Down to the Bone: Quantum Gravity Book Five

by Justina Robson

  ‘And did they?’ Teazle asked. He had begun to glow again with talk of destruction.

  ‘Well,’ Malachi said uneasily. ‘Not exactly. The first thing that happened was that most of the mages who had created them came down with a wasting sickness and died. And so did many others. Not just mages. Ordinary people. That was when it was decided it had gone wrong and this was the result of all the evil done in creating the Titans and binding them by force to their task. More was out of the question. There was no way to recall them and so instead they chose to trick the Titans into a game – the only thing that could contain them. The faery Queen agreed to do it herself because she was the master of trickery. Her trick meant that she was lost in Under ever after that. This was the days before the fey republic of course, it was the cause of the republic really. Without her anyone could claim leadership and nobody could keep it. And it was to maintain the game that we had to lose the evidence of it and forget we knew about it.’

  ‘Until now,’ Zal said.

  ‘It worked,’ Malachi insisted. ‘For ages.’

  Lila walked over to Zal’s side and sat down by him. ‘So these Titans are going to carry on where they left off, you think?’

  Malachi stared at the two of them with dulled orange eyes. ‘The Titans had only one purpose. To destroy the Sleeper. After that they . . .’ he hesitated and glanced at Lila, ‘. . . they would have dissolved. Dangerous things, worldwalkers, you have to keep an eye on them always and when they have too much power you have to . . . well. Planned obsolescence, you see.’

  She returned his look steadily to let him know this information wasn’t lost on her. ‘So the fact they’re still around means they didn’t succeed. The Sleeper is still there. It isn’t them who are coming through to cause chaos, it’s the Sleeper, and they’ll come after. Or they didn’t like your obsolescence idea too much and they’re out for vengeance, or possibly just to exterminate any possibility that they could be . . . oh, let’s call it recalled.’

  He blinked at the sharpness of her sarcasm and looked away. ‘We don’t know. Look at Xavi. She didn’t fulfil the purpose, but she was no Titan anyway. She was a near miss I guess. Maybe the real ones kept enough of themselves that they could break the geas set on them. Or they thought it would be better to stop short, so that it wouldn’t be fulfilled. That would make them invincible and probably immortal. Unstoppable.’

  ‘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 t
houghtless.’

  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.

  He raised his hands and slowly unbuckled the bandoliers that held his swords in place.

  Her own conviction wavered. ‘You heard what he said. You heard what I told you. Anyway, we’re not married any more.’

  ‘But we’re here now,’ Zal said and his hand slid over her lower back. The thin fabric made the gesture extremely soft, although he had the most gentle hands she’d ever felt when he wanted them to be. His gaze was warm and sultry; he blinked as slowly as if he were underwater.

  ‘No fighting,’ she said.

  ‘No fighting,’ Teazle agreed, advancing.

  ‘No,’ Zal said, pulling the drawstring that closed the back of her dress.

  ‘Wait!’ she slipped aside, pulling it with her. ‘You smell like you’ve been in the grave already. Get clean.’