Keeping It Real (39 page)

stagger when she walked because it was so hard to judge depth of space. Astar followed her inside and

watched as the magical wall shut itself at their backs.

As soon as they were alone, the graceful female elf turned Lila to face her and held her hands,

pleading, 'Say it is you, Tath, and this some dreadful Game playing and not the truth!' Her elongated eyes

were rimmed with red, their dark irises huge in the low light. As she finished speaking she made to dab

her tears with a filmy handkerchief out of which fell a scatter of flowers, as though she had been picking

them at
some point in the past, and forgot them within the hand-kerchief's folds. She bent quickly to pick

them up, a slight pressure on her hand drawing Lila with her. Among the pretty things one white daisy . . .

Inside her, Tath doubled in intensity, sad, his
andalune
over Lila becoming strong enough to reach out

and touch Astar's carefully restrained aethereal form. His sadness was worse than the burning pain in her

arm.

Lila picked up the daisy and held it
towards the black-haired elf. 'Sadly, it
is the truth, but hardly all of

it.'

Astar held Lila's hand but she felt Tath's fingers as she took the flower carelessly and then drew the

hand to her lips and kissed each of the knuckles gently. 'I have missed you so much. Say it's you that

speaks and not
the impostor.'

Lila had been about
to attempt
soft politeness in the face of this

sympathy but
found herself grating out
impatiently, 'It's the freak, not
your brother
.
'

Astar put
Lila's hand away from her but
stared boldly into Lila's face. 'You wear him well, then,

whoever you are, for his
andalune
is his own where it
and mine are joined, and he is not
suffering

because of you. Will you let him speak with one who holds his heart dear?'

How many girlfriends have you go
t
, exac
t
ly?
Lila said to Tath.

One exac
t
ly,
t
hough she died as I did upon
t
he hillside where you lef
t
us. I have
t
hree sis
t
ers.

Hell, oh hell,
Lila thought.
If you're lying
t
o me . . .
She let Tath have the whole show. Give the elves

their due, she thought, as Tath used her body to embrace his sister, they're fey and strange but
they know

who's who and they don't
freak out
like I would if I could go back to my family and hug them one last

time. A stab of pain in her heart made her wince.

But there was no point in thinking about that. She concentrated on lining up repair systems, prioritising,

cueing up harmonics in the nerves causing her the most
discomfort so that
their efforts to tell her she was

in trouble became simple information in her Al-self rather than a sensation of pain in her body. Probably

Dar would be okay, she thought as she wondered what she would do with the largely destroyed surface

of her right arm. Sathanor was that
kind of place. Probably he would be better already.

Lila quietly mended the fingers of her left hand as Tath used it to hold Astar close to him. They sat

down together on the narrow bed.

'Can we persuade this person to release you?' Astar was saying. T would hold your spirit within mine

and release it to a child of your heart. . . Give me the flower. Where is it?'

What t
he hell?
Lila thought.
Elves
clone!
Are you crazy? Is
t
ha
t
wha
t
she's saying?

I
t
i
s
ex
t
remely rare.
Aloud to Astar Tath said, 'I do not wish to leave my host.'

'What?' Astar and Lila said simultaneously.

Tath took the handkerchief out of his sister's hands and found the white flower again. He would not

give a reason aloud although to Lila he said,

If I leave you and Arie discovers wha
t
you are she will no
t
kill you. I
t
will be worse. Arie loves
T

a
t
hanor, Bu
t
benea
t
h her love lies fear, and
t
he
t
hing she fears mos
t
is
t
echnology like you.

I
t
is qui
t
e irra
t
ional. She will con
t
inue wi
t
h Her disas
t
rous plan involving Zal, and she will cer
t
ain
t
y kill Dar, very inven
t
ively I expec
t
.
T
here is no
t
h
in
g
g
ood
i
n any of
t
ha
t
.

Wha
t
did she mean abou
t
t
he flower?
Lila insisted.

T
he power bound
me
in life
t
o my
t
rue friends. All necromancers carry one. Wi
t
hou
t
i
t
, if one of
us dies, we canno
t
be res
t
ored by any means.
T
hus i
t
is when you burned i
t
t
ha
t
I became bound
t
o
you, Lila, because wi
t
hou
t
i
t
I canno
t
cross over. I
f
you die, I
die
, and when Arie
t
ries
t
o separa
t
e
us, if she succeeds,
t
hen I cer
t
ainly will.

Bu
t
if you s
t
ill had i
t
t
hen you and . . . whoever.
. . t
hey could have resurrected you in some way

and . . . does Dar know? Lila was outraged at being kept ignorant about this, especially by Dar.

Letting her think he'd slaughtered Tath when all along there was this chance of resurrec-tion -

she was furious for a second, but Tath was still talking.

I
t
does no
t
mean
t
he same
t
hing
t
o Dar because i
t
is also a mark of
t
he Revolu
t
ion, bu
t
yes, when
he saw you burn i
t
he did know
t
ha
t
wha
t
ever chance
t
here was for me
t
o survive was gone. When

i
t
wen
t
, he had effec
t
ively murdered me mos
t
surely.

Oh, so now i
t
's
my
faul
t
?
Lila snapped, though she didn't get an answer.

'You are talking together,' Astar said quietly. 'I can feel your attention shifting
.
'

'Oh crap!' Lila said, not meaning to speak her sudden fresh doubt in Dar aloud but unexpectedly

finding that she had command of their voice.

Astar started.

'Not
you, I mean . . .'

'You are the host,' Astar said attentively. 'Why does my brother not
wish to leave you?'

Do no
t
. . .
Tath began hesitantly, full of the delicate subtleties of elven politics, not
sure if he could

trust
Astar or even the water not to betray them but
Lila was watching Astar's face which was soft and

sympathetic on the surface but with eyes rather more suited to a patient lizard than a trembling rabbit,

and she was reasonably sure that the woman wasn't quite as spineless as Tath seemed to think.

'He can't
leave,' Lila said. 'The daisy soulkeeper thingy he had is toast. He's stuck with me, and if you

want
to see him alive in any form for much longer then you'd better start thinking of a way to get
me to

Zal before Arie rips his spirit
out
of me and feeds us to the fishes. So,
'•¡
know where Zal is?'

Astar, mute, eyes like saucers, gave her a long, thoughtful elven stare.

'Anytime in the next ten seconds would be good,' Lila prompted.

Brillian
t
,
Tath observed sarcastically
.

'You're most direct,' Astar said
.
T hope you are as effective in pleading for your life and that of

my brother as you are at issuing questions. Zal is far below the surface, where the darkness and

cold plunge over the edge of the lake bed and into a chasm of extreme depth - a ley chasm of great

aetheric potential where Arie seeks to . . .' She continued to say something about raising power and

using it to purify Sathanor and some other kind of semi-Biblical flood analogy that Lila thought

sounded uncannily like a form of Whole Earth fascism
.
The ideology didn't interest her except

inasmuch as it was now clear that
Alfheim was about
to enter a civil war and that
was worth

reporting. But the really interesting thing was
A bomb faul
t
!
Lila thought, trans-lating the elfin way of

thinking.
Under Sa
t
hanor, how peculiar. I wonder if i
t
is linked
t
o
t
he recording s
t
udio in O
t
opia or is
t
he same kind of
t
hing?

'. . . He is contained by a separate sphere which hangs free in the lake water, connected to the

palace by a single hair from Arie's head,' Astar concluded. 'More than that I have been unable to

discover
.
We are not permitted so far below
.
'

'He has to come to us,' Lila said, 'That can happen how?'

Astar shook her head helplessly
.
'Nothing but the Lady can com-mand it.'

'So she just
needs a reason.'

We need more help
t
han
t
his,
Lila said privately to Tath.
I'll be s
t
raigh
t
wi
t
h you. Unless you
have any more friends here who are on
t
he whi
t
e daisy side
t
hen we aren'
t
looking so grea
t
.

Le
t
's say I do ge
t
t
o him,
t
hen how can I ge
t
Zal ou
t
of
t
his place? Oh wai
t
. . . I know.
Her Al-self had been checking possibilities and had decided the best
thing must
be to wait
until they

were all united, for any reason, and then to power her way out, carrying Zal. She could certainly

make the surface alive, and probably use her internal oxygen systems to support at
least
one other if

it
was a long way up. As for how to get
together in the first
place, she and Tath could most
likely

break through the charm wall and swim down . . .

Tath picked up her thoughts quickly, much more than he used to. He even clocked the Al-self's neat

chart of survival possibilities and its redlined conclusions.

No!

Yes.
It's the only way.
And look on
t
he brigh
t
side, if i
t
fails and I have
t
o, I can blow us all
t
o
doomsday and back. I
t
's a plan. You don'
t
have one. We'll s
t
ick wi
t
h i
t
.

Dar was qui
t
e correc
t
in his analysis
t
ha
t
you are poorly placed for diplomacy, Lila.

Lila recounted her explosives, ammunition and the chances that
Arie was insane. Most
likely Arie was

not
insane but
frighteningly intelli-gent and well-motivated, if wrong. It all looked extremely bad.

Astar looked up. Their time was over. 'Arie likes to keep what she fears in sight,' she said in quiet,

rapid tones. 'And she would enjoy making a fool of Zal. She has no fear in her own house. Offer her the

chance and you may get
yours.'

You do no
t
know
t
ha
t
As
t
ar used
t
o
t
urn in
t
o our fa
t
her when I s
t
ayed ou
t
af
t
er dark, don'
t
you?

Tath complained. S
he w
ould b
e
t
ray me for one approving smile and gloa
tt
a
t
my punishmen
t
. O
n
e

look from our mo
t
her was
enoug
h
to
mak
e
he
r
come
t
o heel.

I'd be
t
ray my sis
t
er for
t
he promise of a half sucked brea
t
h-min
t
,
Lila said.
Bu
t
no
t
here and no
t
now.

The door vanished abruptly and her guards stood there.

'Lady Astar,' one said deferentially
.

Astar stood up and preceded Lila out.

Tath,
do you know any
t
hing abou
t
demons? Do you have any -rela
t
ives?
Lila asked as she

followed, kicking the floor. It bent slightly. She thought that
the water must transmit every sound and