Other Places 3: Detours (38 page)

That
meant he went silent for a bit, even as the low rumble of the world being
destroyed off to the right came at him constantly. It wasn't a fast process, so
the tone was low frequency, but powerful. One wave every ten seconds or so.
Shaking his head, he revised his plans and wondered if he was really going to
die, trying to do this. It was actually possible, he knew.

The
smart thing would be for him to just trade something smaller than he'd planned,
but then, later, Keeley might not respect him, thinking that he was too nice,
or easy to push around. She wasn't that kind of being now, but in ten years? A
thousand? He had to plan for that, didn't he?

Shaking
his head, Zack continued.

"So,
don't try to enslave me or kill me, but I need to go big with this, I think.
Sorry about that, but it really has to happen. You
need
this, so go
along with it."

She
made a face, which was dark and grumpy, as if he were being slow just to mess
with her.

"You
already had my ass, so, what do you want? All my money?
Darla
?" She
said it slowly, as the real idea started to dawn on her. What was really
important to her.

"Xenses?
You want to save him, don't you? To make me let go of my revenge plot... I
won't do it! That's too much. No. He killed my father. I will destroy him. If
you try to protect him, I'll remove you...
Deal
?"

Two
things happened then. The first was that he was almost certain that everyone
that had mentioned the idea had been correct. If Keeley tried to take him, he
was simply going to be taken, no matter how hard he fought. The second was that
links like that, the slavery of the Greater Demons, broke as a person died.
He'd done it himself, after all. With the help of Finias.

That
was the important part, he decided. He'd died, and that broke the link, but the
old and powerful Greater Demon had brought him back. Saving him. It was a form
of healing magic, so slowing time as The Mistress of Souls turned him into her
bitch, he reviewed that as well as he could. Healing another wasn't so different
from doing that to yourself, he realized. The location was simply different.

He
was actually pretty good with that kind of thing. Space wasn't actually real,
after all.

Then,
just as the link was formed, before she could order him to not move, Zack
stepped in and punched her. It was fast, nearly enough for the move to rip her
lower jaw off under the impact. That distracted her and made speaking hard
enough that she couldn't manage it yet. Then as she scrambled away, with her
new, but still sort of free, slave coming at her, he leapt in and broke her
neck.

Killing
her.

It
took longer for her to die than most, he guessed, since she tried to fight
against it, healing as well as she could, restarting her heart, her pure terror
pouring out into the world. It took three more solid death blows to get the job
done, but he felt the link shatter, finally, and was free again for real.

Then,
because she was a
ditz
, not evil, he started trying to save her. She was
dead, and truly so, but there was time left, if he got to work. Up to a day, or
possibly two, for someone like her. That meant he had time to experiment, and
get it right.

It
was hard, and while he had her pretty much fixed an hour later, she still
needed a lot more work. Rebuilding her face had to come last, and while it
burned up his own magic, it also took mass from her, which meant, as soon as he
could, finding food for her and bringing it in.

Really
he expected her to be gone when he returned, having run off in fear, but she
was just sitting and healing. She drank the cream he'd gotten, holding it
herself, as he did the same, eating just as much of the hoard as she was. It
hadn't seemed like much, but he'd done some damage to the girl, and even trying
to help her fix it had cost him a lot. He'd drained about half the magic he
had, at a guess, doing it.

So
he ate, and made her do the same as she rebuilt herself. Her face became warped
and raw looking, but finally pretty, after ten hours or so, with both of them
sitting there, and him making five more trips for food, just stealing it from
warehouses around the world, moving in palates of things at once.

When
she was healthy again, enough to pause in her eating, she looked at him and
shook her head.

"Crap.
Well that didn't work. I still won't let Xenses go, even if you have an
agreement with him. You shouldn't let him get away either. I know what he did
to you, and had done. You do too now. How can you bear to be around him at all?"

He
finished the stick of unsalted butter in his hand and used a napkin from the
picnic to wipe his mouth. It was a red cloth thing, and matched the blanket.

"That
wasn't what I was going to ask for. Not at all. Ever. The agreement I made with
him is just that I'll try to act like family and give him a chance to do the
same. There are even provisions for me not being involved in your and Darla's
vendetta. Besides, that isn't the most important thing to you, is it? I mean, a
big deal, but it wouldn't get much for me, really."

She
looked away, then took a stick of butter herself, eating it slowly, as if it
were an ice cream bar. It was gross, he realized, even as he took another one
of his own. He needed the calories too, so did it, making himself enjoy it.

 "That
is
the most important thing to me. What else do I have? You even took all
my slaves from me. That's going to make going home interesting. Darla probably
thinks that you killed me. Which, oops, you
did
." She waved down at
her body then and shuddered a little. "That
isn't
fun, by the way.
You brought me back, so, I guess there's that. I've been planning to let some
of my people go eventually anyway. Now I can. I'll need to get Steve York
again, or else he'll start slacking off on his music practice. I guess I can
let the rest go. Elis has learned his lesson, I think. Bal... Well, he's been
good, and I think I've treated him well enough that he won't come at me for
revenge. If he tries, then I'll just take him again." She seemed
thoughtful, rather than angry though. As if it all didn't really matter to her.

Zack
nodded.

"Really?
I want your mother, Hally and Rebekah. All three of them."

She
looked at him, not moving at all for a long time, then tried to both grab him
again, taking him as a slave, and block at the same time, so he couldn't stop
her from talking. The only problem there was that he'd actually figured she'd
do that, so had gotten ready for her.

This
time he hit from an unexpected direction, trying to take
her
at the same
time, as if in a battle of wills. Then he feinted at her jaw, and moved around
behind her, slipping sideways in space, falling and moving in a circle around
her at the same time. Technically it was a move that couldn't exist. It took
magic and energy to get it done, but he was able to kill her again, with
repeated blows to the back of the head, not being taken first this time, having
managed to buy some time by trying for her in the same way.

Then
there was more healing, more eating, and, three hours later, another death, as
he had to kill her again. Wash and repeat, he thought, as he coaxed her back to
life for the third time in less than a day. He was tempted to fuse her lips
together at first, just so she'd have to listen, but he didn't. Instead he just
gave her more food, and shook his head.

"At
least I get what the trap was, now. So, the point here is that Tarsus is a
prick.
Got it
. Also, clearly, adult or not, you really aren't
all
that.
Not in a fight. So, the terms? You really,
really
, need to know what I
do, and can't beat me in a fight right now. I think the point is that you have
to make a huge sacrifice for this. I mean, like a lesson or something. A hard
one, clearly. I'll tell you what I know, for those three. Unlimited rights to
them. I won't take them as slaves, since I don't do that, but you'll have to
give up any rights there. I'll own them, outright. Their businesses and work
too. They don't get a choice in the matter, either. You have to do it. Sell
them, against their will." He wanted to take it all back, since that was
pretty much real slavery, even if he didn't make a deal with them personally.
Still, the point was that she had to sell them, not that he had to make them be
real slaves. They could live however they wanted, as far as that went. Just
like all his people.

Really,
it just meant that they'd have his protection, which, given everything, was
probably also the point. Tarsus planned to do something really hard to Keeley,
and right now those people were collateral damage waiting to happen. The idea
that The Librarian had set the whole thing up that way suddenly made sense. Or
at least that it had happened. All of Keeley's people were being removed from
the scene, weren't they? In a few months, even Darla's friend Eve would be away
from them, safe, with him.

It
was complex, but made sense didn't it?

Especially
if the Second Crucible wasn't just for Keeley, but for Darla too. She'd said
that
she'd
never been taken on that way, since it was a thing that only
the would be leadership went through...

So
he waited, to see if they were going to fight again.

This
time, Keeley... cried at him.

"I...
I love them. They're my friends, I can't do that to them. What if this is a
trick and you're lying to me? I can't risk them." She sobbed, so Zack
moved in and awkwardly held her.

It
was what you did, when girls cried.

She
stopped not too long after, and didn't try to kill him or run, just sitting
there.

"I
don't know what to do. I have to do it, don't I? If you're lying to me... Well,
I can't do much to you, can I? You could just kill me and take them all, so
that's a sign, I suppose. If you wanted them that badly. Are you really just
taking them because I love them? To hurt me?"

Zack
tilted his head.

"I
can't prove this right now, not until you agree to it and possibly not even
then, but while it's clear that taking them because you love them is part of
the point, I don't think that even Tarsus is doing it to hurt you. The opposite,
in fact. I guess I'm going to have to ask you to trust me in this? That isn't
the normal way of our kind, but I don't have anything else to give you, unless
you trade for it." That last line wanted to come out like a question, but
he held on and made it sound almost confident. Nearly at least.

She
held him then, and after a long time, she sighed, silent tears making the front
of his shirt wet as he sat and watched the world begin and end.

"I
agree, on those terms, but if what you have to tell me isn't important enough,
then it's automatically off. I get to decide if it is, too." She didn't
smile about her wording, since she could just claim it wasn't enough, and take
her people back, no matter what he said, which was her point, he knew. It
wasn't even clever at all, just a last desperate attempt to get around what it
seemed he, or at least The Librarian, wanted.

Zack
nodded.

"I
understand what you're doing. I agree, on those terms, as well, with the caveat
that you have to be fair and honest, to your own way of thinking, in your
judgment of the information I give you."He shrugged and then let his hand
touch hers, gently. "Plus or minus ten percent on the honesty?"

She
smiled, clearly feeling better about it all, suddenly. It was enough that very
little in the world would be enough to force her hand then, and Zack would hold
to his bargains. Even the crazies of their kind almost always did. Doing
otherwise was an invitation to have everyone turn on you, if you did it too
often.

"Agreed."
She put out her hand, to shake, which Zack took, ready to kill her again, if
even the wrong sort of tingle started to happen, but nothing did at all.

"I
too, agree, on those terms, as I understand them."

Then
he took a breath, and didn't make her wait at all.

"Tarsus
and possibly some of the others, are going to put you through the Second Crucible
in a few months time. No adult Greater Demon may help you prepare for it. I
suggested myself, but he looked at me like I was offering to smear grape jelly
on your butt, not do anything useful, so that
might
not be the greatest
idea. I'm here for you anyway, if you need lifting and toting done? Also, and
this is the important part, if you fail, Tarsus will kill you. As in for real
and always dead. My understanding is that this isn't some kind of trial by
combat or anything, but leadership exercises? Still, it's pretty possible that
everyone you know will be at risk, which is why, I
think
, they all have
to stay with me. I can't prove that last part, but it seems to fit."

After
a moment, the pretty girl with her slightly too pink face, since it was still
healing from the damage he'd done, if only a bit, cursed at him.

Then
stood and bowed.

"As
we agreed then, Line Walker. Those I love that were specified, are yours, to do
with as you please."