Free Down to the Bone: Quantum Gravity Book Five by Justina Robson Page B

at the moment of their conception.’ He glanced speculatively at Zal.
     ‘And here you are, elf in blood and demon by spirit. No accident that.’
    ‘My mother certainly thought it wasn’t,’ Zal said. ‘Though she never told me all the details. But why did the elves do it
at all?
’
    ‘They were under attack,’ Xaviendra said, smacking her lips as she settled down again. This above all made Lila convinced
     that she wasn’t faking the sleep. Xavi was fastidious and had impeccable manners, the sort that would persist through death
     rather than reveal anything other than someone in perfect self-control.
    ‘From what?’ Teazle’s tail lifted, cobralike, and swayed as he waited for the answer.
    ‘The sleeper within,’ Xavi said and abruptly rolled to her side and curled up again, hands tucked under her chin like a child.
     She frowned briefly and shivered before falling into a deeper kind of sleep; softness overtook her.
    As one they turned away to leave her in peace. Lila glanced at Teazle but he shrugged – he had no idea what that last phrase
     meant.
    Zal shook his head. ‘Never heard of it.’
    ‘I thought you guys kept impeccable records,’ Teazle said.
    ‘Maybe, but we also had impeccable rewriting skills,’ Zal replied, ‘and our propaganda services were second to none. Until
     I found Friday back in Zoomenon all the elves I know thought the shadowkin were a naturally occurring race and not a genocidal
     experiment. They were made a long, long time ago.’
    ‘Still,’ Lila said. ‘It must have been one hell of a threat to do what they did.’ She felt even less comfortable with the
     idea than she had two minutes ago, before Xavi had put this strange label on the cause.
    ‘Or a hell of an opportunity,’ Teazle said, relaxing to roll on his back again. ‘Mages’ll fuck with anything for power. Elves
     doubly so. Gzzz, I feel sleepy. This beer is useless.’
    ‘I’ll take her back,’ said Lila, cancelling the effects of the alcohol on her system with a filter. She bent down and gathered
     the light form of the elf into her arms as unwelcome sobriety set in. She heard herself ask, ‘Are you sticking around?’ And
     then she felt so off balance that she almost staggered and had to fight to keep her feet.
    Teazle glanced at Zal and their gazes locked for a second, then got up slowly. ‘I’ll take a rain check.’ He shook out his
     thick mane of white hair and composed himself, standing tall with his chin lowered in a manner Lila recognised as being his
     pre-teleport orientation. He looked at her, his gaze blazing. His nostrils flared for a moment and she smelled brimstone and
     the psychoactive tang of his personal poison as he said, ‘Have to be a dog about a man.’
    ‘Where will you be?’ She hated herself for asking, hearing her voice crack on the last word.
    ‘I’ll check the dropbox,’ he said and she felt kicked in the gut once again. Then he gave the merest downward flick of his
     eyelids in Zal’s direction, baffling her entirely because she’d assumed his submission to Zal would end now there was no more
     need for them to fool around with who had the power. He vanished from Otopian space with the finality of a gunshot. The sharp
     crack retort of the air closing on his space made Xavi jolt.
    ‘Bad dog,’ she murmured, her head lolling against Lila’s leather-clad shoulder.
    ‘I’ll be here,’ Zal said, lying down flat on the rugs. The ink spill of his aether body shifted around him like a restless
     pool and where his fingers came into contact with the empty bottles he tapped out a brief rhythm.
    Lila swallowed down to prevent the hole in her chest opening any further and stooped to clear the yurt’s low-slung doorflap.
     Outside the night was cool and a faint drizzle was falling. She could hear the soft murmuring swish of the city, a breath
     instead of the roar she kept listening for and never finding.
    The whispers of the machine, which had haunted her a long