Mym increased his effort and hacked the demon to pieces. Now at last it was finished. This business of fighting demons was strange. They seemed to feel little or no pain or fear, had no blood, and they talked and fought freely while intact. What motivated them? They could seem most human at times, yet most alien at other times.
He turned again to the harpy, who had watched this without reaction. He was sure he could deal with her—but how could he be sure that more demons weren't watching? If they could mask themselves as stones or other items, they could be all around. It would be better to wait a bit before making his move.
"How are you?" he asked the harpy.
Now she reacted. "Unsssex me here!" she exclaimed, spitting at him.
"I gather you are not very sociable," he said with a smile. He had hardly expected otherwise.
"I have given sssuck!" she screeched indignantly.
Mym still saw no other demons, so he proceeded. He picked up one of the destroyed demon's arms and tossed it to her. The harpy caught it with one claw and tore into it with her teeth; in a moment the demon-substance was being shredded. But while she was partially distracted with that morsel, Mym reached up to touch her wing, channeling his identity quickly through the connection and phasing in with her as well as he was able.
She was Lady MacBeth, and when a cloud of dust obscured the region, a hole would open in the ground. That was all; this was just another variant of the usual device.
He disengaged and picked up a larger morsel of demon. He heaved it at the harpy, but it fell low, so that she could not catch it. In a fury she flapped her wings so hard that a cloud of dust was stirred up.
Now he spoke her name: "Lady MacBeth." The harpy froze, and Mym walked into the dust and found the hole in the ground. He stepped down into it and found himself in still another cave.
This time he did not proceed forward. He turned and waited.
Sure enough, a demon followed. Mym lopped off the thing's head, then sliced up the rest of the body, until the pieces lost their animation.
Another demon appeared. Mym dispatched that one too.
He waited, but no more demons came. This, then, should be the end of them; as far as he could tell, demons were not bright creatures and acted the moment they saw reason to. Any who were able to follow should have done so by now.
He turned and went on down the passage he was in. It brought him to a nether gate. He opened this and found stairs leading up. At the top of the flight he found a green and brown room.
"Why, fancy meeting you here," Gaea said.
"The approach was more difficult than I expected," Mym said, realizing that he had at last entered her domicile.
"Those demons are a nuisance," she said. "Permit me." She gestured, and a swarm of flies seemed to issue from her hand. They buzzed about Mym and landed on his cloak.
Suddenly there were puffs of smoke all about him. "Ww-w-what?" he asked, startled.
"They are stinging the remaining demons into oblivion," Gaea explained.
Mym was dismayed. "You mean I brought some in with me?" he sang.
"Indeed," she agreed. "But I have dealt with them now."
"But then your barriers—they didn't work!"
Gaea smiled. "They worked, Mars. They showed me which of the thousands of false images was the real Mars. I have no fear of demons here; I merely dislike being deceived. I would have had no rest at all if I had watched every image; as it is, I have to watch only you. What brings you here?"
"I am supervising an engagement in which one side means to use gene-splicing to create a virus that infects only the folk of the other side. I thought you would have an interest."
Gaea pursed her lips. "Indeed I do. Mars! I thank you for bringing this to my attention!"
"Well, I have been encountering so much difficulty with the other Incarnations that I thought—"
The Green Mother smiled. "I appreciate your consideration, Mars. Certainly I could not have let such a ploy pass. I shall straighten this out for you—but in return you must give me an intimate part of yourself."
"I must give you—?" Mym sang indignantly. "I came here to—"
"Indulge me. Mars," she said.
"Oh, take what you want!" he sang angrily. He should never have expected gratitude from another Incarnation!
"In due course."
She questioned him closely, then lifted her hand to her face. She leaned forward and touched one eye with her right forefinger, and her left with her left forefinger. Two glistening tears fell to the fingers and clung there in globules. She put the globules into separate little sponges. "Take these to your battle zone," she said. "Put them together there."
"T-t-two t-t-tears?" he asked, astonished.
"Not ordinary tears, Mars. When these merge, they will form a compound that nullifies what Satan has done in Ireland. Their virus will expire and be beyond recovery. No one will die of this particular plague."
"What Satan has done?" he sang.
"Obviously Satan has been behind all the mischief you have encountered," she said. "He caused the drafting of children for battle, revealed to another party the secret substance to make zombies, sent a vision to yet another to reveal the technology of the time bomb, and gave the secret of the Protestant plague to another. He has been working you over, Mars."
Mym formed an angry fist, knowing that this was true. Why hadn't he seen it before? That vision in Cush—obviously Satanic! "D-d-d-d-damn him!" he swore.
"Which means you must deal with him directly," Gaea said. "Only then will you be free of his interference."
"I shall challenge him now!" Mym sang.
"He will not meet you on a field of your choice," she warned. "Be careful. Mars; you can nullify the Incarnation of Evil only by properly understanding him. Bide your time; you will know when your opportunity comes."
Mym knew she was right. "I shall," he sang. "Now, will I be able to leave here without going through all the challenges again?"
She laughed. "Of course, Mars! But first—" She touched him with one hand. He felt a peculiar wrenching and knew that something vital was indeed gone from him. Nature had taken her payment.
Then he stepped out of her front doorway, which was an opening in the trunk of the great tree she lived in, and saw the Castle of War just across the open valley. There were no barriers at all.
Chapter 13 - LIGEIA
If Mym's nocturnal restlessness had been bad before, it was worse now. He had been frustrated by Rapture's repeated absences, but had known that she would return. Now he knew she would not. His hope for future satisfaction had been negated.
He walked in the garden. There was Lila.
"Hello, Mym," she said in familiar fashion. She wore one of her slinky, form-fitting robes that seemed to reveal more of her than would have been seen if she had been nude.
"I chopped you up and sent you back to Hell!" he protested. "What are you doing here?"
"I am trying to serve your needs," she said. "You are welcome to chop me up again, if it gives you pleasure."
"I just want to be rid of you!"
"Now don't be that way, Mym. You know you can't manage without an obliging woman, and I am most obliging. You can torture me, and I won't be hurt; you can cut me in pieces, and I can be reassembled. But I really think you would prefer to love me."
"I hate you! You are a creature of Evil!"
"Well, then, you can hate me," she agreed, stroking her own torso suggestively. "Summon me to your bed and revile me freely while you—"
"Get out of here!" he cried, clenching his fist.
"Make me, Mym," she suggested, striking another seductive pose.
He paused. He knew that if he took hold of her, she would twine against him, trying to seduce him. If he cut her up, she would reconstitute, in due course. She was a demoness, not subject to the ordinary limitations of mortals. So he avoided those alternatives and confined himself to words. "How can you intrude here, against my will?"
"Is i
t against your will, Mym?" she inquired, taking a step toward him.
"Of course it is!"
"Do I not tempt you with my flesh and my willingness?"
"No!"
She shook her head. "Every lie you tell brings you closer to Hell, Mym. Then you will be mine indeed."
"This is my castle! You have no right to intrude!"
"This is not your castle, Mym. This is an intermediate ground, where mortals, immortals, and the damned may meet."
"This is the garden annex to the Castle of War!"
"This is an extension of your garden annex. You are no longer on your own turf. Mars. Otherwise you would not be able to speak without stuttering."
That gave him pause. It was true that only in this region could he speak normally, avoiding both singsong and stuttering. That was one of the things that attracted him to it. But such speech was a gift of Satan, and he should not allow himself to be affected by it.
This reminded him of another aspect of the region. "Rapture was able to eat, here. How was this possible, if this is merely a compromise aspect of Purgatory?"
"It extends to overlap the mortal realm," Lila explained. "The table of viands is actually at one of our mortal locations, topologically convoluted to appear local."
"So she wasn't really remaining here!" he exclaimed.
"That depends on your definition of 'here,' Mym. Reality is as one perceives it."
"Or so Satan would like to have others believe—that lies are reality, because he is the master of lies."
"Master of Illusions," she said, as if clarifying a carelessly employed term. "Once one believes an illusion, it becomes reality. If you were to accept me as a real woman—"
"I know you are not!"
"But I could make it easy to forget. For example, if I assumed another form—" she shimmered and became the likeness of Rapture.
"Get out of that form!" Mym shouted.
"Why—doesn't it appeal to you?"
"I don't want you in that form!" he could only say, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of inciting his further anger. It was evident that demons did not have human emotions, but only emulated them.
"Then I shall offer you another form." She shimmered again and assumed the likeness of Orb.
"No!" Mym cried, half in anguish.
The Orb-image shook her lovely head. "You are a challenge to please, Mym. Do you crave slightly less licit delight?" And she became the likeness of Luna.
"I don't want any likeness!" Mym said, appalled.
"I am sure you have noticed how attractive Thanatos' woman is," the Luna-likeness said. The insidious thing was that she also sounded exactly like Luna and had whatever mannerisms he had noted in her. "Now you can have her, without stirring up trouble with another Incarnation. You can relish her most private parts—"
"How can I be rid of you?" he demanded.
The Lila form reappeared. "Well, there are several ways, but I think two are most feasible for your situation. One is to retire to your Castle of War, where I can not intrude without your express invitation, and live alone, never emerging to this garden. I dare say that would enhance your prowess as Mars, for you would get pretty violent after a while."
She spoke truly. That was one of the things that annoyed him most. Lila always spoke the truth—the truth he did not want to hear. "And the other?"
"You could fiNd yourself another woman. Once I see that you are fully satisfied, I will leave you alone, for there will be no hope for me."
"Demons have hope? Isn't that a mortal feeling?"
"A mortal illusion," she said, again correcting him. "But also an immortal one. There is no mortal hope like that of a damned soul who dreams of eventual release to Heaven."
"But you are not a damned soul; you are a demoness."
"True. I spoke figuratively. I exist only to corrupt you, in any form I can." She wavered again and became Lilith.
"You—are she?" Mym asked, appalled again.
"The distinction is meaningless, Mym. I am the demoness assigned to torment you into doing my Master's will. There is no individuality among demons, and form is but a convenience."
"So when Satan sent Lilith away and brought you in her place—"
"I only exchanged forms," she agreed. "It doesn't matter."
"But she was represented as an ancient succubus, the companion of evil men since time began, while you were represented as a virgin!"
"Representations are but another form of illusion. For you, I would have been a virgin."
"But that was a lie! I thought you always told the truth!"
"Truth is meaningless to a demon," she reminded him. "It is only a tool to be used as convenient. But this was not a lie, for there can be neither virginity nor non virginity in a demoness. She has no mortal flesh. The only distinction is in your perception—as is the case with mortals, too. Virginity has always been a figment of mortal male imagination."
What bothered him most was that she was making sense. Perhaps what he deserved was a creature like her, who could meet both his physical and intellectual needs, for she was beautiful and intelligent. But that was the nature of Satan's trap.
"Then I will find myself a woman!" he said, and stomped away.
"Find Ligeia," she called after him.
He paused, then turned back. "Why do you advise me like this? Isn't this to your disadvantage?"
She was Lila again. "Mym, you are an honest man and a good man. I am only a creature of Hell. But while I am with you, I am shaped by your expectations, and I become what you would have me be, for that is the way I serve. Thus I help you in whatever way you ask."
"But I detest you! I only want to be rid of you!"
"No. You only want to be rid of the demon aspect of me. You deceive yourself when you say otherwise, and because I serve in the way you wish, I become your conscience and correct you on that. Eventually, you will accept me, as you have molded me to be."
Mym shook his head. "Woman, you are dangerous!"
"I am dangerous," she agreed. "Because once you accept me, I will subvert you, and you will serve Satan, though you deny it."
"And you claim you have no emotion?" he asked. "You do not care at all for me, you only labor to subvert me?"
"True."
"I think you are lying, Lila."
She averted her gaze, not answering. He looked closely at her and saw a tear at one eye.
He started to speak, but stopped. He reached out to her, but stopped. Her human emotion—this was the true lie!
And it had almost worked.
He turned away and hurried on down the garden.
The farther reaches of the garden became rougher, as he passed beyond the presentation section. Instead of trimmed hedges, there were unruly bushes, and the animated statues were replaced by irregular pylons of stone. The original pathway deteriorated into a rut, and the flowers that had bounded it now were weeds. Even the weather changed, losing its balmy glow and becoming cold and gloomy.
Mym realized that he should turn back, for this was no place for a man to be. But his cloak protected him from environmental extremes, so he suffered no physical discomfort and, of course, he didn't have to walk if he didn't want to. He could simply use the Red Sword to travel—
Or summon his good steed.
"Werre!" he called.
Immediately he heard the sound of hoofbeats. There was the horse, galloping in from the side. "How glad I am to see you!" Mym cried, hugging Werre about the neck as the animal drew up. Then he mounted. "Take me to Ligeia," he said, uncertain whether the horse would be able to respond to such a directive.
Werre took off, galloping across the wilderness landscape. Evidently he did know where it was. Soon they reached a barren plateau, a kind of snowy tundra, as desolate as Mym's romantic prospects. Werre galloped across, and ahead there came into view a sparkling palace, as pretty in its symmetry as the plain was dull.
But the palace came no nearer, though the horse was moving at a velocity
no mortal steed could match. Perplexed, Mym sighted carefully at it and discovered that it was like a mirage, keeping a constant distance from them. "Whoa, Werre," he said, using the occidental term the horse preferred. "I think we have here a special effect."
He dismounted and walked toward the palace. Now he made progress; it was closer. He called to the horse, but as Werre approached him, the palace receded.
"Now that's curious," Mym said. "It is keeping its distance from you, not from me. Well, you have brought me close enough; I'll use the Sword to take me in the rest of the way. Return to the castle, Werre, and I will rejoin you later."
Obediently, the horse galloped away. Mym regretted losing him, but if this were the only way to approach this equine-shy domicile, then so be it. He touched the Sword, and in a moment he was standing at the outer wall of the palace.
The structure was larger and prettier than it had seemed from a distance. The wall was of glistening ice and towered up some ten meters before giving way to the first embrasure. Mym tried to climb it, but the ice was tractionless and he could make no headway.
He touched the Sword. "Up," he murmured.
The Sword lifted him up along the wall to the embrasure. But when he got there he discovered it was halfway illusory; invisibly transparent ice covered it, so that there was no entrance. The turrets were the same; the ice sealed everything in. This castle was tight, iced all over.
He returned to the ground and considered. Though the ice seemed transparent, diffraction increased with depth, so that the interior became opaque. But he was sure this was the right place, because Lila had described it as a castle of frozen mist, and this was that, albeit somewhat more solid than anticipated. Also, Werre had been headed here. He needed to get in, to rescue the damsel in distress.
Mym drew the Sword. "I hate to do it," he murmured to himself. "But I'll have to cut my way into the beautiful structure."
He braced himself and swung at the wall, knowing that the Red Sword could cut through any substance, and could be damaged by none.
And almost fell on his face as the blade passed through the wall without resistance. It was mist indeed!