure?’
‘There’s no knowing. We must find out. Dark doesn’t mean dead.’
‘I know. Let’s get drunk and wait for the end of the world,’ Zal said. ‘Easier that way. Also, if we haven’t got a Titan or
whatever, then no point worrying, is there?’
‘Ah, now I see what kind of succubus has struck him.
Hedonic Nihila
is the heroin of the succubus world,’ Teazle said, cocking his head at Zal and looking at him with predatory interest. ‘It
brings on a thoroughly enjoyable surrender. Although, he was always a bit that way.’
Malachi gave Zal a disgusted look. ‘Titanically.’
Lila had been thinking on other lines. ‘Does Sarasilien know about Xavi?’
‘I didn’t tell him because – the fact is I’m not sure what Xavi is,’ Malachi said. ‘Or how much she knows. Or how what you
wrote in that book affects her. You put ‘‘friends and lovers all’’. Well, lovers. You know. Difficult wording to interpret,
that, given all the possibles. You should have put something like ‘‘faithful companions’’ instead.’
Lila shrugged it off. ‘Well, she and Sarasilien have a lot of unfinished business. Does she know he’s there?’
‘No. I’m sure not. She’d have made more trouble if she did.’
‘Then we’ll take her into Alfheim with us.’
‘We?’
‘Me, Zal and Teazle.’
‘Sarasilien said that Zal was to go alone.’
‘I bet Greer would be happy to see the back of me,’ Lila said. ‘I’ve been trying to make sure of it. But anyway, more to the
point, Malachi. How long have you been in this plot? What’s your interest?’
Malachi smoothed his hair and brushed invisible dust off his hands. ‘Since the Queen was involved. But you’ve gotta understand
that when she went Under, and it was locked, I forgot most of it. I had to. We keep things safe by forgetting them. All I
knew was that where Sarasilien went I was supposed to follow and see what happened and help. Nothing else. I never even thought
about it until recently. I didn’t remember all of what I just told you until a couple of days ago. Ever since then it’s been
coming back.’
‘Along with many things,’ Teazle said. ‘Even Zal was talking about a comeback.’
‘Not as
myself
,’ Zal said faintly from the pillows. ‘As a musician but not as a singer doing some sad retro act. Reinvention, not reiteration.
You know.’
Lila shook her head slowly. ‘Who plays games with Titans?’
Malachi lifted his head and looked at her with a slight revival of curiosity. ‘Games? You mean . . .’
‘So this isn’t part of some long game, then?’
His eyes, ochre with weariness, narrowed. ‘Who’s been talking to you about long games?’
‘Someone,’ she said. She would once have told him everything but it was time to keep her cards closer to her chest, she felt.
He measured her for a moment. ‘If it is a game then it’s one in very bad taste,’ he said finally. ‘Longer than most players
have ever been alive. But these things can run amok in such ages. Could be I suppose. Doesn’t matter if it is. The facts remain.’
She switched tack. ‘What would happen if the harbingers were killed?’
He did a double take. ‘You have got some bees in your bonnet, haven’t you? Kill them all you like, they’ll keep coming as
long as there’s a way through.’
‘I had a message from some fey instructing me that killing them would stop the problem.’
‘They were misinformed then, or they’ve got things backwards. Happens a lot. We don’t see time like you do. But don’t blame
them. They were right to want it stopped. The longer it continues the more chances there are for serious problems.’ He yawned
and got up. ‘Damn elves,’ he said. Once he was further from Zal he brightened a little bit.
Zal chuckled but it tailed off suddenly and Lila saw his face darken with some memory that made him close his eyes and go
silent. Even the succubus charm wasn’t enough to stall it.
‘I should see Tath,’ she said. ‘You can take me there while Zal recovers, then we can get to Alfheim.’
‘Yeah, well much as I like being your private taxi service I told you, he’s changed. I’m not sure it’s a good idea.’
She lost her temper. ‘Oh come on! I saw him days ago. He was okay. A little weird around the edges maybe but—’
‘Lila.’ The black faery looked her in the eye with a gaze that was exacting and hard. ‘If you don’t come back from wherever
he is, then
we have a thousand times less of a chance than we have right now. He took Jack’s place. He was twice born, so that made him
the Lord of the Dead, the good shepherd of the dark valleys. He’s got more faery weird in him than anything else, even if
he was once an elf, and he’s been with the undead for a long time. Days here, but his time is now measureless, don’t forget.
Being in that kind of place doesn’t sit well with minds that were made for finite lives in the material worlds. He’s changed.
You can’t trust him any more to be what he was, or who he was. Leave him.’
She saw truth in his face. ‘You’ve seen him.’
‘And that’s why I am telling you.’ Malachi turned aside, his face pinched and brows pulled together. ‘Went to play cards.
We play once a . . . once upon a time. Cards night. We talk a little. We drink a little. I give him fruit. He gives me news.
That’s it. Cards. And the last time I went he wasn’t there so I went looking for him thinking it’s strange, he never misses
cards night. And I found him. And then I left him, way out there beyond the border, beyond Last Water. He used to be more
like us, I guess, and now he’s more like them. Don’t go, Lila.’ His face was lined and heavy as he finished and all traces
of dancing were gone. ‘But I should be grateful I guess. At least you want to do something. I thought you wouldn’t even listen
this long.’ He hesitated to say something else and kept it in.
Lila nodded. She didn’t mention the dress. She felt she had no right to. ‘I’ll do something. But not out of any faith in the
future. I’ll do it for Tath, or you, or Zal, or Teaz, maybe Greer. And I don’t know what that something will be. Might not
be what you and your craftsmen had in mind.’
Malachi spread his hands out and gave another of his shrugs. ‘I was never that kind of player, you know that.’
‘I don’t know what I know about you any more,’ she replied honestly. She looked at Zal, at Teazle, at Malachi again. ‘Let’s
go.’ She stood up.
‘There’s a problem.’ Malachi held up his hand towards her chest. ‘You can’t go beyond Last Water. Not even with me. Not even
astrally. If you do, you’ll never come back. You can’t see him that way.’
‘Then how?’ She peered at him but her mind was already searching for and finding the answer. ‘I’ll summon him.’
‘Not here!’ Malachi’s panic was sudden.
Lila jumped, startled, before she could stop herself.
‘I know you don’t want to believe me, but you can’t bring him to a
world of the living and expect it to be okay. Don’t bring him if you can’t send him back or where you can’t afford a lot
of people dying, and leakage.’
Lila raised her eyebrows.
‘He means that there will be some aetheric wake in such a summons,’ Teazle drawled, arms folded across his chest, head on
one side. ‘We might expect anything from a change in the weather to an invasion of geists and ghouls. They might cluster around
their lord and obey him or they might be free. It depends on what this friend of yours has become.’ He looked down at the
bed again and over Zal’s blissful expression. ‘This would concern me more. You can’t send Zal anywhere with this on him. He
could shoot himself just for the fun of it.’
Zal waved a hand airily. ‘I’ll be fine.’
Teazle snorted. ‘You can’t trust him.’
‘Nonsense!’ Zal retorted. ‘I’ve taken hundreds of drugs that were way worse than this.’
There was a strange ringing noise and suddenly Teazle’s blade, yellow and shining, was at Zal’s throat. Lila was also up on
her feet, arm poised to knock it away although she had held back at the last moment. ‘What are you doing?’
The blade, which looked more like a strip of fire than a piece of metal, hummed with an audible sound that made her skin crawl
as though it would very much like to run away, whether or not she was coming with it. It was the sword named Corruptor, she
thought.
‘These blades were both demons once,’ Teazle said. ‘After death their stone corpses were refined and the ore was beaten with
dragon-bone ash until it made these blades. This one has an affinity for poisons and disease of any kind. She was a succubus.
Watch.’ With a tiny movement of his arm he nicked Zal’s skin with the razor edge of the sword. A drop of blood ran out onto
the blade and the blade’s fire suddenly intensified, the hum changed to a much more soft and mellow tone. Lila saw the blood
vanish into the blade and its light grew for a fraction of a second. She saw Teazle listening, his gaze empty as he concentrated,
lips swelling and a half smile moving across his face.
‘Happy with that, is she?’ Malachi asked, also watching.
Teazle brought the sword back to him, its tasselled hilt gleaming in his hand through its bindings. ‘She is only delighted
when she tastes venoms that match her own inclinations. In her lifetime she was an
enslaver who ruled an army that was devoted enough to conquer the known world. Her venom charm enabled them to be fearless
or hopeless, according to her will. They would do anything for her. Their love for her knew no limit. His sting hasn’t got
a living demon attached to it any more, so its charm wanders. It isn’t as strong as a
Nihila
strike from a major demon, it’s weak, but it’s there.’ His eyes were bright. Holding the sword was exciting him. With a strong,
determined move he sheathed it again and let it go. ‘It could take months to wear off depending on the potency of the strike.’
‘She was only a second-rate pusher for godsake!’ Lila snapped. ‘It can’t be that bad.’
‘Well, on an ordinary person maybe not but this is Zal,’ Teazle said. ‘He’s like walking
Hedonia Nihila
anyway. Love, death, there’s nothing he won’t dice with. If there’s time then I should get him to a demon who can get rid
of this.’
Lila shrugged. ‘Meet me back here in two hours. I’ll go alone.’
Malachi heaved a long sigh. ‘If proof were needed we have no control over you, this is it.’
‘Whatever you say,’ she said. She checked Zal’s neck where the sword had bitten but the one drop was all that had come from
the scratch and it was almost healed up already. Livid lines spread from the sting site. She glanced at Teazle and trusted
him to pick up her intentions from what she was about to say. ‘I’m going to the place we found before. Look after him.’
‘I will,’ the demon promised. His eyes were very bright but he blinked slowly, shutters on a furnace.
Malachi’s expression darkened at being left out of the loop, though his tone was amused and slightly wondering. ‘The three
of you are truly an unholy union.’
‘Three’s the magic number,’ Zal said. ‘I want three baths. And three drinks. And three f— Never mind. Three shots of something
good.’
‘Don’t worry, we’re going to just the place,’ Teazle assured him. ‘You’re good as you are.’
‘I don’t want to know, do I?’ Lila asked.
‘You look very beautiful in that dress,’ Teazle said.
She was taken aback. ‘I . . . have to go.’
Malachi laughed. ‘Compliments. I should have known that was the weapon.’
‘Weapon?’ Lila frowned at them both.
‘Never mind,’ the faery growled. ‘Speed to your respective dooms. I
must return to Otopia and find a way to spring Xaviendra from the gaol without anybody noticing. I’ll bring her here as soon
as I can.’
Lila smiled. ‘Could you send a message to my house and say we won’t be back for dinner?’
‘I think you mean for days,’ he said with an air of weary resignation. ‘Very well. And to whom do I send this message?’
‘To Sassy. You know, your cleaner?’
He nodded thoughtfully and gave her a glance that assured her he would be looking into this at length while she wasn’t there
to interfere. ‘As you wish.’
‘And please explain things to Temple.’
‘Oh I always give a good excuse,’ Malachi said. ‘Covering up is the name of my game.’ He paused, ‘I know it looks bad, Lila,
what I’ve said and done, but think about the alternatives and I did – I do – like you. I wouldn’t wait fifty years for just
anyone. But I won’t be your whipping boy over it either. We’ve played that game and we’ve both lost it.’
‘We’re good,’ she said. ‘I won’t ask another favour.’ She would have given him a hug or a kiss but she was still too angry
to make it. Instead she hoped her sincerity showed in her eyes. Her feelings would have to catch up in their own time.
‘I won’t give you one.’ From a faery this was a kindness. He gave her a brief smile and turned on his heel. In a whirl of
black, glittering dust he vanished. The dust circled and fell. It darkened the floor for a few moments, winking as if it was
a night sky, then it was gone.
‘He must’ve been working on that,’ Teazle said, mildly impressed.
‘Lila, are you naked under that dress?’ Zal mused. She felt his hand slide over the fabric across her hip.
‘I’m in full plate,’ she replied.
‘It really feels naked to me,’ he said.
‘Yes, it looked naked in the bath,’ Teazle agreed.
She lowered her chin and glared at him, ‘You didn’t leave me any underwear.’
‘How thoughtless.’
She saw Teazle’s white-light stare intensify, felt it shine on her face, or it might have been her blushing. Then she glanced
down and Zal’s darker eyes were looking at her with the same expression, as alert and predatory as he had been zonked five
seconds earlier. She realised he’d been fooling around the whole time.
‘I can’t.’ She held up her hand. ‘Not now. Really.’
‘Why’s that?’ Teazle moved closer. Because he was standing his height and his posture made him look down on her and his jaw
lifted with arrogant confidence. There was much less playfulness in him than in Zal, although both of them could shift gears
from nought to hot in less than a second. She loved that moment when all their teasing vanished into pure hunting conviction
and she saw it flickering close in the demon’s white face.