Going Under Read Free Page A

in his estimation and his power over her-always a factor that must be accounted for, even with demons with whom you were intimate-would rise. This was a world where yielding to fear had dire consequences.
    "I'll get dressed and take a flight," she said casually, not wishing in the slightest to make the visit.
    "Zal and I will amuse ourselves," Teazle murmured, making it sound in just those few words as though he had elaborate plans that would involve a great deal of life-threatening activity. No doubt he did. Lila wondered just how long they could survive a vacation in Demonia. "Don't worry your human head about it," was added into her silence.
    "I don't have a human head," she said and turned around, heading towards the bathroom.
    "Heart then," the demon said with surprising fondness. "I know you love him. I'll be sure and be the first to die."
    She couldn't think of an adequate reply to that, so she just went and took her bath.

     

CNOPTER TWO
    hingamajig rode on Lila's shoulder to the Souk. He babbled anxiously all the way about whatever caught his attention and, instead of his customary piercing of her earlobe with his sharp talon, he clutched the cloth of her padded vest in a vice grip.
    "Can't you sit still? I don't know what you have to be nervous about," she said crossly. The day was hot and humid, the roads seemingly full of lazy, torpid demons who were content to simply stare at her and mutter or else call various congratulations or deathwishes on her marriage. They oiled from their idleness into sudden huddles as she passed. She wanted to smack them, but for once nobody seemed in the mood for a duel.
    Occasionally strangers attempted to press small gifts on her, as she had been warned they would, and she directed them to the servant behind her whom Teazle had instructed to collect and check all items. The servant had already sent one full bag back to the house. Lila hoped that personalised thank-you notes were not required, but reasoned that for what amounted to bribes, they were almost certainly not. The House of Ahriman had been a major demon cabal and the House of Sikarza was in a similar position before the wedding. Now their joint power was vast. Everybody who wasn't allied to one of the great families was angling for a position with them.

    The imp by her ear came to the end of his babbling history of the allegiances of the House of Ceriza, which they had passed some time ago, and made an unhappy noise before piping, "I have more business than you being damn nervous. She ..." but he wasn't able to go on. In fact, the word as he said it was so loaded with dread and the impossibility of escape, that it was quite sufficient.
    "You will tell her that you want me around strictly on a retainer basis, won't you?" he asked, for the thousandth time. "I mean you'll say it quickly. I don't want her getting the wrong idea and banishing me before you get to say it when you really intend to keep your promise and help me discover my true identity, which is your mission, you and the others, to do good things, like heroes of old, eh? Like the Maha Animae of the old days. You'd not let a small friend such as myself languish in the abysses of the infinite like just any old imp, waiting for some hopeless neurotic to walk past and pull them back into physical being with the force of their madness, would you? No. That would be a terrible thing indeed. And who knows where I might be stuck? I could be stuck halfway up the sky over the Lagoon and not even in the city, and then what would the chances be of some possessed dimwit flapping by close enough to pull me free of the miserable torment of limbo? None. Not for thousands and thousands and thousands ..." he continued for a second as Lila's hand clamped over his head but then stopped as she closed the implacable machinery of her fist.
    "I'll mention it," Lila said in a very even voice, speeding up her tread to a pace just short of running. "Oh, I'm sorry, I seem to be crushing