The Gravity Engine

  ‘I see.’ Michael turned back to the engine and leaned on the railing. ‘Will you build it for them?’

  ‘Until they release you I don’t think I have a choice,’ Semias said, his voice low. He straightened and became more brisk. ‘Now, we have to find a way to very accurately measure the components while they’re moving, because it is important that they all be made in exactly the same ratio.’

  ‘Ratio? What about the size of the whole machine? Isn’t that important?’

  ‘Oh, the size of the whole engine is completely vital. The smaller it is, the more gravity it negates. An engine a foot to a side will send a large chunk of the planet shooting out into space and bouncing away from every gravity well it encounters.’

  Michael leaned on the rail and considered for a moment.

  ‘Yes,’ Semias said.

  Michael turned to him. ‘What?’

  ‘Yes. We’ll tell them that they can make it small and portable, then ensure that you and the women are safe when they turn it on. The demon leader will be gone forever, and me with him.’

  Michael turned back to the machine. ‘I’d prefer not to sacrifice you, Semias. You’ve cared for my family and been honourable in your assistance.’

  ‘As long as the city stands, I exist,’ Semias said. ‘I don’t breathe or eat.’ He raised his head and spoke contemplatively. ‘I wouldn’t mind going out and visiting the stars, seeing if there’s any intelligences out there like me. Once the demons are destroyed I can turn the machine on and off to control where I go.’ He turned to Michael and smiled. ‘It would be an interesting experience. So.’ He banged the rail with his palm. ‘Let’s build the blueprint and see where this little adventure takes us.’

  It was very late when they returned to the mansion. Michael checked for the women and they hadn’t returned; he was alone. He went into the room he’d commandeered and washed, then put on some of the soft cotton boxers from the chest of drawers and fell onto the bed. He pulled the covers over him, and their lavender scent soothed him. He was asleep before he knew it.

  He woke and sat up. The windows were bright and it felt like he’d slept a long time. He turned and saw someone kneeling on the floor next to the bed. It was one of the demons; a young female, but different to the one he’d spoken to before.

  ‘Get out,’ he said.

  ‘I have a message for you,’ she said. She bowed low over her knees. ‘Please do not destroy me, Highness, I only bear a message.’

  ‘Who from?’

  ‘The Number One Son of the Demon King.’

  ‘Wait outside for me for a moment. I need to dress,’ he said.

  ‘I will sit here and not look, Highness.’

  ‘I need to use the bathroom as well!’ he said, exasperated. ‘Wait outside.’

  ‘The bathroom?’ She looked around, then her eyes widened. ‘Oh, I most sincerely apologise. I will wait.’ She climbed to her feet, bowed to him, and crept out.

  He opened the door when he was done and she was standing next to it. He checked around; nobody else present except for the demons in the kitchen. He gestured for her to enter.

  She came into the centre of the room and knelt again. ‘Royal Highness.’

  ‘What’s the message?’

  She stiffened as if she’d been struck, then relaxed and her whole body language changed. She became graceful and confident as she pulled herself to her feet, then sauntered to the arm chair at the side of the room and lounged in it. She waved one hand. ‘Good to see you again, Prince Michael. Please, take a seat, let’s talk.’

  Michael sat on the bed and waited.

  ‘The King’s selling us out to them,’ the female demon said. ‘He’s promised the horde that he’ll take the Earthly back and we’ll walk in the sun again. He’s promised that when he’s taken the Earthly he’ll march on the Heavens themselves.’ She leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees. ‘But even if he succeeds, it will be with the help of the European Demon King, and the debt will need to be paid in the end, and the debt will mean the enslavement of us all.’ She leaned back. ‘I can’t let that happen. I’d rather we stayed in Hell than became the thralls of the European King. We need to stop him. We can help each other. What is he asking you to do, and why are you helping him?’

  ‘He has my mother and my fiancée,’ Michael said.

  ‘Are you sure they’re not copies? Your mother died when she took the Elixir of Immortality. And I’m pretty sure your fiancée was experimented on and tortured until the Dark Lord rescued her.’

  Michael looked down at his hands and didn’t reply.

  ‘You won’t risk the chance that they’re real?’ the demon said.

  Michael shook his head.

  ‘I understand. Well, I don’t really understand, your Celestial minds are beyond me, but I’m willing to work around it. Why is the King holding you? Are you a hostage against your father?’

  ‘He needs my abilities with metal.’

  ‘Oh,’ the demon said, a drawn-out sound of understanding. ‘The gravity engine.’

  Semias appeared at the end of the bed. ‘Who is this?’

  ‘This is the Number One Son of the Demon King,’ Michael said. ‘He’s possessing this servant to speak to me.’

  ‘Do your demons work the way ours do?’ Semias said. ‘Is he plotting against his father to take the throne?’

  ‘Always,’ the demon said.

  ‘I see,’ Semias said. ‘Can we speak freely here? I’m sure the Demon King has spies listening to us.’

  ‘As long as I’m here they can’t hear anything,’ the demon said. ‘Talk to me.’

  A chair appeared and Semias sat in it. ‘So what’s in it for us?’

  ‘I don’t want him to succeed, he’s working with the European demons —’ the demon began.

  ‘I know all this, I heard everything you said,’ Semias said. ‘I’ll ask the question again. What’s in it for us?’

  ‘If I can free the women and return them to your care, what will you do?’ the demon said.

  ‘I’d leave immediately but I can’t teleport out,’ Michael said.

  ‘I can open a gateway for you,’ Semias said.

  ‘Then I’ll leave,’ Michael said. ‘Take them and go.’

  ‘Promise?’

  ‘My word.’

  ‘All right.’ The demon rose. ‘Let me see if I can find them, and we can stop this before it starts.’ The demon’s face went slack, and then filled with comprehension. She bowed low to Michael. ‘Highness. Please permit me to return to the kitchen.’

  Michael waved her away. ‘Go.’

  She bowed again and went out.

  ‘Have something to eat and we’ll return to the engine,’ Semias said.

  Five days later, Michael and Semias returned to the mansion with the rolled-up plans. Michael went into the dining room and opened the kitchen door to speak to the demons.

  ‘Tell the King we’re finished.’

  The demons, who had frozen when they saw him, nodded. He went back into the dining room, tossed the plans onto the table and sat. He put his head in his hands and waited.

  ‘It’ll be fine, lad,’ Semias said. ‘He’ll give you your family back.’

  Michael nodded into his hands without replying.

  Two hours later the noise of the Demon King’s helicopter woke him and he raised his head from the table. He waited quietly as the King approached and entered the mansion. When the King came into the dining room, Michael pushed the plans towards him.

  ‘My side of the bargain. Now let my mother and fiancée go.’

  The King rolled the blueprints open and studied them. He glanced up at Michael and Semias. ‘What the fuck is this? This is a bunch of oddly shaped pieces that won’t fit together into any sort of cube.’

  ‘It’s the best we could do considering the four-dimensional nature of the mechanism,’ Michael said. ‘If you build these pieces, Semias can put it together.’

  ‘What are these cogs made of? What m
etal?’

  ‘A very specific brass alloy, which will be almost impossible to smelt …’ Michael’s voice petered out, and he put his head in his hands again. He was too exhausted to think straight.

  ‘Oh, Michael,’ Semias said with compassion.

  The King looked down at the plans, studying them, then back up at Michael. He pushed the paper at him. ‘You have metal abilities. Make it for us.’

  Michael slammed his hands on the table. ‘You said you’d let us go!’

  ‘You just said yourself that you’re the only one who can make it.’

  ‘Bring the women back.’

  ‘When it’s built and working, I won’t just bring them back, I’ll drop all three of you in the most expensive suite in the Beijing Four Seasons.’

  Michael didn’t have the energy to fight him. ‘I need a hundred kilos of copper, forty-five kilos of zinc, and ten kilos each of iron and tin.’

  ‘That’s not enough metal to make the huge machine down there.’

  ‘Size doesn’t matter,’ Michael said. ‘Smaller will be easier to make.’

  The King looked sharply from Michael to Semias. ‘If size doesn’t matter then why is the one down there so fucking huge?’

  ‘How do you know how big it is?’ Michael said.

  ‘Fibre optic cameras on the end of a drill,’ the King said.

  ‘What’s that?’ Semias said.

  ‘It means that they can stick a pole into the earth and see what’s at the end. They know how big it is.’

  ‘So why is that one so big and this one so small?’ the King said, tapping the plans with his finger.

  ‘Aesthetics,’ Semias said.

  The King’s mouth fell open. ‘What?’

  ‘Bigger is more inspiring.’

  ‘That makes no sense at all. You wasted resources to make it pretty?’

  ‘Making things pretty is the whole point,’ Semias said.

  The King hesitated, glaring at him, then said, ‘I suppose it is.’ He straightened. ‘You tigers can change one metal to another. What if I gave you a hundred kilos of scrap?’

  ‘It will double the time I take to synthesise the machine,’ Michael said.

  ‘I can wait.’ The King hesitated. ‘Hold on, how long to make it?’

  ‘With the right raw materials, three days. With scrap, double it.’

  ‘You can’t do it that quickly, lad,’ Semias said.

  ‘If it means getting my family out of here, I’ll work day and night on it,’ Michael said.

  ‘All right.’ The King nodded. ‘Well done. I’ll have the metal for you within forty-eight hours.’

  ‘I want to see my family.’

  ‘As soon as this is made, Prince Michael, they are yours.’

  ‘Let me speak to them before I start to build anything.’

  ‘I’ll see what I can do,’ the King said. ‘Rest and eat while I gather the materials for you. Believe me, I would let you go now, but I want this to work and you’re the best way of ensuring it. Humour me and build it.’

  ‘I just want Rhonda and Clarissa free and unharmed,’ Michael said.

  ‘Then we both want the same thing. I’ll be back with the metal.’ He turned and left.

  Semias sat at the table across from Michael. ‘Any word?’

  Michael shook his head.

  ‘Do as the King said. You’ve been working yourself into the ground. I think you’ve had about two hours’ sleep every night. Rest and eat until he brings you the metal.’

  Michael rubbed his gritty eyes. ‘I just want to go home with my family.’

  ‘We’ll get you there, lad. It will happen.’

  Michael didn’t reply. He should have been on the way home with the women he loved, but he wasn’t surprised at having to stay and build the damn thing.

  Three days later he was going nearly mad with inactivity, even though he and Semias were evenly matched at chess, when the helicopter thundered overhead. He went to the entry and waited, watching with his Inner Eye as the demons unloaded a crate full of the metal that he required. He wished his Eye could do more damage as the King approached and opened the door.

  ‘Do you mind? That’s extremely uncomfortable,’ the King said as he came in.

  Michael closed his Inner Eye.

  ‘Thank you,’ the King said. ‘I have the metal, and it’s the right elements as well. You said three days?’

  ‘I want to speak to my family first. Let me talk to my mother and fiancée and I’ll get right to work.’

  ‘I thought you might say that,’ the King said. He gestured with his head towards the living room. ‘In here.’

  Michael followed the King into the room and watched, standing, as the King pulled a tablet computer out of his laptop bag and flipped it up onto its stand. He placed it on a side table and indicated for Michael to join him.

  ‘We had to set up our own communication network, the logistics were a nightmare,’ the King said as he turned the tablet on. ‘But we have it working.’ He leaned back. ‘There you are.’

  Rhonda and Clarissa appeared on the screen, obviously in front of a webcam. Michael gasped; Clarissa appeared fine but Rhonda looked terrible. She’d lost weight, her eyes were sunken and had blackened rings around them, and her skin hung from her emaciated face.

  Michael rounded on the King. ‘What did you do to her?’

  ‘Nothing,’ the King said, raising his hands. ‘Being here in the Heavens isn’t good for her, probably because of her part-demon nature. She can’t survive here much longer, Prince Michael, you need to finish the engine so I can release her.’

  Michael turned back to the screen. Rhonda looked terrible, but Clarissa looked okay? Maybe Rhonda was a copy and Clarissa was the original … He couldn’t risk it.

  ‘Mom? How are you holding up? You look unwell.’

  ‘I’m fine, really,’ Rhonda said with forced cheerfulness. ‘They’re looking after me but they say something about my nature doesn’t suit these Heavens.’ She leaned into the screen. ‘The King says you can take us home in three days?’

  Michael touched the screen, wishing he could comfort them directly. ‘Three days and we’re out of here. I’ll take you home. I promise.’

  ‘We trust you,’ Clarissa said, and clutched Rhonda’s hand. ‘I always knew you would protect me, Michael. You’ll find us a way out of this.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘All right, that’s enough,’ the King said. He turned the tablet off and folded it up. ‘If you hurry on this you can have them home with you in three days. I promise as well.’

  ‘My mother may not last three days!’ Michael said.

  ‘She’s fine. I’ve seen others like this – it takes them years to fade. Really. You just need to pull her out of the Heavens and get her back on the Earthly where she belongs. Will you start work on the engine for me?’

  ‘Show me where the metal is,’ Michael said.

  ‘Right this way.’

  When night fell, Michael moved the metal into the entry hall of the palace where it was warmer. Producing the cogs was fiddly and time-consuming, but once he had a few cast in the right shape his work sped up. It was deep into the night when one of the demons entered, left him a cup of something, and left again. He tasted it; some sort of warm grape juice, sweetened with honey. He drank it without really noticing as he worked on the gears, making sure that they fitted together perfectly.

  He stopped to take a sip of the drink and something hit his mouth. Revolted, he peered into the cup and saw a packet in the bottom. He looked around; nobody nearby. He took the drink with him up to his room, ostensibly to use the bathroom, and when he was inside he quickly untied the oilskin packet and read the message scribbled on it.

  Three hundred kilometres north-north-west of you, in a large rectangular mansion on the coast between England and Wales. Follow coastline where the two regions join and you will find it easily.

  He didn’t even need to do that; when he was fifty kilometres from them he?
??d be able to sense them. He raised his head. ‘Semias.’

  Semias appeared next to him. ‘I know. We need to go down into the engine room again, and compare the work we’ve done with what’s in place there.’

  Michael put his hand out, Semias took it, and they teleported into the engine room where they could talk freely.

  ‘I know that place,’ Semias said. ‘There’s a large island off the west coast, and this estate is where the channel is at its narrowest. It’s surrounded by lawns and gardens. It’ll be a cleared area in the middle of a large forest; you can’t miss it.’

  ‘It’s a long way away, can you carry me there?’ Michael said.

  ‘No. Best I can do is the edge of the city. Can you do the rest of the way?’

  ‘Of course.’ Michael put his hand out and Semias took it again. They landed on the glass wall that surrounded the city.

  Michael slapped Semias on the shoulder. ‘I will be back for you.’

  ‘You can’t take a whole city with you, lad,’ Semias said. ‘Just go and leave me to it. Free your family.’

  ‘I won’t forget what you’ve done for me,’ Michael said. ‘We will return and clear the demons from the European Heavens.’

  ‘Just go!’ Semias said with urgency. ‘They could return any time.’

  Michael clasped Semias’s hand then released it and flew up and west.

  He kept flying west, though the cold night sky of the deserted Heavens. The Asian Heavens were full of the telepathic buzz and energy signatures of the Shen that lived there; these skies were eerily silent. The cold and emptiness bit into him, and he missed the warmth and camaraderie of his brothers and sisters back in the White Tiger’s palace. The skies blazed with stars overhead and he was glad for his ability to see in the dark.

  It was obvious when he approached the estate where his family were being held – it registered as a seething mass of demonkind. He approached the manor carefully and felt the women’s presence inside, on the top floor. Stupid demons, that was the easiest place to free them. Unless it was a trap for him, but he couldn’t see any reason for them to suspect he knew where the women were.

  The manor was as Semias had described – about a hundred metres long, three storeys high, with a tall ground floor that was double the height of the others. The land around it had been cleared and planted with a variety of domestic flowers, the gardens overgrown and tangled from neglect.