Daughter to Demons

by Jeffrey M. Mahr and Levanah

Chapter Sixteen:
Sufferage and Song

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.
― Samuel Butler, Note-Books of Samuel Butler, 1912

 

With few decent choices except to take Lilith’s advice and mingle, Jackie quickly offered a fond farewell to the ‘Lair of the Succubi” as she was considering calling it if she ever wrote about her adventures, not that she had any plans of the sort, mind you. Of course, if she did, she would have to goose up the action, as the truth had been a bit less exciting than readers usually expect. Sarah stayed behind, resuming her conversation with Lilith, and Jackie felt oddly betrayed.

Colleen was by her side, though, as soon as she returned to the main convention area, dancing about, telling Jackie about everyone of note she’d encountered, and who they’d been talking to, who was doing what and where they were doing it, as well as not too subtly prodding Jackie to tell her what had gone on in Lilith’s private domain. Jackie let Colleen wheedle a bit, admiring the small woman’s skill, before telling all and realized that she was even calling it the lair when she described it to the leprechaun. She briefly wondered if there was any rule about writing about things supernatural before moving on to more important matters, like using Colleen’s skill at keeping track of current events to seek out potential jewel thieves.

Interestingly, no matter how much she discussed the issue with Colleen, it really came down to five candidates, the same five she had met at Merl’s office, which seemed suspiciously ‘convenient.’ With a sigh, Jackie decided to face the issue directly and asked Colleen, since she was in front of Jackie already.

“Colleen?”

“Aye, me cailín?” she responded with her usual, infectious smile at her play on words.

“I apologize, and I hope this doesn’t ruin our friendship, but I’ve got to ask you. Did you steal the diamonds from Pearlmutter’s Jewelry Store?”

“’Tis insulted I should be fer yer impertinence, but in the name of friendship, and in deference to your general thick wits, I’ll answer ye straight. Nay. T’was not I, nor did I influence anyone or anything in any way to obtain or otherwise involve myself with the diamonds stored or held for sale in that particular facility.”

“Whoa,” Jackie was slightly taken aback. “How very formal. I feel like I’ve gone ten rounds with a djinn, or a lawyer. Am I to take that to mean no?”

“Aye, lass. Me people have a long history o’ dealin’ with humans and their demands for wishes in return for returnin’ our very own property. T’is hard for one such as I to give a simple answer, but that is what that were meant ta be — no.”

“Thank you, Colleen. I appreciate your candor and I won’t insult you by asking again.”

“Nay, lass. You was just doin’ as you must and ye desire more than just me word.

“But I’m not asking….”

“I know, lass. And for the courtesy of that trust alone, I shall tell thee a story, but first, know ye why I was in that group?”

“Not really, just what Merl told me in front of each of you.”

“Then ye know that I were a sickly one as a child, only surviving by learning at great expense to meself to gain nourishment from the emanations of diamonds. It be for this reason ye asked me, were it not?”

“Yes,” Jackie sighed, fearing the worst.

“What the good wizard told ye not, was that he discovered the reason for me problems with gold, an allergy, and were treatin’ me fer it. I now be cured and have exchanged most of me diamonds fer gold, as our tradition demands. There be but a paltry few dozens left, and by the worst of chances, they were on consignment at Pearlmutter’s. Me plan had been to use these last few diamonds to finance a wee trip back to the old country, a trip in moderate style — which indeed I feared might come near beggaring me — but I wanted to show up those left of me old friends who sneered at me in me time of infirmity. It seems that I’d bought diamonds low and held them long enough to sell them high, much higher than me fellow leprechauns who’d just hoarded gold, which as ye know is subject to the vagaries and fads of the money markets, where diamonds have a moderately steady market in both the industrial and jeweler’s markets.” She stopped to rub her hands together in glee before continuing, “So now I be one of the richest — and thus most powerful — leprechauns in the world and me plan was to stuff my new status — poor as it is — right up me old friends’ noses, whose pots of gold are sadly diminished in these parlous times, what with collapses in the gold market and the thieves and extortionists with their cursed wishes.” She shook her tiny fist in vicarious fury and stamped her tiny foot before bring herself under control with visible effort. “Sorry, lass. We be an excitable lot, we wee folk,” she grinned at her play on words, “and tend to fly off the handle, as’twere, but we mean no harm in it a’tall, no, we don’t.”

“It also means that I be as interested in finding the fiend who robbed that jewelry store as ye, dear lass. It, and me friendship fer ye, be why I been helping ye instead o’ offerin’ such pranks as be within me nature.” She paused, thinking. “So who be next, lass? Me thinks Jumbe be closest, but he and Merl be the ones with no call a’tall for needin’ them perishin’ diamonds.”

“True, but let’s talk to him anyway. Maybe he did it for someone else, someone who promised him more followers?”

“Yer mind works at odd angles, don’t it, lass? I like that,” Colleen approved heartily. With a gleeful, and surprisingly powerful, wallop on Jackie’s back, she scampered off. As soon as Jackie had caught her breath, she ran after the fast disappearing leprechaun. It took a few moments, but Colleen finally slowed down enough to walk beside Jackie and they held hands as the petite woman pointed out everything she knew about everyone and everything they passed — and it seemed like she knew an amazing amount.

They found Jumbe Mungu in the food court amongst the many carts and stands. He was a man alone in a sea of revelers as he slowly moved from garbage can to garbage can, emptying them into a push dumpster and sweeping up spills as some of the other supernaturals laughed and hooted at him as they passed. The sight was so pitiful that Jackie stopped short, almost yanking Colleen off her feet as she continued to approach the hapless God.

Tugging at Jackie’s arm to get her moving again, Colleen dragged her up to Jumbe and greeted him. “Hi, Jumbe. How are ye?”

“Fine thank you, lovely lady.” His deep and mellifluous voice sounded like several organs playing the music of the Gods in perfect harmony.

“Do you remember Jackie? She’s trying to solve a burglary. Would you be willing to help her?”

“Of course,” he replied with a dignified nod to the taller woman. “I would be honored to help in any way that I can.”

“Okay, Jackie. He’s all yours,” Colleen gestured and stepped back while Jumbe turned his eyes on Jackie, deep soulful eyes, eyes that held the sorrows of the world but refused to be dragged under. Jackie couldn’t help stare back into them, drowning in their dignity and strength.

“Hey! Ye had questions for the man, did you not?” Colleen asked with a well placed nudge in the ribs.

Jackie jerked and blinked. Before opening her eyes again, she made sure she wasn’t looking directly at Jumbe. “Uh, yes…sorry.”

Still distracted by those wonderful, understanding, eyes, Jackie had difficulty framing her first question and Colleen jumped in yet again. “Jumbe, me darlin’, would you please tell our young sleuth here everything you know about the recent diamond robbery at Pearlmuter’s?”

“Why certainly, Colleen. I know that there has been a robbery because you’ve just told me. Sadly, I am no longer strong enough to be omnipresent, even within so limited a domain as this convention, so I know nothing more about it.”

“Do you have any need or use for diamonds?”

He thought about the question for a moment before answering. “Well, as you know, one of the most effective short-term methods for obtaining believers would be to offer them valuables, but that could be anything, not just gold, and I am loathe to take that route despite my dire need. I would much prefer a smaller, more loyal group of followers, having tried that first route ages ago.”

“Wha…what happened?” Jackie finally collected herself enough to ask a question.

“Why, they saved the diamonds and other trinkets and piled them up in mounds and pretty arrangements in a cave. It worked well until the white hunters and missionaries came. The hunters killed all my priests, egged on by the missionaries, who enslaved most of my followers in the name of civilization, and between them either stole or extorted all the valuables that they had saved, including the diamonds, gold, silver, and other jewels.”

“Hey, garbage man, get back to work,” someone called from one of the booths. Jackie jerked her head in the direction of the sound but couldn’t tell who had spoken, but Colleen, apparently with better ears, disappeared and then reappeared with a pop in front of a stand run by a shriveled and gaunt man with straggling white hair and skin so pale he looked like icicles would freeze next to him. In fact, that was what he was selling, flaming spears of some pastry, frozen by his breath, flames and all. While Colleen took great pleasure in explaining to the man how he was directly related to “gluz,” the waste products of a harpy, Jumbe merely stood a bit straighter and politely asked Jackie if it would be alright if he worked while they spoke.

“That’s alright. I really don’t have any more questions anyway…except, maybe…if it’s not too rude, how many believers do you have now?

“Just one, my dear, an older gentleman, a scholar in fact. He lives and works in this city, at the university I think. I hope to meet him some day, before….”

“Before what?” Jackie asked, then her eyes bugged out and her hand went to her mouth in realization that the wonderful man standing before her, this being once known by thousands, perhaps millions, and revered as a God, would soon fade away into non-existence. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she gulped. There was no way that she was going to allow such a wonderful creature to expire. “Do you know his name by any chance?”

“Why yes, it is one of the few powers I still possess. I cannot tell you exactly where he lives or works, which is why we have never met, but his name is Long. Earnest Long.”

Jackie’s jaw dropped. “But I know Professor Long. He’s my advisor. As soon as the convention is over I’d be honored to introduce you.”

“That would be wonderful,” Jumbe rumbled and his smile seemed to light up the entire food court. Just ask Colleen when you want to find me. She always knows which shelter I’m staying at.”

Jackie nodded and turned away so he would not see the tears forming. How could anyone in such dire straits maintain such dignity, she wondered.

It wasn’t difficult to find Tris Magister, and Jackie almost found him on her own, because she was wondering what the crowd she saw gathered in one corner of the cavern was doing. After slipping above the crowd by going insubstantial and flying, she saw someone performing on a stage, while Colleen, flitting on ahead as usual, called out, “Well and away! Here be Tris in his natural habitat.” In fact, it was Tris, all cleaned up and looking very handsome indeed in a gold lamé toga with purple borders. He was playing on a seven-stringed lyre, accompanying himself as he chanted some sort of Greek epic in a Greek so ancient that Jackie could only pick up a few words in the general flow.

It was about the Atreides family, the story of Pelops and Hippodamia, and Pelops was competing in a chariot race against Hippodamia’s own father for the right to marry her.

Since it was a Greek story, treachery and deceit abounded, with Pelops suborning a servant of the King into sabotaging the King’s chariot by promising him the virginity of his bride-to-be. The King was killed in the race because the axle of his chariot broke, hurling the King onto the track, where he was trampled to death by the horses of Pelops and his body run over and dragged by Pelops’ chariot.

After the race, Pelops killed the servant, Myrtilus, whom the King had cursed in his dying breath, because he now wanted his promised night with the bride, and in dying was cursed in turn by Myrtilus, both Pelops and his descendants.

It was about this time that Jackie lost the thread of the story completely, although she vaguely remembered that it wound up with one of Pelops’ grandsons, Agammemnon, Helen, and the Trojan War.

He had a beautiful voice though, and coached such sweet and simple notes out of the lyre that Jackie wept to hear the story, even though she could understand only bits and snatches. Many in the crowd evidently understood perfectly, because they’d cry out heartfelt comments as the story progressed, “Infamy!” “Oh, treachery!” “Helen! I remember her!” and so on.

Colleen whispered in her ear, “Iphigenia didn’t die, you know. Artemis whisked her away to Colchis to be her Priestess there. She was a gutsy one, was Iphigenia.”

“What?” Jackie blurted out, only to be shushed by angry looks and hisses from those around her.

“Were they never after teaching you manners in this school of yours, Jackie dear?” Colleen whispered. “It was all a very long time ago, mind ye, t’ree t’ousand years plus a good bit toward four, but some of us knew the people in Tris’ tale very well indeed, and it was famously popular all around the Mediterranean for years and years after. The selfsame story even made it into the Bible, giving her a sex change along the way and calling her Isaac, seeing as how they didn’t pay much attention to colleens in them parts.

“What?” Jackie blurted out again, only to be shushed once more by even angrier looks and hisses that bordered on venomous from the entire audience.

“Jackie, me wee girl,” Colleen whispered. “Can I never take ye anywhere at’all without you bein’ after stirring up a commotion and a botheration?”

Jackie clamped her lips shut and concentrated on the multiplication tables. She was up to forty-seven times seventy-three and Tris was up to Orestes before she felt able to comment. “You did that on purpose!” she whispered accusingly.

“Moi?” said Colleen, as wide-eyed and innocent as a new-born baby.

Jackie rolled her eyes. She was the mythology expert, wasn’t she? Leprechauns were famous for their twisted sense of humor and mischief, and she’d seen it at the meeting, when Colleen had baited Dross into an even greater rage with her ‘innocent’ questions. “Never mind,” she said loudly. The audience was applauding and cheering by now, and Tris was taking his bows, as graceful and powerfully masculine as Ivan Vasiliev in his prime.

“Well, don’t dawdle, Jackie me girl. There he stands, as large as life and twice as natural. Go get him!” Colleen slapped her on the back and flitted restlessly away on her own errands.

Feeling hard done by and muttering to herself as she approached the stage, she opened her mouth to speak, “Excu….”

Tris raised one perfect eyebrow and said, “No.”

“Wha….”

“The idea is inconceivable. The whole affair smacks of slapdash amateurism. Ogham tree letters indeed! A master thief never leaves a trace, and is away with the goods long before anyone knows that anything has been stolen. Empty drawers indeed!”

He waved his hand and a scrap of black cloth appeared in them, which looked strangely familiar to Jackie as he waved it around in grand gestures. Then she realized… looked down at the front of her dress, and gasped. “That’s my…” she lowered her voice. “That’s mine! I paid seventy-eight dollars for that on sale!”

He feigned astonishment. “Really?” he looked at it carefully. “I could have got it for you… wholesale.” He bowed, fluttering her bra in the air like a handkerchief when….

…she squealed. It was back, inside her dress, and perfectly adjusted. “Stop that!” she said, gritting her teeth to keep herself from screaming.

“Who, me? What is it that you think I’ve done?” Evidently Colleen had only copied her look of innocence from Tris, because he did it much better.

“Nothing! Never mind!” she said.

She retreated as quickly as possible, followed only by his mocking laughter.

And here came Colleen flying back without a care in the world. “Did you have a nice chat, Jackie girl?”

“I did not! That insufferable…. That, that…. Man!”

Colleen laughed. “You’re lucky, me fine little lassie. Just a few seconds longer and he’d have your knickers right off and you thinking it was your own idea.”

Jackie just gaped in… indignation and then in… sudden awareness of what the little leprechaun had meant. She blushed without knowing it, which was a fine trick in itself.

Jackie decided to try Dross on her own, so she told Colleen that she was going to go talk to her mother, in which project Colleen was instantly uninterested.

He wasn’t difficult to find; all she had to do was look for the biggest hole in the crowd, and there was Dross at the center of it. This time she poured on the charm first. “Dross! How nice to see you!” Ths time she took a lesson from Tris and kept her powers fully-engaged, so she had his attention in many ways. “I was terribly interested in your history, because you’d been so cruelly betrayed by that vile creature Vulcan, and I clumsily failed to express myself with proper courtesy. Please do forgive me, Dross. You will, won’t you?”

Dross seemed more cheerful away from the group, because he grinned at her and said, “I sorry too, Jackie. Dross know you just stranger, not know Dross. Some of those group people like to tease Dross, make Dross mad.”

“Why would they do that, Dross? You seem perfectly nice to me.”

“They jealous of Dross, because Dross important once.”

“Really? How long ago?”

“About four and a half billion years ago Dross was King of all Trolls. Called Titans then. Made Solar System out of dust. Very big project.”

“You made the entire Solar System? That’s astonishing! How wonderful! So none of us would be here except for you.”

Dross smiled again. “True. Dross had good idea for asteroid belt. Not many stars have asteroid belt so close to good planets.”

Jackie was puzzled. “How is that important? I’m not very good at science stuff.”

Dross, on the other hand, was literally in his element. “When Earth form, very hot. Metal melt, iron melt, sink to center of molten planet, where hard to find. When metals rare, metalworkers hard to find.”

“Okay. That makes sense. But I still don’t understand.”

He smiled. “Dross had good plan, keep metal back. Save metal in asteroid belt. Almost all valuable metals on Earth surface come from metal asteroids Dross held back.”

“That’s amazing, Dross. I’ve heard of iron meteorites, like the one in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Willamette Meteorite, I think it’s called. It was very impressive.”

“That one of Dross asteroids! I remember it! It used to be bigger, but pieces break off sometime. That piece from….” His brow furled into craggy crevasses. “Psyche! Scientist call 16 Psyche. Dross don’t know what number for.”

Jackie knew that one, for some reason. “I think it means that Psyche was the sixteenth asteroid to be discovered by Earth scientists.”

“That make sense. Good system, but Dross knew where Psyche was. It in heart.”

Jackie blinked. Dross had hidden depths. “I thought that the asteroid belt was filled with small things, though. I don’t understand how there could be enough there to supply the entire Earth with metals.”

“Asteroids look smaller than they are. Many asteroids spread out over huge space, looks like less than it is. Psyche almost hundred and sixty miles across, has thirty-seven quintillion pounds of iron, mixed in with many other metals, including nickel, gold, rubidium. Lots more. Enough iron to keep Earth busy for the next two or three million years. Lots more iron and metals in big asteroid belts beyond Uranus. That Dross idea too.”

Jackie knew about those too, the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. “So much?” She was trying to imagine a chunk of iron that big, but couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

“There many asteroids bigger than that. Ceres mostly rock and ice, but maybe six hundred miles across. Smaller than Pluto. Pluto around fifteen hundred miles across. It mostly rock and ice too. Metal very rare, Have to make it inside stars, but most stars not big enough.” He grinned. “Lot of fun when they explode, though, like fireworks, only better.”

“Dross, you’ve lived such an amazing life. I can’t imagine what it must be like to see a star explode.”

He grinned, which might have been frightening before she’d taken the trouble to actually talk to him. “Want see star explode?”

She was instantly suspicious. “Here? That doesn’t sound like a very good idea.”

“Not here! Not even this galaxy. Dross can show you.”

She was puzzled. “How? Aren’t the galaxies awfully far away?”

“Not far. Take shortcut.”

She thought about that for a while. “Shortcut?”

“Shortcut. Dross know when iron forms, when star life end. Just before star explode.”

She narrowed her brows in puzzlement. She didn’t know very much about astronomy at all. Frank had never taken a course in it, and she’d never paid much attention. “Okay. I guess….”

Suddenly, Dross grabbed her hand and said, “Hurry! It’s happening now!” He jumped with her in a very strange direction, somehow different from all the usual directions, and there they were. They must have been very close, because the bright white star subtended quite an arc of sky against the black sky around it. Some ways off, another orangish star floated, a thin streamer of hot gas extending toward the white one. Suddenly, a brilliant white bubble of atomic fire appeared on one limb of the white star, expanding like a giant mushroom until it had folded itself completely around the star, but when it met itself on the other side of the star there was a tremendous convergence, almost like a lightning bolt that lanced a jet of hot gas off into space and at the same time the white star exploded out in all directions, with another jet piercing the star opposite the first, and then the expanding wall of brilliant gas blew past them, quickly expanding out into the void. The twin jets that still speared the diminished star that remained like a glowing cocktail toothpick in a brilliant olive had caught up their own columns of entrained gasses rushing outward from the poles of the explosion, the remnants even then rushing back toward the small body that remained… or did it? Jackie saw now that the star itself had been shot off at an angle, propelled into space as if by a cannon, evidently caused by some imbalance in the stupendous explosion that had just occurred, and was even then receding into the distance, leaving the original orangish donor star behind.

Jackie looked around her, wherever here might be, and saw a strange slowly swirling vortex of hot gas not too far away — or at least it didn’t look too far away — which was surrounded by stars and galaxies that were oddly distorted, as if they’d been stretched out slightly on the surface of a balloon. From the center of the disk stretched out two jets of bright gas, but on a totally different scale from the jets she’d seen from the exploding star.

Dross grinned and took her hand again, and in a sudden rush they went back the way they’d come, and were standing on the floor of the cavern again, although no one seemed to have noticed either their precipitous departure or rapid reappearance. “See! Lots of fun! Billions and billons of tons of iron and other elements.”

Jackie had a sudden flash of insight. “That’s why you like diamonds, isn’t it, Dross? because their inner fire reminds you of the violent fire of creation we just saw.”

Dross blushed, which was as strange a sight as Jackie had ever seen, a deeper black spreading slowly across his face, almost unnoticeable unless she looked carefully, and probably most people wouldn’t have noticed. “Pretty. Not like real thing, but Dross only one see that mostly.”

“I’m honored, Dross, that you showed me your real treasure. It was very beautiful.”

“Diamond come from carbon made in stars like that, though, last stage of star life before final surge of nickel and iron. Explosion make all the rest.”

“I understand, Dross. By creating gemstones, you hope to be able to capture a hint of that experience so that other people can share that incredible beauty.”

He nodded and took a large pebble out of his pocket with his one good hand. He showed it to her — it looked like a lump of translucent frosted glass — and then put it into his mouth, working it back and forth like chewing gum as his jaw moved. Then he spit it out into his palm, wiped it on his shirt, and handed it to her. It was a small sphere with perfect facets cut around it, polished to a perfect shine, a round diamond, like a very shiny glass marble.

She held it up to the light from the torches and saw that he’d managed to recreate the instant of ignition, with two opposing centers of enhanced brilliance at opposite ends of the sphere. “Dross, this is wonderful. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, and you’ve captured the moment I just saw almost perfectly, or the hint of it at least, without the violent explosion.” She tried to hand it back.

Dross shook his head and refused to take it. “It yours now. First woman Dross show how iron made. You keep. Remember Dross make star for you.”

“I’ll remember, Dross. I’ll remember your precious gift forever.” Spontaneously, she reached up to him and pulled his giant body down into a hug, which he returned with all the delicacy of a woman touching the wings of a butterfly.

“Dross remember you. You first woman never make fun of Dross, or think bad thoughts. Dross sorry he got mad, but never know anyone who not afraid, especially woman, or not cruel.”

Jackie thought about that. Her friend Colleen seemed mostly nice to her, but she could see that she had a streak of cruelty inside her as well. “I understand, Dross, and I promise that I will always be your friend. If you ever need anything, just ask. I suspect that you’ll be able to find me anywhere, or ask Lilith if I go missing.”

Dross nodded his agreement. “Dross never forget energy form.” He grinned. “You get lost, Dross find you!” With that, he wandered off as the assembled guests parted before him like the Red Sea in front of Moses.

Jackie went back the way she came, looking for Colleen.

They found Tinelle on stage. The tiny dragon was singing to an overflow audience and the song was almost unbelievably beautiful. Every listener, no matter where they sat or stood, regardless of whether they could even see her, heard the same incomprehensible but haunting lyrics. It was the most amazing thing Jackie had ever heard in a day and place where the amazing was commonplace. The song was sweet and sad, uplifting and yet wistful, all at the same time. It was a song that seemed somehow to honor the least of us and inspire the strong toward even more valiant efforts. It was — wonderful. Jackie was amazed to hear it in these surroundings.

Everyone in listening range had stopped what they were doing and were transfixed, still, and silent, barely breathing as each strained to catch every nuance of every lilting tone. Even once the last song was finished the silence continued, as if people were afraid that they would lose something precious if they made a sound. It was a good two minutes before the first clap and then it was like an avalanche, more and more until the ceiling of the convention cavern seemed to be rumbling in accompaniment to the applause. In fact, if one looked carefully, it seemed as if bits of the sky were falling. One landed several feet from Jackie and when she bent over to pick it up it glinted. From the brilliance of the reflected torch light, and the feel of it in Jackie’s hand, it seemed to be a small cut diamond.

 

Copyright © 1998, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009 by Jeffrey M. Mahr

Copyright © 2011 by Levanah