And Eternity (7 page)

“My mortal cousin Luna is an understanding person,” Gaea said. “She might be able to advise you.”

Jolie hadn’t thought of that. Luna was the one, of all mortals, most in touch with the affairs of the Incarnations. She was related to several of them in one way or another, and kept company with Thanatos. She was a Senator in the mortal realm, and so had considerable power in both the mortal and immortal spheres. She would be ideal for the kind of advice Jolie needed.

“Yes,” Jolie said gratefully. “I will ask her.”

Luna lived at an estate guarded by a fence of iron spikes and two hungry griffins. “Hello, Griffith!” Jolie called to the red male. “Hello, Grissel!” to the female. The two reared up on their hind feet and struck at the air in salute: they remembered her. Because she was a ghost, they could not have hurt her anyway, but she never made a point of that.

She floated through the door, dragging Orlene’s soul. “It’s me, Muir!” she called, for the guardian within could touch her. Muir was a moon moth, a ferocious flying spirit Luna’s magician father had tamed for her before his death. Like some demons, he could manifest physically when he chose to, but he was mainly a protection against supernatural threats.

Muir recognized Jolie and folded his wings. They formed a black cloak around his insectoid torso, hiding his formidable talons. Woe betide the one he attacked! He remained hovering in the air despite closing his wings, because he was not subject to mortal gravity any more than Jolie was.

“Is Luna available?” Jolie asked.

Muir flickered. That meant he had darted to find Luna and returned here so swiftly that the motion was barely evident. He nodded his head briefly forward, his antenna flexing: she was available.

Then Luna entered the room. She was a beautiful woman of about forty, with brown hair. Jolie had wondered before how the two almost-sisters, Luna and Orb, could be so similar in other respects but differ in this one, and suddenly, for the first time, she realized that Luna had dyed her hair, or magically changed its color. All the women of her family had honey hair of one shade or another, similar to Jolie’s own, through three generations; Luna must have, too, as a child. Why had she changed it?

“Why Jolie,” Luna said. “With a lost soul. You must have come to see Zane.” That was the private name she called Thanatos.

“I have a problem,” Jolie said. “I need advice, and I think help.”

“And not from Orb?” Luna inquired, lifting an eyebrow. Her eyes were gray, like mist over a placid lake: these at least were natural.

“May I speak in confidence?”

Now Luna realized that this was no casual matter. “You know I cannot commit to that in any matter that affects my objective. Does this?”

Her objective was to thwart the efforts of Satan to take over either the mortal or immortal realms, and it was generally known that there was a major crisis coming in perhaps four years, where her action would be critical. Satan had been trying desperately to nullify that situation before it occurred, and all the Incarnations had battled him to preserve it. Jolie, as the consort of Satan, therefore had to be treated cautiously; she understood that. Her relations with Luna and the Incarnations were positive, but she was technically an agent of the enemy. Thus it was necessary that Luna qualify any offer to help; she wouldn’t help Satan win against God.

“I don’t think it does,” Jolie said. “Not directly. But if nothing is done, it could bring mischief to both sides.”

“Will you trust my discretion, if you tell me without my prior commitment to confidence?”

“Yes.” For Luna cared about Gaea as much as any mortal could, having been raised with her in Ireland before the one became the companion of an Incarnation and the other became an Incarnation herself.

“Then tell me as much as you need to, as quickly as you can.” This was Luna’s first indication that she had pressing other business, but of course she did.

“I watched over Orb’s daughter Orlene,” Jolie said. “She was doing well, raised by an adoptive mortal family. She married a ghost and had a child by her lover, in the ghost’s name; this is a legitimate device among mortals today, though technically sinful.”

“Of course,” Luna agreed. “I remember that Orb had a child but could not marry the father; I am glad to learn that that child did well.”

“Not well enough,” Jolie said, plunging on. “During my inattention her baby was afflicted with a fatal malady. After he died, she suicided, determined to join him. But she was good and bound for Heaven, while he was in balance and went to Purgatory, where Nox took him. I helped Orlene’s spirit go to seek Nox, but Nox turned her into a man who tried to rape me and then had relations with Nox herself. Now Orlene is burdened with evil and will not struggle to stay out of Hell. I cannot tell Gaea, and dare not let the soul go lest it be lost. I am convinced that Orlene is not evil but was overwhelmed by the mischief of the Incarnation of Night. I need some way to keep her here, as a ghost, until she realizes this and will resume her quest for her baby. Then she may be all right, and I can tell Gaea without bringing her more grief than is warranted.’’

Luna nodded. She possessed the lawmaker’s ability to grasp complex matters quickly. “This is not Satan’s doing?”

“It is not his doing. It was his bidding that sent me to Orlene when she was a child. He, when he and I were married, as mortals, we had no child, and-” Then Jolie was crying, caught off guard by the tragedy. Orlene had been much like a daughter to her, as she watched her in the way that Gaea would not. She cursed herself again for relaxing at what turned out to be a critical time.

“It occurs to me that our interests may coincide,” Luna said gently. “I am organizing for the issue to come, what may be the final showdown between Good and Evil of this sequence. I have need of a soul to animate a mortal who is in a similar state to Orlene’s, for different but sufficient reason. A soul that animates a mortal host cannot descend to Hell until it leaves that host. Would Orlene be willing to animate that host until the host recovers?”

“No. It is my will that holds her here, not hers.”

“Then would you be willing to keep Orlene in that host, and animate the host yourself, until you can persuade Orlene to do it? This action would have a devious but significant effect in the war between Good and Evil, so you would be serving Good.”

“But I am Satan’s consort!” Jolie protested. “Even Satan knows the meaning of honor, and so do you. Satan cannot openly support your action in preventing that soul from descending to him, but the forces of Good have no such conflict of interest. Can you serve Good to this extent, in order to buy time for Orlene to recover her initiative?”

Jolie saw how cleverly this offer was designed. Satan indeed did not want Orlene in Hell! He wanted her in as good a situation as possible before Gaea learned of it. So, just as Gaea would not openly consummate her marriage to Satan, Satan would not openly support Good. But his interest in this particular matter was the same as Gaea’s and Jolie’s.

“Yes, I can do this,” Jolie agreed. “It will not be easy,” Luna warned. “I think it best not to tell you the manner this relates to my interest, but you will be charged with serving that interest as it becomes apparent to you, until you leave that host.”

“I agree to this,” Jolie said.

“And I see no need to acquaint Gaea with what you have told me, until there is a better resolution,” Luna said. “Now I must go, but Zane will be along presently, and he will take you to the girl.”

“I’ll have to tell Gaea where I’m going.”

“No need; she knows.” Luna left.

Jolie stood, bemused. How could Gaea know? Then she realized that Gaea’s suggestion had not been offhand, about seeing Luna. She must have cleared it first, or at least have known that Luna had such a need. The Incarnations had levels of communications that others hardly fathomed, and Luna was in certain respects like an Incarnation.

She remembered, too, the first time she had animated Gaea’s physical body and gone to make love to Satan. It had been nominally Parry and Jolie, as it had been so long ago in life, and as such, wonderful. But it was also the secret, forbidden consummation of Satan and Gaea, the Incarnations of Evil and Nature. There had been only one direct evidence of that which an outsider could have recognized: when Satan had asked Jolie to thank the one whose body she had borrowed, and Gaea had said in her own voice, “She knows.”

Luna had been similarly certain. But she had also agreed to keep Jolie’s information private, for now. So Gaea knew that Jolie’s business was serious and in good hands, and that was enough.

She waited, hanging on to the limp soul, and in an hour there was a sound outside. She looked out, and there was Mortis, the beautiful, pale death-horse, trotting down through the air toward the yard. The two griffins set up a squawking of welcome. Mortis landed, the hooded figure dismounted, and the animals sniffed noses.

Thanatos strode to the house. Jolie stepped through the closed door to meet him. She was, of course, used to his skull visage; he was actually a living man, become the Incarnation of Death when he killed his predecessor, and his appearance was only his costume. “Luna said-”

“Yes. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” There was that hidden communication again! “It is not far from here. Ride with me.” Jolie followed as he returned to Mortis. The horse became a pale car, somehow knowing his master’s desire unspoken. His master? Mortis had outlasted several Officeholders! Jolie tried to enter the car but could not pass through the substance; Thanatos had to open the door for her, in seeming gallantry which was not mock. The associates of the Incarnations had special qualities too; Jolie had not realized that Mortis was ghost-proof, but it did not surprise her.

“I understand Nox is involved,” Thanatos remarked as the car moved smoothly out of the grounds, self-guided.

“She made this person into a man and caused him to attempt rape,” Jolie replied. “Now her evil overbalances her good and she is sinking, but I don’t think it’s fair.”

“Her balance is positive, not negative,” Thanatos said. “She sinks only because she believes she is evil, but no guilt should attach for a burden imposed by another party. Is this not the one for whom you interceded so recently?”

“Yes, she is. I learned that the Incarnation of Night had the soul of her baby, so I guided her there, and Nox played a cruel game before agreeing to help. Even then, she set horrendous conditions.”

“That is not like her. She has been indifferent to mortal and immortal affairs throughout my tenure. What conditions did she set?”

“An item from each of the active Incarnations, to facilitate correction of the malady of the baby’s soul.”

“What item from me?”

“A blank soul.”

There was a pause. Then the skull turned toward her.

“If that is typical, the chances of completing that list are minimal.”

“But better that Orlene try, than that she give up hope,” Jolie said, hoping it was true.

“Perhaps it is a deliberate diversion, intended to be an endless quest for her.”

“But why would Nox do that? She could have denied the interview entirely if she didn’t want to give up the baby!”

“The Incarnation of Night is excellent at keeping secrets.”

He said no more, and Jolie didn’t dare pursue it. She had mentioned the item listed for him, and that was as far as she could go on her own; Orlene would have to pursue it herself, when she was able. Jolie’s task was to enable Orlene to resume her quest; then the decision would be Orlene’s.

The vehicle halted. They were in a bad section of the city of Kilvarough, where rundown tenements were scheduled for demolition in favor of modern megabuildings. Thanatos led her to a grimy chamber where a teenage girl lay sprawled asleep on a flimsy cot. “This is Vita,” he said. “She is a harlot being addicted to Spelled H. Her individual volition is almost gone; she responds merely to the voice of authority supported by force.”

Jolie was aghast. “Luna has need of such a one?”

The grinning bare teeth seemed to grin further. “There is a rationale. We did not feel free to ask any other to undertake this task, for there is much discomfort in it, and you may avoid it also.”

“No, I said I would do it, and I will,” Jolie said. “But I can see that I won’t enjoy it.”

“True. I leave you, then, to your devices.” He turned and walked back the way they had come, in a moment fading from view. Jolie knew that he had not truly disappeared; rather, he was not visible or memorable to anyone who did not have reason to see him, and her reason had passed. As a ghost she could perceive him far more readily than living mortals could, but even so, it was only because he permitted it.

She walked to the sleeping girl, dragging Orlene’s soul. Prostitution and Spelled H, a combination for disaster! She would have to do something about that immediately!

“Very well, Orlene,” she said. “I will carry it at first, but it is for you I am doing this.” She embraced the soul and stepped into the body.

She felt the effect of the drug immediately. The girl was not in a natural sleep, but in a stupor. Jolie was not conversant with the cycle of Spelled H, for the drug had appeared centuries after her time, but she understood that its effects varied with the dosage and the time following the dose. Once a person was habituated to it, she depended on it to be functional; there was a certain euphoria followed by depression, which could be abated by another dose. Properly managed, it could keep a person in the pleasant in-between state during the waking hours. Too much made the addict hyper; not enough brought an agony that was not merely of the body. Gaea had cured several musicians who had been addicts, but short of direct intercession by the Incarnation of Nature, few broke free. This would require iron willpower!

Orlene settled into the host and found the mood compatible: hellhound. Jolie, freed of the need to hold on to Orlene constantly, got to work on Vita.

“Up, girl,” Jolie said, using the host’s sodden lips. “We’re going to work off this high, or low, as the case may be.” She forced the limbs to move and the flaccid stomach muscles to contract.