Keeping It Real (42 page)

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 Arie. '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 haa" 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.

T
hey are friends,
Tath said.
W
h
a
t
e
v
er i
t l
ooks
li
k
e. D
ar is playing
t
o
t
he Lady. Zal is wai
t
ing
to s
ee wha
t t
he game i
s.

'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?'

Swee
t
companion of my hear
t
?
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?

T
rus
t
no
t
hing..
T
he s
t
ak
es
a
r
e
too hi
g
h 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 Al-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
qu
es-
t
i
one
d
t
he dis
t
inc
t
separa
t
ions
of the
p
eople's
na
t
ures,
T
heir essen
t
ial forms are unsympa
t
he
t
ic
t
o one ano
t
her, Le
t
hally so a
t
t
imes.
Z
al ha
s
embraced an opposi
t
ional magical sys
t
em and cul
t
ure which his na
t
ive land despises and fears,
t

heir an
t
i
t
hesis. He has come back. and shown
t
hem
t
ha
t
he lives, Bu
t
t
hey don'
t
know w
h
a
t
he
i
s
now.
T
hey fear and despise him.
T
hey are more dangerous
t
han ever. His desire
t
o break down

barriers has had
t
he opposi
t
e effec
t
. You can feel
t
he
t
ru
t
h of i
t
and he can
t
oo.

Yes, bu
t
anyway,
Lila shot back, fiercely proud of Zal,
companion of my hear
t
?
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 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. T 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
men
t
ioned
t
his before,
Lila said to Tath.
Is i
t
show or does it all do
something? Think we can bust out of here by force? Her gun ports twitched.

You
w
ill
n
o
t
make i
t
. Arie has a
t
leas
t
five mages her
e
and
t
he lake
t
o command. We have
t
o dis
t
rac
t
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. T 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
.

I
t
is well
t
hey do no
t
know
t
hose 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 Arte was motionless.

Proof,
Lila said. J
saw i
t
before bu
t
I
t
hough
t
. . .

Despera
t
ion,
Tath said after a pause.
I
t
is all he has. I
t
is proof indeed. Bu
t
t
ha
t
will make no
difference.

Why?
Lila demanded.

Because
t
he
t
ru
t
h is imma
t
erial in
t
his case,
Tath said. A
ri
e w
ill
r
u
le Alfh
eim and no
t
hing
t
ha
t
could
t
hrea
t
en her claims can

be allowed
t
o s
t
and. Zal is a fool He s
t
ill
t
hinks
t
ha
t
his oriqinal mission has some value and
t
ha
t
o
t
hers in power care for
t
he
t
ru
t
h. He holds fas
t
t
o his ideals and dreams. He has sealed his fa
t
e.

'Desist
or I will drown you as you stand,' Arie said then.

Bu
t
t
his has
t
o
be
more impor
t
an
t
!
Lila insisted
. Look a
t
wha
t
i
t
means . . .

Your naive ways will ge
t
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 Arie 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 any more,' Zal said, and his talent for vocal command lent his words a chill and regret that
made