16
S he returned to the dining room to find Semias sitting at the dining table and Michael, still in Tiger form, reclining on the floor. The food on the table was reduced to a single earthenware bowl of apples, pears and grapes next to the jug and cups, looking like a mediaeval still-life painting.
‘So there were human farmers who provided the bulk of it,’ Semias said, obviously in the middle of explaining something to Michael. ‘If there was a delicacy that the Gods needed right now, I transformed the dirt into the food, and of course there’s the Food of Heaven, which I made the same way.’
‘The food we just ate was transformed dirt ?’ Simone asked.
‘All food is transformed dirt, Princess,’ Semias said. ‘I just have the ability to skip some of the steps.’
Michael raised his tiger head and his nostrils flared. ‘You smell really nice!’ he exclaimed. ‘Like flowers.’
‘What was that soap?’ Simone asked Semias. ‘It made my hair lovely and clean, and it was so gentle I didn’t need conditioner.’
‘What’s conditioner?’ Semias said, then waved it away. ‘It’s a decoction of soapwort. The lye soap the Celts use is too strong for skin, but it’s good on clothing.’
‘What’s soapwort?’ Michael asked.
A bunch of tiny white five-petaled flowers appeared on the ground in front of his nose.
‘That is,’ Semias said. ‘Now for your sleeping arrangements.’
‘He’s running low on energy with those demon corpses sitting next to the gate,’ Michael said to Simone. ‘The best he can do is re-make the bed out of the dining table. I’ll sleep on the floor, I’m comfortable like this.’
‘I can move those demons now—’ Simone began.
‘In the morning,’ Semias said. ‘I can see how tired both of you are.’ His smile turned knowing. ‘I can make a bigger bed for you to share, if you like.’
Michael shot him a glare under his tiger brows. ‘You are trying to throw us together.’
‘You belong together.’
‘Not yet,’ Michael said. ‘So make me a mat and I’ll sleep like this on the floor, and make a bed for Simone.’
Semias shot a querying look at Simone, confirming Michael’s choice.
‘If you could, please,’ Simone said.
‘Very well,’ Semias grumbled and stood. A mat made of finely woven reeds appeared on the floor, and Michael moved onto it.
He grinned a tiger grin. ‘This is spongy, like rubber tubing. I love it.’
Simone sat on the reed mat next to Michael and put her hand on his side to stroke his fur as she watched the bed assemble itself next to the mat. She realised what she was doing and jerked her hand away. ‘Oh God, I am so sorry. I’m so exhausted I forget where I am, and for a moment I thought you were your dad.’
‘It’s fine, I’m wrecked too,’ Michael said. He lowered his head. ‘But there’s something we need to talk about. We’ll be going to the throne tomorrow, and I have this ... premonition. Future view. I know what will happen, and it’s not good.’
Simone watched him silently.
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘You’ve seen it too, of course you have.’ He looked away. ‘I’ll be imprisoned, and you’ll return alone, and ...’ He turned back to gaze at her. ‘It’ll be the right thing to do.’
Simone looked down at her hands and shook her head.
‘Is that what you see as well?’ he asked.
‘I see ...’ She looked up to gaze into his tawny eyes. ‘I see me. Going home. By myself. Full of rage, because I left someone I ...’ She didn’t finish it. ‘I left them behind.’ She shrugged. ‘That’s all. But I’ve seen it at least a dozen times now.’ She put her hand on his paw. ‘I don’t want to lose you! And you’ve suffered enough. You need to come home with me when this is done and put yourself back together.’ Her voice broke. ‘Please come home with me.’
‘Semias?’ Michael asked.
There was no reply. The spirit had finished the bed and disappeared again.
Michael turned back to Simone. ‘Semias has never lied to us. Both of us can tell. Everything he’s said to us has been absolutely truthful. When I sit on the throne, I can pass it off to Hades. But ...’
‘Yeah,’ Simone said. ‘The stories of the Fae. They couldn’t tell a lie, so they’d find clever ways to bend the truth, and have loopholes in all their agreements ...’
‘And that’s where we are now.’
‘Let’s skip this throne business, find a portal and go home.’
He shook his head. ‘You know that isn’t an option. Even if we did have one of those skinhead demons to smash so we can open the portal, we don’t know where the portal is. The only way we can leave this place is if I go and sit on the stupid throne.’
‘Just promise you won’t get stuck on it.’
He put his other paw on top of her hand, and the pads were cool, like soft chamois. ‘I promise. I want to go home, and sort myself out, and then maybe, one day, have my daughter back again.’ He stretched out his front paws and rested his head on them. ‘Sleep now, and tomorrow we’ll try to fight fate.’
Simone peeled off the leather vest, climbed onto the bed and rolled onto her right side with her injured arm on top. She hesitantly stretched her hand out, and Michael shifted so that he was directly next to the bed, and she could touch his fur. She buried her fingers in it, then stroked it.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Your fur is lovely. You don’t take tiger form nearly often enough.’
‘It scared Clarissa,’ he said, his voice rough. ‘I wonder if Larissa will be able to transform? Sometimes the transformation ability carries down through the generations, if the ancestor is a very large Shen.’
‘Did you warn Clarissa’s mother—what was her name?’
‘Christine, and I couldn’t, because she doesn’t know about us.’
‘Oh, Michael. I think you made a terrible mistake when you allowed her to take your daughter.’
‘When I have my grief back, I don’t think I’ll care. Sleep now, and we’ll try to fight fate and our own ability to see the future—tomorrow.’
*
M ichael was in human form and dressed in his white jeans and a yellow V-neck sweater over a polo shirt when Simone woke the next morning. He and Semias were sitting together on the floor mat with a platter of bread, cheese and fruit between them.
Michael smiled at her. ‘We were talking for ages, and you didn’t wake up.’
‘Yeah, I think I was nearly as wrecked as you were,’ she said. ‘And that bath felt amazing .’
He gestured towards the platter. ‘So is the bread.’
‘In a minute,’ she said, rolled out of the bed and raced into the back yard to the latrine.
She returned to sit with them and pulled a pie-shaped, pre-marked chunk out of the round loaf, then placed some of the tasty cheese on it. An earthenware plate appeared in front of her, and she took a bite of the bread, placed it onto the plate and added a small bunch of grapes next to it.
‘After not eating for a couple of days, the fibre from all this fruit has hit my digestion hard,’ she said ruefully. ‘I hope I don’t have to run for a loo break halfway through you sitting on the stupid throne.’
‘I thought you could handle this with your manipulation of water?’ Michael asked with a cheeky smile that showed his charming dimples.
‘Not water,’ she said, quirking a smile back at him.
He looked down. ‘Emma used to call it that. “You kids need a loo break? Go now because you won’t have a chance later! This shopping centre has no public toilets.”’
‘And you’d respond with—’
‘I’m not a kid!’ they said in unison.
He shook his head, rueful. ‘I was such a little kid.’
‘We both were.’
He glanced up into her eyes. ‘In many ways you were more mature than I was. After losing your mother, then having to protect yourself while your father faded away ...’ He looked away. ‘Sorry. They say girls mature faster—but it’s more that you see a heap of ugly shit from a very young age. I remember the girls in my high school class—sharing self-defence tips for moving through a world that could attack them at any time.’
‘You’ve seen more than your fair share as well,’ she said, putting her hand on his. He turned his hand over to hold hers, and they shared a moment of contented closeness. He understood what she’d been through, and was probably the only man in the world who truly did.
He gazed into her eyes, and the world disappeared. ‘One day we will be together, and it will be wild, and perfect, and wonderful, and infuriating.’ He kissed her hand and released it. ‘Remember that through the lonely time ahead. It will happen for us.’
She wiped the tears from her eyes. ‘Don’t give up, we can still change the future and go home together. Emma did it. She went to Hell, even though all their advisors told her that she would die if she did. My little brother popped up in Hell, was his usual random, powerful self, and pushed her into a timeline that nobody predicted—one where she didn’t die.’
‘Why did she go if she knew she would die? Why would your father let her go?’
‘They went together as a last-ditch effort to forge a new treaty with the demons and avoid the war,’ she said. ‘They knew that if she didn’t go with him, we would lose my dad instead. He would be imprisoned there, and we’d have no chance of winning the war.’
‘We lost the war anyway,’ he said grimly. He shook his head. ‘I didn’t know she did that. What an incredibly courageous thing to do.’ His voice filled with awe. ‘And he went along with it? Knowing she was walking to her death? Just, “Let’s traipse into Hell so you can die”? I would never sacrifice the one I love for the Heavens.’
‘She made it very clear that it wasn’t his sacrifice to make. He tried to talk her out of it, and apparently—I wasn’t there—she told him, “If you respect me, then butt out, because it’s my decision.” Mention it now and she’ll refer to it as “My most stupid and pointless Hell junket of them all”.’
‘I believe it.’
Semias appeared next to them. ‘When she was here, she was fearless and powerful and never gave up. She would be a tremendous asset to these Heavens.’
‘She’s already ruling a quarter of the Heavens with my father back home, and doing a terrific job,’ Simone said. ‘She will never agree to that.’
‘After the lad is enthroned, you can bring more than just Hades and Persephone up,’ Semias said, brightening. ‘Gods of European heritage from other Centres can help us to rebuild and repopulate these Heavens. More gods here will have a cleansing effect on the Earthly Plane below. I may be able to conjure food from dirt, but I’m certainly not capable of making people.’
‘We sent an Immortal woman of European heritage to the European Earthly Plane with her husband, and she wandered around for three months with no success,’ Simone said.
‘Tell her to return once Hades has the throne,’ Semias said.
Michael and Simone shared a nod and rose. Simone put her leather vest back on, then turned to Michael. ‘Would you like some armour? Just in case?’
‘Please,’ he said, and she conjured it and passed it to him. He slipped it around himself and zipped up the front opening.
‘Hold on, what is that closure method?’ Semias asked and moved closer. ‘May I touch?’
‘Good job asking permission,’ Michael said, and showed him how the zipper worked. ‘This?’
‘That is so clever !’ Semias said with awe. ‘A simple mechanical design that is much faster than laces. Leave this behind when you go, so that I can copy it.’
‘Wait until you see mobile phones,’ Michael said. ‘After we work out how to get some signal up here. Do you still have yours?’
Simone pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked it. ‘Yes. Still no signal, and battery’s at twenty per cent.’
He held his hand out. ‘May I?’ She passed the phone to him, and he held it with an expression of concentration for a couple of minutes, then handed it back, fully charged. He shook out his shoulders. ‘Ready to go? Let’s shift these demons, then find the throne.’
‘Once we’re outside the city, one of you will have to carry me again, I’m afraid,’ Semias said ruefully.
‘Can you make your human body smaller? You’re a little unwieldy,’ Simone said.
‘No, because it’s a skin over my mechanical self,’ Semias said.
‘I’ll hold him, you take point,’ Michael said, went to Semias, and lifted him like a child. Semias put his hand on Michael’s shoulder and smiled at him.
‘Okay, let’s go,’ she said, and lifted off.
‘You still haven’t explained the source of that “okay” expression,’ Semias called as Michael lifted off behind her.
*
‘A nd so it became a catch-phrase,’ Simone said as they followed the glittering Little Muse River to reach the floating crystals. ‘Oll Korrect, because it was super-trendy at the time to use comedic misspellings, and they shortened it to “okay”. Sometimes legacy business names do the same thing, usually with the “K”—misspellings in an effort to be cute.’
‘Krispy Kreme,’ Michael said with awe.
‘Kwik Kopy,’ Simone said. They arrived at the crystals, and she looked up. ‘You said it was the top one, Semias? I can see bridges from the higher ones, but none that link the crystals to ground level. The bridges glitter! They look like spider webs.’
‘That’s because they are,’ Semias said. ‘Land on the ground next to the river and we’ll find the entrance crystal.’
The river wasn’t wide and curved through a valley that had steep hills—almost mountains—on one side and a small plain that held the ruins of a large town on the other. The town’s buildings were made of amber-coloured sandstone that glowed in the morning sun.
The crystals floated in an area that spread far further than the town itself. They varied in size from that of a bus close to the ground and becoming larger as they gained altitude to become big enough to carry an entire town high above. Each had a curved, faceted underside and a flat top to carry either a single or a cluster of ruined buildings. The crystals varied in colour, with those closer to the ground being a deep green-blue that faded to sky blue as they reached higher. The crystals at the top weren’t visible, they were too high.
Silver bridges that were patterned like thick cobwebs, woven with threads as wide as steel cables, were strung between the crystals. The webbing was damaged, with some pieces hanging down from the bridges, and others having collapsed into a bundle of hanging threads still attached to the crystals at either end.
They landed on the ground, below the lowest crystal, which was a deep grass green. The multitude of tiny facets on its underside made it glitter.
‘You said they are cobwebs?’ Simone asked and shivered. ‘How big were the spiders ?’
Semias glared at her. ‘The construction spiders who lived with the Gods on these crystals were intelligent and dextrous and revered craftscreatures. Some of them even had rewarding and respectful romantic relationships with my fellow city guardians when we visited with our mayoral masters.’ He quirked a small smile. ‘Remarkable lovers. Exquisite.’ His smile disappeared. ‘They are gone, and no god has the power to return them to life. A great loss. Our new master ...’ Semias nodded to Michael. ‘Will need to be ingenious to think of ways to rebuild the bridges on the crystals without them.’
‘What’s holding the crystals up?’ Simone asked, running her hand over underside of the lowest one. It was the size of a shipping container, and something gold was moving inside it.
‘Gravity engines embedded within them,’ Semias said, gesturing upwards.
Michael took the hint and lifted Semias onto it, and the cobweb bridge up to the next one hadn’t collapsed, so Simone followed them across it. The bridge was as sturdy and unmoving as a steel suspension bridge, with the cobweb a thick mat below her feet. She touched the spiderweb railing, expecting it to be sticky, but it was smooth and slightly fuzzy beneath her hand. She stroked it as she walked up the bridge, enjoying the velvety feeling.
‘Michael mentioned these gravity engines in his report,’ she said, stepping onto the next crystal up. It was the same size as the first one, with no barrier around the edge, and had a gazebo on it that was almost completely destroyed, with only the lower part of two walls remaining. ‘Four-dimensional mechanisms.’
Michael looked down and pointed. ‘You can see the engine within this crystal.’
Simone moved next to him and saw that the shell of the crystal was less than a metre thick, leaving the cube-shaped mechanism and its golden clockwork cogs visible working within it.
‘This must be the smallest they could make the crystals,’ Michael mused. ‘Any smaller and it will shoot off into space.’
‘Precisely,’ Semias said.
‘Smaller?’ Simone asked, then, ‘Oh yeah, I remember. The smaller the engine is, the more powerful it is. I would love to see one working directly, outside of the crystal.’
‘Didn’t you make one to demonstrate when you made it home?’ Semias asked Michael.
‘I didn’t take the blueprints with me,’ Michael said ruefully. ‘I didn’t take anything useful back except for some basic knowledge.’ He lowered his head and shook it. ‘I failed miserably.’
‘You were lucky the demons didn’t have the skill to use the blueprints,’ Semias said.
‘No, I left important details out, because I didn’t want to lose you,’ Michael said. ‘If they had succeeded in building it, your city would have shot into space, so I made the blueprints incorrect.’
‘Clever,’ Semias said.
‘No,’ Michael said. ‘I failed completely. You had a library full of vital information, and I didn’t take single bit—I didn’t even remember anything I’d read. I murdered the copies of my wife and mother by mistake. I couldn’t even salvage the blueprint for the gravity engine.’
‘I probably would have done exactly the same thing,’ Simone said.
‘I should have done better,’ he said.
‘Today, you will have a chance to redeem yourself, by freeing these Heavens from the demon corruption, and returning them to the Gods,’ Semias said. He clapped Michael on the shoulder. ‘That will more than make up for any mistake you have made in the past.’ He pointed. ‘The next bridge has collapsed. Can you lift me?’
Michael nodded, lifted Semias, and carried him the fifty metres higher to the next crystal. This one had an ankle-height barrier around the edge, and empty dirt surrounding a ruin the size of a suburban house.
‘Is this a little farm?’ Simone asked, fascinated, as she approached the house. It was made of brown bricks with a thatched roof that had collapsed a long time ago.
‘Small meditation garden and pavilion,’ Semias said. He guided them to the next bridge. ‘We have at least fifty crystals to traverse, children, and the ones further up are much larger. Shall we move?’
*
I t was mid-morning by the time they were close to the summit. The crystals that high up were nearly transparent, and so large that the gravity engines within them weren’t visible from the outside.
The topmost crystal glowed, but it was more than just a shine; brilliant, blinding rays of light emanated from above them, like a miniature cool-white star. An energy similar to shen energy—the energy of the soul—radiated from it, and it lifted Simone’s spirits and filled her with vigour. She was concerned that when they were next to the throne the radiance would be overwhelming.
Simone shaded her eyes as she looked up—the light was too bright to observe directly and left blinking after-images if she did. ‘Is that the throne glowing? I can feel the energy coming from it.’
‘That’s it without an occupant to moderate its output, and with demons reducing its power,’ Semias said. ‘When it’s occupied, the radiance is controlled and diverted to maintenance of the Heavens.’
The crystals’ flat upper surfaces were now large enough to hold a modern suburb, and the buildings consisted of golden sandstone houses and squares with dry fountains, untouched by the high winds of altitude and completely empty. The gardens were bare earth and the buildings echoed around them with hollowness.
‘Nearly there,’ Semias said, and shook his head. ‘It hurts to see the throne so unconstrained. The residents here would never allow it to run so out of control.’ He raised his head. ‘At least its energy is adequate to rebuild. You should have little trouble clearing the demons from these Heavens once you have its power in your grasp.’
‘Totally terrifying,’ Michael said under his breath.
‘I agree,’ Simone said.
The spider-web bridges at that level were untouched as well, and the atmosphere was so thin that Simone needed to use energy to keep herself alive. There weren’t any strong stratospheric winds, but they were in the high, sweeping clouds of altitude, and it was so cold that everything was covered in a rime of frost.
‘You okay?’ Simone asked Michael as they trekked along an avenue through deserted houses towards the bridge leading to the highest crystals with their glowing aura. ‘There isn’t much air here.’
‘No, I’m good,’ Michael said. ‘After our stupid trip to the Kunlun Mountains where we nearly died, my dad kind of apologised to me—as much of an apology as that asshole will make, anyway—and taught me some better techniques for dealing with altitude. I’m capable of staying on the moon for more than an hour at a time.’
‘I love moon walks,’ Simone said. ‘The absolute silence and the stars that don’t sparkle, but the best part is the lower gravity. Bouncing around up there is like a private jumping castle.’
‘How about a quick trip when we get back?’
‘Maybe when you have your head back together,’ Simone said sadly.
‘Ugh. I forgot again.’
They were at the edge of the crystal and Simone looked up, then away. The brilliance coming from the higher crystal was dazzling. She conjured two pairs of sunglasses and handed a pair to Michael. He put them on and stared, open-mouthed, at the island.
‘Is there anything we should be prepared for?’ Michael asked Semias without looking away from the crystal. ‘Demons? Traps? Defences?’
‘No,’ Semias said. ‘The demons can’t approach that purity without being destroyed. And the throne itself is its own defence.’
Michael glanced back at Simone. ‘Your demon nature okay?’
‘It kind of feels like an unpleasant buzz, like being low-level electrocuted,’ Simone said. ‘Like standing in a really good seal.’
‘We’ll have that stuff out of you in no time. First thing I’ll do when I sit on this stupid throne,’ Michael said, and walked onto the bridge up to the final crystal. The bridge was three times as wide as the others, spanning the width of the final, topmost crystal.
The highest crystal was smaller than the previous, with only a single hall on it. The hall was the size of a middle-ages cathedral, and a similar structure to Semias’s city—taller than it was wide, and made of silver, with stained glass between the soaring pillars of the walls, which ended in arches at the top. Light shone from inside the building—blinding light—that hit the stained glass and filled the sky with a rainbow of brilliant colours. The roof was covered in spires and spikes, all of gleaming silver, with what appeared to be crystal balls of all hues sitting on the top of the spikes.
‘It looks like a madman’s design of an electrical transformer,’ Michael said.
‘I think that’s what it is, except for celestial energy instead of electricity,’ Simone said. She squared her shoulders. ‘Time to save all of Europe.’
‘I can do this,’ Michael said under his breath.
He started towards the building—the rest of the surface of the crystal was bare, but it was obvious there had once been gardens on this one as well—and Simone stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He turned to her, questioning, and she threw herself at him and held him tight.
‘Please come back with me,’ she said into his shoulder.
He was slightly taller than her and buried his face into her neck. ‘I want to, more than anything in the world. One day our souls will sing together, and the harmony will be wonderful.’ He pulled back to smile at her, and when their eyes met, something rose and joined between them. The union felt like a completion of her soul.
His expression went intense, and he bent to kiss her, but she put her hand on his cheek to stop him.
‘Not now,’ she said. ‘It would be wrong.’
He pulled back, released her, and nodded. ‘It would.’ He turned and walked with determination towards the throne room. ‘Let’s do this.’