This Rough Magic

Perhaps that last came out a bit aggressively, but—oh, stupid man-God! Why was He just standing there, as if none of this mattered to Him? Was He going to act, or not?

He seemed altogether startled, now. 'It is not that I did not wish to help. It is just that I cannot. My only connection with the Mother is through her embodiments. You are the embodiment of the Mother. The things above the earth are hers only. I have no power there, but I can lend my strength. I always have willingly given my help to my Mother.'

Maria was now more confused than she'd been before. 'I don't understand,' she repeated. 'Just who are you?'

He blinked, slowly. 'I am the Lord of the underworld. Aidoneus is the name I am sometimes given.'

'The devil?' He didn't seem evil. Just distant.

He shook his head in violent negation, the first time he'd shown any sign of emotion. 'No! Shaitan's realms are elsewhere, and I want none of his kind of darkness.' He spread his hands, as if in apology. 'The spirit world is a complex place. All things are possible here. And none.'

Well, that was certainly unhelpful. It was like arguing with Eneko Lopez. 'It all seems to be shadows,' she said doubtfully.

He nodded, more certain. 'This has been called Shadowkeep, at times. And Hades, which is nothing like Hell. More often, simply the realm of the dead. Some of the dead leave here to go on to other realms, but all are here at least for a time. Time is meaningless to the dead. Of course, you are not dead, so you are not outside of time.'

She wrinkled her forehead. She thought the point of this was that she died; this was getting more confusing by the moment. 'So am I not dead?'

He shook his head. 'No. Only a living one can be the living embodiment of life. One day you will die, but you are not destined to do so for many years. You will stay down here and be my wife. And the Mother Earth will be fertile and grow, because I can lend Her my strength.'

Stay here and be his wife? Was that what all this bride business was about? To be a real—wife? To a God? Or something—

Well, she'd accepted dying. And you could get used to anything.

She shook herself all over, and one thing swam up out of her sea of confused thoughts. Alessia. What was going on out there? Or up there? Or wherever 'there' was?

'Alessia—my baby?' Surely the Lord of the Dead would know if Alessia was dead? Or if the Hungarians had broken through . . . there'd be many dead, including Stella.

He looked past her, his face gone indifferent again. 'Your child is lying beside the sacred pool in the temple of the great Goddess. There is an evil creature of darkness, a cursed one, sniffing at her.' He sounded as if it all meant nothing to Him. Actually, it probably didn't.

But she reacted with outrage. 'But—but you're supposed to help! Renate was supposed to take her away! Why didn't she? She's not going to kill my baby, is she?'

He looked into the middle distance. He was plainly seeing things in the shadowy places. 'The priestess lies within the portals of the underworld. She has expended too much opening the way.'

Outrage was no proper word for what she felt now. All the sense of betrayal, all the despair, all the anguish that had brought her here welled up inside her and spilled out.

'You're supposed to help! You—you cold fish, you're supposed to be stopping all of this! That's the bargain! That's why I came here!' Maria knew she was screaming, although in this strange place it didn't seem so. The sound was curiously deadened.

He looked at her as if she was a child to whom he had already explained the situation. 'I need to be asked. And death and life need to be joined so the circle can be complete.'

'Well, I'm asking you. Do something! Now!' She stamped her foot. This sound too was faint and thin. More like the memory of a sound.

For the first time a flicker of expression ran across that cold face. It was hard to say what it was. But his voice was somehow warmer, more interested. 'You remind me of my first wife. Kore was from before the humans came. She brought fire and light into this place. We had some terrible fights, as I recall. She also had a quick temper like yours.' He sounded nostalgic.

Maria felt her fury rage against the flatness of the man, and the place. 'Listen, you! I'll make your life a misery for all that long life you've said I'd have, unless you do something now! About my baby. About the siege. About Renate. NOW!'

Her voice seemed louder somehow than it had when she'd shouted earlier. And edges to everything seemed sharper, clearer.

'You have a beautiful, strong spirit,' he said, with what could almost be a smile. He reached toward her and she saw the hands were like Benito's brother's hands. Long and shapely. And the almond seemed to glow. 'Come. Join me then, avatar of the great Goddess. Join me and then I can do this 'something' you demand.'

She reached out her hand, opening it to reveal the almond. Her hands were work-calloused and rough compared to his. 'Doing something is always better than doing nothing,' she said firmly.

As their hands clasped, the two almond halves touched. She felt them draw toward each other.

Click . . .

The seed began to swell and then burst into growth. The roots were wriggling against their clasped hands and leafy shoots came questing upwards. And Maria found she could see things in the strange shadows of this place. People and places, myriads of them.

'It's a strong tree. The strongest I have seen in centuries,' he said. His voice was definitely warmer now. And somehow he seemed less inhuman. 'Let us plant it.'

'It needs light, and earth and water,' snapped Maria. 'Not shadows. And I need to get on before it is too late