She did not have long to wait. After they had eaten and drunk in formal silence and the first course had been cleared away—by servants who were more like Dar than Arië, Lila noticed—then the guards who had escorted her to her talk with Astar opened the doors and escorted Zal into the room.
He looked no different to the way he looked when he was about to go on stage, Lila realised, with a physical shock that made her glad she was seated. Every fibre and electron of her thrummed in a moment of total harmony. Now that she was used to elfin faces she saw Zal's familial relationships clearly written in his face. He was of Arië's kind, although for such a high-caste elf he had stronger, more human features. It was his eyes that stood out the most, brown beneath dark brows. They were not Taliesetra eyes, for theirs came in all shades of blue and green.
A zing of disbelief ran through Tath and Lila felt his convictions waver. They used to be blue, Tath said. I have not seen him since he was in Bathshebat. I had no idea what had happened.
Zal didn't spare the guard nor any of Arië's court a single glance. He took the seat left for him at the nominal foot of the curved table with a distinctly human kind of carelessness, dragging his chair. He looked once at Dar, though neither of their expressions so much as flickered. He looked once towards Lila and her heart leapt up eagerly though she knew he couldn't see her.
“Ilya,” he said, using the part of Tath's name which Lila had come to understand signified a rather frostier relation than the more common version. “What an unexpected aggravation. Still licking the Lady's boots for a living?”
If Tath had still had a body, it would have gone from calm to full, bristling alert at Zal's words. “Still protecting Sathanor from you,” Tath said smoothly, though Lila was aware that his feelings towards Zal were highly ambivalent. Tath was experiencing a definite chemistry of some kind, along with a most un-elven burn of curiosity.
“Still conspiring in my death, I believe you mean,” Zal drawled. “Got your eye on the throne, or the seat next to it.”
Really? Lila demanded.
Hardly, Tath said but she didn't believe him.
During their brief exchange the second course had been served. Zal idly pushed the plate away from him and tipped it over the edge of the table onto the floor where it broke. Food splattered in all directions.
“Oh dear, how sad, never mind,” Zal said. “I just love these home-cooked meals and all of us here together like this. Gives me a warm glow, right here.” He tapped the centre of his chest with his fist. “And the conversation,” he said into the frosty silence. “How I've missed your empty posturing, Ysha, Elwe…” He named everyone at the table and gave them each a gleaming and insincere smile as servants hurried to clean the mess away.
Zal rested his elbows on the table and his face in his hands, staring flatly at Arië. “Is that what you brought me here for? To see my old Daga mates and eat here with you so that I never want to leave again?” He ran his finger across the untouched sauce on the plate of the elf beside him and stuck it in his mouth. Judging by his expression Lila could see he really liked it and guessed that he was actually starving. He pulled his finger out and wiped it on his neighbour's shirt. “Not bad. Had better. Still want to leave. Still not going to entertain you.” He pushed his chair back and stood up.
“I am the one the Lady has brought you here to speak with,” Dar said and for the first time since he came in Zal looked at Dar, thoughtfully.
“Why hello, Dar. It must be all of two days since I last saw you.” Zal walked around his own chair and held onto its high back. He had more animation in him than the rest of the court put together, an energy that Lila saw didn't match theirs. There was some kind of andalune tussle then, a ripple of power that ran around the gathering faster than thought. Lila caught the tail end of it via Tath. She knew now exactly what Zal had meant on that wooded hillside at Solomon's Folly, when he told her he had to be in Alfheim, sometimes. It was home. People of aether could only be at full power on their own turf, but though this had at one time completely satisfied him, it transparently didn't do so any longer. He was changed and they all felt it and recoiled. They didn't want to know.
Lila knew she must get to the bottom of this pattern of magic and relationship between the aetheric formats, but now was not the moment. While she started considering breakout possibilities from the room they were in, Zal and Dar faced off.
“You know that the reason you're here isn't because any of us dislike you, though we may disagree with your chosen path, Zal,” Dar began, slightly moving his body so that it did not square against Zal's, but deflected the pressure of attention sideways, less aggressively.
“Spare me,” Zal pushed the chair away and straightened up but he stayed where he was to listen to Dar's speech, a curiously pained look on his face which Lila did not trust herself to interpret.
They are friends, Tath said. Whatever it looks like. Dar is playing to the Lady. Zal is waiting to see what the game is.
“Every one of us wants Alfheim to recover from the ills of recent years, just as you do,” Dar insisted, genuine appeal in his voice. “The wild aether burgeons. The Saaqaa population explodes out of Delantis with every passing moon and we cannot control their spread. Old lunar charms that cast spells for darkness or light have warped, and now break holes in the worlds bringing Thanatopic and faery magics leaking through. All tame creatures are growing wild. Isn't this decay and pollution what the Jayon Daga have been sworn to end since the beginning of the Otopian Age? When the walls between worlds thinned we sent emissaries to the five realms to learn of their arts and magics, to become practitioners or to find trusted double agents whom we could turn to our ends. Wasn't that how you were left in Demonia? And how you came to abandon us, your true friends and brothers, sweet companion of my heart?”
Sweet companion of my heart? Lila gasped. But Dar had said he didn't know Zal personally at all…had explained to her that they could never be friends. She could hardly believe that he had told such a barefaced lie—and Zal was doing nothing to deny it. Why would Dar do that? She must have been a fool to trust him as much as she had. What else was a lie?
Trust nothing. The stakes are too high, Tath said and then seemed to catch himself, as though he didn't mean to speak it to her.
As she considered this, Lila's AI-self was rapidly recalculating the scale of the gulf Zal had crossed in going over to the demons. She'd known it was significant but by their reactions here it was huge. He had done the unthinkable, more than breaking some cultural taboo.
Tath filled her in. Nobody in any realm had previously questioned the distinct separations of the people's natures. Their essential forms are unsympathetic to one another, lethally so at times. Zal has embraced an oppositional magical system and culture which his native land despises and fears, their antithesis. He has come back and shown them that he lives, but they don't know what he is now. They fear and despise him. They are more dangerous than ever. His desire to break down barriers has had the opposite effect. You can feel the truth of it and he can too.
Yes, but anyway, Lila shot back, fiercely proud of Zal, companion of my heart? She didn't understand all the elvish terms of endearment, so many formal, so many intimate, so many degrees of meaning—she searched her AI database rapidly and watched Zal's face. Did she see a flicker of emotion cross its rigid set? His ear tips bent towards the thick blond fall of his hair more closely.
Dar was still speaking, “It has been a miracle so far that the Daga have managed to keep so many secrets from the other realms, not least the Otopians. And if you are not another symptom of Alfheim's disintegration, what are you? Really, Zal, set aside your self for a moment and consider how much of what you have done is motivated by our interests, as you claim, and how much of it is driven by the general illness that is decomposing Alfheim from within. You are sick and you will suffer, if Alfheim continues to collapse.”
“Really I think that you'll find Alfheim's problems with aether pollution started around the same time as the High Light Hegemony decided to go for partitioning and all that other separationist bullshit,” Zal said. His dark gaze, levelled at Dar like a spear a few minutes ago, had softened, though only a little. “I can't believe you sit here with this unimaginative, frightened woman, who is merely hours away from throwing every value she had to the wind, in a mad effort to save what cannot be saved. But you have the healer's skill so I hope you're going to back me up when I prove to you that the last thing you have to worry about is demon aether and the last thing I am is sick.”
Lila and Tath sat as still and fixated as the rest, their food gone cold, as Zal pulled his shirt off and turned around. The fire flare on his back was a shocking blaze of yellow and orange. Chairs scraped and cutlery clanged as there was a universal and involuntary move backwards from everyone present. The massed andalune of the Lady's party shrank back and even Lila twitched and pressed against the sturdy frame of her chair as what she had taken for some kind of magical mark opened up and two huge, dripping wings of fire emerged from Zal's upper back.
The guards froze in their forward step, fixated.
Heat beat against Lila's skin. The wings were enormous, batlike but covered in a thin sheen of what seemed to be lava that gave rise to feathers of flame. The laval substance ran and dripped towards the ground in strings and globs of orange. As these little pieces fell they shimmered. Small bits evaporated into the air, larger globs fell right to the floor where they instantly penetrated the charm of the surface tension and dropped into the depths in streams of boiling, foaming water. Steam rose in clouds. There was a strong smell of hot metal.
I can't help wishing he mentioned this before, Lila said to Tath. Is it show or does it all do something? Think we can bust out of here by force? Her gun ports twitched.
You will not make it. Arië has at least five mages here and the lake to command. We have to distract her much more.
Zal turned around slowly and said, in a voice so convincing Lila barely recognised it, though she knew it was the start of an old song. “I am the god of hell fire, and I bring you…”
Nobody got the joke. Lila told Tath the song lyrics to “Fire”—Zal had recorded a version of it six months previously.
It is well they do not know those words, Tath whispered but his attention was barely on what Zal was saying. What he was seeing was plain impossible; a known high-caste light elf with demon attributes and vile Otopian habits living perfectly well in Sathanor. Lila could feel Tath as suddenly fragile, almost disintegrating. She wasn't sure she was ready to know this truth either but there it was, ready or not.
Zal was having a fine time. He laughed. “Dar, do I look sick?”
Dar couldn't answer. Like the others, he was transfixed. Even Arië was motionless.
Proof, Lila said. I saw it before but I thought…
Desperation, Tath said after a pause. It is all he has. It is proof indeed, but that will make no difference.
Why? Lila demanded.
Because the truth is immaterial in this case, Tath said. Arië will rule Alfheim and nothing that could threaten her claims can be allowed to stand. Zal is a fool. He still thinks that his original mission has some value and that others in power care for the truth. He holds fast to his ideals and dreams. He has sealed his fate.
“Desist or I will drown you as you stand,” Arië said then.
But this has to be more important! Lila insisted. Look at what it means…
Your naive ways will get us all killed, Tath said coldly. Aloud he said, “Do as she commands.”
Zal turned to Tath. “And you, Ilya. Using your skill to preserve the crap that Arië wants all Alfheim to believe, when you know from your dealings with Thanatopia that it's all bullshit. Serving two masters always; your caste and house, her and the Daga, scraping around accepting their condescension, believing that you are abusing yourself for their good when all the time you haven't the faith to trust your own heart. If you did, you wouldn't sit there waiting for my blood to fulfil Interstitial Warp spells when yours would be just as effective in the task. You could have secured power months ago without me if you had the guts to stand up to her and shove her worthless life into the endless dark. You're not just a bastard but a coward. Did she promise you some family connection, promotion and power?”
“We do not kill kin. You are my family,” Tath retorted.
“Not anymore,” Zal said, and his talent for vocal command lent his words a chill and regret that made Lila's blood run cold. “We are long lost to one another.” He snapped his wings shut and they vanished suddenly, one second there, the next gone. In their absence the room was cold.
Tath's hurt was piercing, old as it was, and his resentment and anger hard to contain.
Lila had to fight to concentrate. Companion of my heart—her AI returned to her at last: friendship affirmation, emotional intimacy (first degree), longevity distinction (adult friendship matches only), sexual rapport (second degree, intermittent), bond strength (first degree), connotation (appeasing, persuading), speaker willingly accepts temporary lower degree of power and kudos in relationship.
Then they used to be more than good friends! Lila thought. Very good. This gets more and more complicated by the second! How old is Zal? How old is Dar? But she had no time to put everything together, yet. She tried to ignore the stab of jealousy she felt towards Dar momentarily, though she couldn't ignore her rage at his lie. Tath gloated, paying her back for her earlier disapproval of him.
“Alfheim's power and strength all come from Aparastil,” the Lady was saying, as sweet of tone and manner as though she were hosting a party for her dearest friends. “As any other realm is likewise compelled, we must protect it with our lives. You cannot doubt that.”
“You're an idiot,” Zal said, as every other elf in the room winced at his Otopian use of language, “What's happening here is the result of policies you began years ago and it has nothing to do with other realms. The more you attempt to manipulate the Interspace, the more savage the reactions will become and they will tear Alfheim to bits. Ask any demon scientist. At least they check their facts.”
Arië's pretty coral lips curled with anger. “You have abandoned Alfheim and turned your nature to the service of degraded magic and black arts. Your words could exert no compulsion on my mind. What proof have you of your claims? Does Demonia embrace the otherworlds and rejoice in perfect security?”
“Demonia's borders are open…” Zal began patiently.
“Because no sane person would enter!” retorted one of the Lady's companions.
“…open and yes, it does experience ghost crossings and visits of other creatures of the Interstices, and it's fine. Demonia knows that I-space is the glue that binds us, as your willing little slave Ilya knows only too well. Leakage between all the realms is a proper part of their dynamic coexistence. No place can ever be pure. You can't save Aparastil by refusing contact to anyone not descended from the Valar. You should reopen the borders immediately.”
“The Saaqaa were never so bad until the Otopians emerged,” Arië said. “Every degradation of Alfheim has occurred through contact with Otopia and Demonia, Faery, Thanatopia, and the Void. In the days of earlier Ages we were many times near destroyed by unwise and ignorant efforts to explore the distant places beyond our borders and our eagerness to bring their treasures home. Other races value what we abhor. They all have their own homes and their own power. We have all seen one another and learned. Let them stay in the places they love the best, and not be polluted by what they so dislike in Alfheim.”
Zal pulled the chair back and sat down on it. His manner became weary but his intensity didn't alter. “Look at me. I'm still all right. I'm half demon, and I'm still an elf. I can drink the water and I can breathe the air. I can cross into Zoomenon, like any other elf mage, and the elementals come to me. I can live wherever I choose.”
“No elf can be half demon,” Arië said. “The magical systems are antithetical to one another. Such a harmony is your fantasy, nothing more. You have sustained yourself with frequent transits to Zoomenon, and you would ever be forced to do the same. You cannot live in another realm forever, you will always be coming home and when you can't you must bring it to you. That vile taint is killing you surely, even though you think it so wonderful.”
“I'm not dead yet,” Zal said and shrugged. “I'm sure I'll get the hang of it before that happens. It's a work in progress.”
“You do not deny your reliance on the elementals to restore you, however,” Arië said. “You are dependent on them.”
“Not nearly as much as you'd like,” Zal said quietly, his head dropping forward and jaw biting shut. The muscles in his face hardened.
Arië made a gesture with one hand and the guards came towards Zal. He stood up and the withering contempt in his words was physically painful, even to Lila, as though the words were real weapons. “Of all our family you were always the most fragile. I'd pity you, if I could be bothered, but my patience with you ran out a long time ago, somewhere around the minute you decided it would be better for all of us to scatter and do your dirty work for you at whatever personal cost it exacted from us.” He glanced at Dar and his accusation was no less damaging. “You surprise me. I thought you would have had more character than this.”
Dar shuddered and went a pale ashen colour. Lila's heart went out to him, but Zal had already let himself be turned away.
There'd better be another chance, Lila told Tath.
One for certain, he said. Zal succeeded in pushing her off balance. Me too. I think you will get your moment to be a hero. Do not worry. He sounded grim and was full of self-loathing. Lila felt sick.
The food, which had all gone cold, was taken away and replaced but she couldn't touch it. The court talked around her, of other matters. Lila watched Dar. He was paler than usual, and if the food had savour for him he showed no pleasure in it, pushing it around almost without noticing what he was doing. He glanced at her with a troubled expression and Arië watched the both of them.
Lila began to realise the poverty of the situation she had stumbled into. Surely the Incon must have had an inkling of this petty tyranny being behind Alfheim's oh-so sophisticated political posturing? They had sent her in blind, she thought, and felt resentment knot her stomach. And they must have known much more about Zal than they let on, especially Sarasilien, he would have known Zal was once Jayon Daga if nothing else, and that whatever he was doing it was part of the decay in Alfheim, and deadly. That hurt.
And then she abruptly thought of her family, for no apparent reason, and her would-be grave on the hill. I am already dead, she realised, glancing at Dar. I was expendable. An expensive prototype, a secret, and here's my test run—they're seeing what I'll turn out like when they let me alone. But then again, sending her so untried into this kind of storm all to bring back one self-destructive elf—that made no sense at all and she doubted her own doubts and shoved them quickly into one of those mental drawers the AI-self provided for such things. For the rest of the almost unendurable meal she pretended that her dog, Okie, was under the table, and that the occasional brush of andalune energy that touched her was the feathery hair of his tail.
At last when the court retired to its preparations for the spellcast, Arië summoned Dar and Tath to her. “Zal's change disturbs me greatly,” she said. “I am convinced now that he may pose a great danger to us. Perhaps he will attempt some interference with the spell. But if this Game exists between Zal and the Otopian Agent, perhaps it can be used to maintain control of him.” For the first time Lila saw Arië look doubtful and, through that moment, saw how tired the Lady was, and how anxious. “Are you sure that the forfeit is the death of love? If so he would lose all loyalty to anything but this abominable creation.”
“I am sure,” Tath said, and Lila closed her mind around Sorcha's actual words (you will never love anyone else again). Meanwhile Arië's andalune was caressing Tath's, grooming Dar's too; Lila saw both of them struggling against the pleasure of her goodwill and approval. It nauseated her that she could feel Tath's resistance weakening under that touch, and to realise how defenceless he was—all elves were—to such rapport from one of higher social rank, of higher power, of greater kudos than they were. For the first time in her experience of them she began to understand some of their behaviour, their weakness, their smooth ways. And meanwhile Tath groomed Arië the same way, increasing her conviction about his statements. Lila had to interrupt to save her own sanity.
What's your game with her?
None of your business, Tath declared.
Do we get our moment with Zal then?
She did not become the Lady of Sathanor because she is easily persuaded or duped. I would not count anything for what it seems now.
Well, I suppose you have to give convincing her your best shot, then. Knock yourself out, Lila said. She distanced herself inwardly from the elf's experience of the aethereal contacts, sure she could not stand another oleaginous moment.
Springing Zal from here and taking him back to Jelly Sakamoto seemed a bizarre goal now, in the face of what she had learned, although she was certain that preventing the spell and saving Zal were mutually compatible goals which her bosses would order her to complete, if only they could communicate with her at all.
And then there was the way she felt, dizzy and sick, longing to touch Zal again, even in passing, even in the dark, anywhere at all and for any reason, all her senses tuned to one another and waiting, as though he was the catalyst that would make her into something wonderful. She tried not to think of that, but it was impossible not to. Even Arië reminded her of Zal, and Dar's presence reminded her of their brief intimacy, in which he had not rejected her, nor found her unattractive, even if it was all for the sake of getting her here, and even if everything about him was a doubled, tripled front and he was Arië's servant. She held onto that sliver of truth.
“Very well,” Arië said finally, withdrawing. “Tath you may try this tactic and exert what power you can, but beware the wild magic effect and any alterations you may decipher in the forfeit. Dar, come with me, and assist us.”
Dar gave Tath and Lila a long glance. His andalune brushed Tath's and there was a sparkle of communion, but no words. Tath told her quickly, Dar is afraid. He says her court will create a tenfold cast in the structure of two and eight. You do not know magic, but such a shell casting will give her power to wield that is an order of magnitude larger than ten elf mages could muster. Her court are all well practised, and I doubt many of them are closeted Revolutionaries. Even if they are, they may not be able to effect any help for us. Once Arië is the pearl of that shell they will be no magic in Alfheim she cannot draw on, and she was always a clairvoyant of great skill. We must keep all our thoughts to a minimum and our words yet fewer or she will know all our intents.
Fantastic, Lila groaned inwardly, trying not to despair as she watched Dar follow the Lady, his face grim.
Lila and Tath followed yet another of Arië's tame courtiers through the palace, down and down through long halls and fish-lined galleries until they were left in a tiny set of rooms on the outer extremity of the palace. These were set so low in the lake that the water looked almost black—a full two hundred metres down, Lila confirmed with a quick burst of radar. Few fish swam towards the candlelight and glowing mineral lamps which lit their cell. It was like being suspended in green night, Lila thought, as she was left alone with Tath, who undid his andalune glamour, leaving her feeling suddenly naked even though she wore his clothes. And now she must pretend to seduce Zal and at the same time try and inform him that this was the best plan for escape and he would be suspicious of course, and maybe, in that way of spies who never know what is true or false really, he might not believe her…
She took off Tath's clothes and put them on a chest which rested against the inner wall and was partly hidden by a trailing ivy with pale yellow leaves. Neither she nor Tath had great faith in their ability to maintain such a network of disguises. To focus herself she made herself return to the centre of the room and look out.
In the bubble wall's shining reflections she saw herself suddenly, her scarlet hair, red magical stain, and silver eyes shocking and ridiculous against her tan skin and the subtle forest colours of the room. Her singlet and shorts were grubby with mud and other substances, her burned arm looked like an ordinary arm over which candlewax and mercury had run and set in lumps, and, thanks to the distorting effects of the bubble's curve, she also appeared ridiculously stretched out. The sight had an effect on her as though she had been suddenly drenched in cold water. Although it revealed the peculiarly natural look of her blend with her cyborg body, grown to health in Sathanor better than it ever had in Otopia, she was not lovely. No, not at all. She looked like a circus freak. The elves were right about her. How could she have entertained any dream of Zal?
To her surprise she felt Tath wrap a strong blanket around her self-loating and it was lessened.
NO, he said. Not true.
Such an unexpected kindness made tears start in her eyes.
Stop it. Are we spied on? Lila asked Tath, turning away so that he would not also be seeing her. She longed for his reassurance to be heartfelt and true, but she knew that his success depended, as hers did, on hanging together, not coming apart at the seams. It was probably only a necessary sop to her damaged ego.
It is likely. He was alert, curious, and Lila could feel him laughing at her remark because, of course she was spied upon—he was there. And that reminded her of the other times he was there and she felt a burst of embarrassment and to cover it up walked briskly towards the wall and began to test its structure and strength. As she stood there tapping the membrane of cajoled surface tension, and watching it generate curved wavefronts in the water beyond, she saw silt in the lake ahead of her stir suddenly and the shadow of a long, sinuous shape go gliding by just beyond the range of the candlelight.
Dragon, Tath said.
Lila didn't know much about dragons. They were so rare everywhere that almost nothing was known to anyone. Generally they were considered lucky, but this was only if you saw them from afar, like black cats and red sunsets. They were the bringers of storms or good weather, and were said to ride rainclouds and live in heavenly abodes at the four corners of the wind. But directions, navigation, weather, and the rest of it all changed depending on the realm, so imagining you knew what a dragon was there for was a tricky business.
It is curious, Tath said as they both watched the lake. Perhaps it will talk to you. This one has been here a long time, longer than I have been alive. It has never spoken to anybody, But Arië considers it the emblem of Aparastil's purity. She values its presence most highly.
Mascots. Cute. How will it talk? Lila asked him, stopping her taps immediately. I can't talk dragon.
Dragons are telepaths, Tath told her. If it wants to, it can easily communicate.
Have you spoken with a dragon before?
Only once. A conversation I did not understand and was lucky to survive. He shuddered, making Lila's chest feel as though she was having cardiac fibrillation. She took a calming breath. Out in the murk the flash of golden scales glinted for an instant and was gone.
The reflections on the transparent walls changed suddenly and Lila turned around. Zal's surprise was almost comical as the guard pushed him through the door and closed it after him. He stood fast a few steps inside the room and lowered his chin slowly to look her over, taking in every piece of her, from head to singlet to burnt arm to metal legs. His surprise changed to a grin with more than a hint of the demonic about it and Lila's heart surged into high-speed response, her breath lost to her.
“Why Agent Black, this is a very unexpected disaster.”
Lila decided that the feeling of nakedness she had had before was an illusion, compared to the one she had now. Zal's grin showed none of the signs of revulsion that the others had. Lila became hot and flustered, unable to speak as she opened her mouth to explain.
You didn't tell me you were in love with him, Tath said, reproachfully. And you really never mentioned that he was in love with you.
He isn't in love with me, Lila told him sharply, told herself. The recollection of her reflection was all too keen. She barely noticed Tath's envy, We don't even know each other. It's only magic.
Tath laughed at her.
Lila was still locked in Zal's gaze. She felt as though she was literally melting down. She didn't want to show it and she didn't want it to be true. She was hideous, and only some temporary wild magic effect could make him believe anything else.
Wait a second…Tath said, but Lila pushed him aside. His contempt for her needy state of being she could live without. She was supposed to pretend love for Zal, at least the Game of it, well, she could do that, and if it seemed real she'd remember it wasn't, and if it was too much then she'd pretend that it was real and get through it that way.
One of the best things about having an AI-self, Lila decided, was that it could make sense of things like that at a time like this.
She lifted her chin and steeled her spine. “I'm here to rescue you.”
“I'm delighted,” Zal replied, folding his arms across his chest. “And I take it your imprisonment in this maximum-security holding cell wearing nothing but hideous military issue underwear and various burn scars is all part of a masterly plan?”
“Naturally,” Lila said. Clearly they could not discuss the plan, even in pretend, and she was having to fight the urge to go closer to him. Was it her imagination or was there a slight citrus fizz in the air? She switched her vision to aetherial sensitivity and saw the telltale vapours of wild magic spiralling slowly up through the floor.
Zal followed her gaze. His look switched back to her and became calculating. “I suppose Dar brought you here?”
“Yes,” she said. On an impulse she ran her thoughts through her AI Tath-filter. She wanted to speak with words right for an elf but wrong for Lila, in the hope that Zal would notice and figure out that something was up. “After you were swept away by the phoenix he and his partner came back and we fought. They overpowered me, and brought me here.”
“Tricky,” Zal said, mostly to himself, and then to Lila, “I lost your kinky bike leathers. Arië burned them. She doesn't look kindly on the wearing of dead animals, no matter how nicely they've been turned into fabulous body-hugging fetish-wear.”
“It is no matter,” Lila said in her best impersonation of a girl who had been to finishing school and learned Shakespeare, even though she had no idea what finishing school might be like. “You can replace them with like when we get back to Otopia.”
“No matter,” Zal repeated carefully, exactly mimicking her voice. His dark eyes narrowed and his ears made that horselike motion that laid them perfectly flat to his head. In horses such a move signalled ill temper and presaged a kick or a bite. Lila wasn't surprised when he undid his arms and broke his casual pose to stride forward.
Before Lila knew what was happening, or rather, some time after she had correctly predicted what his movements intended, and had the near-delirious pleasure of a half a second to enjoy the prospect, he seized hold of her shoulders, pulled her close against him, and kissed her hard on the mouth. At the same instant his andalune body surrounded and submerged her completely.
Prepared for the shock of seeing him again, of being close to him, even of touching him, she was not prepared for immersion in his aethereal body, nor the way that the andalune sweetly invaded her like a trickle of warm water, cell by cell and conduit by conduit. Though it was not compatible with her electrical systems it inhabited the gaps between wires, the biological components of her mechanoid body carrying it as they carried Tath's; changed but whole. Lila was suffused with Zal and, as with Tath's andalune contacts, through it she became immediately aware of his state.
She could sense his physical strength and difference to herself, his energy levels, his emotion. He could hide nothing from her, not the fact that he was giving her a psychic frisk for hidden weapons, not the fact that he knew she was in trouble here and that he was afraid they both might die soon, not the fact that he suspected she was possessed or controlled by another, not the fact that touching her in any way intoxicated him so that he could hardly breathe or think. The andalune kiss filled Lila's senses until there was no part of her that was not bathed in Zal. He did not love her. It was more than that for him, it was right out there, something he couldn't explain or master. He caressed her. He sang her. Lila floated on him, in a state of complete bliss. Whatever she had done with Dar or any previous boyfriend was nothing compared to this.
A prickle of wild magic coursed up through her power systems. She saw a gold and black pattern in her mind's eye, diamonds and spots. She heard a voice that wasn't a voice, more like a person listening to her, far away, waiting for something to happen, waiting…and then she could also feel Tath and his sudden convulsion of fear, like a pressure on her heart.
As condensed as he could be, Tath was locked down into a green light of brilliant intensity but he was also caught in a two-way struggle with his own desires: to make himself invisible to Zal's persistent aethereal investigation of Lila, and to make himself known to Zal, so that they might be able to communicate in secret.
Lila felt this in Tath, and riding on its back yet another layer of his conflicted loyalties that stretched between the Daga, Arië, Alfheim, and Zal. These all strained in different directions, pulling Tath with them until Lila nor Tath had any idea who or what he believed in. Zal's betrayal of Alfheim was personal to Tath, but Zal's words against him hurt a great deal. Tath longed for Zal's approval, or at the very least his forgiveness. Zal was the elder brother that Tath had always wanted but never had.
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. Arië 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.”