Keeping It Real (44 page)

Fan
t
as
t
ic,
Lila groaned inwardly, trying not to despair as she watched Dar follow the Lady, his face

grim
.

Lila and Tath followed yet another of Arie'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-loathing and it was lessened, No, he

said.
No
t
t
rue
.

Such an unexpected kindness made tears start in her eyes.

S
t
op i
t
. 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.

I
t
is
li
ke
ly. 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 con-sidered 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.

I
t
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 Arie

considers it the emblem of Aparastil's purity. She values its presence most highly.

Masco
t
s. Cu
t
e. How will i
t
t
alk?
Lila asked him, stopping her taps immediately.
I can'
t
t
alk dragon.

Dragons are
t
elepa
t
hs,
Tath told her.
If i
t
wan
t
s
t
o, i
t
can easily communica
t
e.

Have you spoken wi
t
h a dragon before?

Only once.
A
conversa
t
ion I
di
d no
t
unders
t
and and was lucky
t
o 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
m
e you were in
l
o
v
e wi
t
h hi
m
.
Tath said, reproachfully
.
A
nd you really never men
t
ioned
t
/
t
a
t
he was in
l
o
v
e wi
t
h you.

He isn'
t
in love wi
t
h
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 o
t
her. I
t
'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.

"Wai
t
a se
c
ond
. . . 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 Al-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

some-thing 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, T lost your kinky bike leathers. Arie 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, Arie, 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.