And Eternity Part 14

She laughed. "I didn't mean you, Roque! I want you to feel me. I was talking to Jolie. She wants to go away."

"She did before," he pointed out.

"With Orlene this time. So I can be all the way alone with you. But I'm afraid I'd screw it up."

"Well . . ."

' 'Oh, you know what I mean! I want to be good for you, Roque, and on my own I keep getting too wild. I'd get the shakes, for sure, and turn you off, and I sure don't want to do that! So I don't want them to go."

' 'In that case, I am certainly amenable to their continued presence. I must confess that I do feel easier knowing that a woman of adult experience is monitoring the proceedings, because it allays my concern about taking advantage of one who is young."

But I'm another man's wife! Jolie protested. "Maybe you better talk to Jolie," Vita said. "Give me one good feel before I put her on."

His hand resumed its motion downward-at which point Vita gave the body to Jolie. He squeezed her b.u.t.tock. Jolie clamped her teeth, trying to look neutral.

"The gamin!" he exclaimed, realizing. He was now able to recognize them separately, by their manners.

Jolie disengaged. "As we know, she is young," she said. "And full of mischief.'' She walked to a couch and sat down, crossing her legs demurely at the ankles.

He took a seat across the room. "Perhaps your reasons for bringing Vita to me were mixed. As you know, I succ.u.mbed, and you and I agreed to do the appropriate thing. I think you were aware that I did not truly wish to separate from her, and I think you are not averse to our meeting in a situation like this. Your absence is thus a mere formality or courtesy which need not be invoked at this stage."

"I am the wife or consort of Satan,'' Jolie replied.' 'I do not care to be present in the body of a woman who is making love to another man. Orlene may certainly remain, but I prefer to absent myself."

"I am minded to debate the issue," he said, "if you are willing. If you do not approve my liaison with Vita, you can not excuse yourself merely by being absent in a manner you know will facilitate it."

"That isn't what I said!" Jolie said, stung. "I did have doubts, but subsequent thought has eased them, and I now feel that the two of you should be allowed your love. My presence or absence shouldn't affect that. But my own-"

"Yes. You do not wish to engage in the appearance of impropriety. I understand this consideration rather well. But this, too, I question. If I understand it correctly, your marriage to the man who is now the holder of the Office of the Incarnation of Evil dissolved when you died. He subsequently remarried, and you now join his present wife in amorous engagements. Thus the experience of joint involvement is not foreign to you."

He had it exactly! A thought had been growing beneath Jolie's level of consciousness, and now it surfaced. If she was to study this man as a potential candidate for the Office of an Incarnation, she could hardly do so by deliberately not observing him in moments of his pa.s.sion. She had to understand him fully. She also needed to know how he approached matters of ethics and questions of propriety. Also, how he related to the underlying questions of Good and Evil. That meant she should remain.

Still, she had a problem. "It is more than the appearance, Roque. I do not love you and do not wish to be embraced by you, even in surrogate. I would feel extremely awkward about returning to my husband-or, if you will, consort-after-''

"There is also this to consider: Satan surely has been ultimate with a great many women over the course of his tenure, yet you still love him and wish to join him at every opportunity. Do you hold to a standard you do not expect of him?"

Ouch! The days of Jolie's s.e.xual innocence had been left behind centuries ago. She no longer believed in a double standard. She knew Parry had had long and extreme affairs with the likes of the demoness Lilah and the d.a.m.ned soul Nefert.i.ti, yet had returned gladly to her when she remanifested. What counted, in the end, was not his dalliances during her absence, but the way he felt about her, and she about him. He had never loved the demoness or the d.a.m.ned soul; he had loved Jolie. Now he loved Gaea-and still loved Jolie. Was she so much less certain of her love for him?

"I think you have made your case, Roque," she said.

"I will remain."

He smiled briefly. "As you wish."

"But one more thing, before I submerge. How do you feel about Satan?"

"I suppose that is a fair question, from one who loves him. I am adamantly in the opposite camp, and wish to support the forces of Good in every respect. Yet I see the need for a repository of d.a.m.ned souls, until they can be redeemed, and therefore I concede the need for a supervisor of that repository. As I understand it, Satan is not actually evil, just as Thanatos is not actually dead; he is merely a human person handling an unusual and often unrewarding job. I think you would not love him were that not the case, just as Luna would not love Thanatos."

A fair answer indeed! "Suppose you ever found yourself in a position to-to negotiate with Satan on some matter. Would you do it?"

"Of course. I feel that I am already, whenever I decide whether a given person should be punished or rehabilitated or go free. Satan is attempting to evoke the Evil; I am attempting to evoke the Good. It is, in a fas.h.i.+on, a continuing exercise in cla.s.sification and treatment."

This man was certainly, to Jolie's way of thinking, a prime prospect! "So you, knowing that one who is close to Satan is with the woman you love, do not feel threatened."

"Satan never threatened any person whose convictions and practices were good.''

"I think Luna might disagree."

"Luna is perhaps an exception," he admitted. "She is pivotal. But I think it is not her soul he threatens, only her political power."

"You impress me, Roque."

"Jolie, you impress me also. I thought I was dealing with a wayward girl, and then you manifested, and the case became inordinately more interesting. I had no intent to take Vita into my residence, until I became aware that you were in control. Then I realized that rehabilitation of the girl was not only possible, it was already in progress, and I did my best to facilitate your effort. Certainly you have been in no sense a malign influence. My subsequent relation with Vita, though unintended, was thus a direct result of your involvement. For that I must thank you. However wrong it may be technically, I now believe it is right ethically. You have brought light into my life, and I shall always be grateful."

"I, too, am glad it happened," Jolie said. And she wondered: could Luna have known this too? That Judge Scott was a worthy prospect to be an Incarnation, and that Jolie would discover this by the time she shepherded Vita through her problem? It seemed likely, now.

She returned the body to Vita, who promptly jumped up and flung herself across to Roque. "What were you trying to do, pinching Jolie like that?" she demanded, plumping into his lap.

"By your mischief," he said. "What is this delight you have in being impertinently handled?"

"I hated it when my Johns did it," she confessed. "I hated everything about them. But I did catch on to what men like. Now I've got a man I like, I want to be sure I'm giving him a good time." She drew up her knees so that her dress fell away, and guided his hand to her inner thigh.

"I trust you realize that this is shameless exploitation."

But his hand did slide along her skin caressingly.

"You can do better than that," she said. "Come on, what are panties for, anyway?"

"For dirty old men's delight," he said. "Still, I would not want to spoil your pretty outfit.''

"I'll take it off!" she said eagerly, and began scrambling to do just that.

All that effort we made, dressing her-gone! Oriene thought with resignation.

"But this sheer enthusiasm on your part continues to amaze me. How did you come by it?"

"I guess I just so much wanted to be wanted," she said. "Not just used and thrown away, but loved and needed forever. Maybe when I get older I'll really like just to talk with you, the way Jolie and Oriene do, but right now I just want you so hot for me you can't think of anything else." She was bare, now, in record time.

"Perhaps we should retire to a more appropriate place," he suggested.

"Like a bed. This way!" She bounded off again and hauled him along after her.

Soon he joined her there, unclothed. He kissed her and held her and squeezed her in intimate places, exactly as she demanded. I wish I had thought of this sort of thing when alive, Oriene thought.

Jolie had to agree. Vita's pa.s.sion was not feigned; her body was humming with desire, and it affected all of them. She recalled the saying that a man gave love for s.e.x, while a woman gave s.e.x for love. This was certainly true here, but each aspect was so intense and pervasive that the dividing line ceased to have meaning. The two were giving pa.s.sion for pa.s.sion, reveling in it, delighting in its grandeur and its naughtiness.

So it was that Jolie was along for the ride, as Oriene had been before, and the revels of the couple became her own. She knew that next time she merged with Gaea and went to see their man, she was going to give him a show and an experience he hadn't had in years. There was much to be said for exuberance.

The next morning Thanatos appeared. "I understand you are ready to resume your quest," he said.

Vita screeched in terror and leaped out of bed. She was, as was her wont after s.e.x, naked; Jolie had left her alone.

That's Thanatos, Jolie explained. He brought us to you. We have nothing to fear from him.

"Oh." Vita hastily turned the body over to Oriene, who as hastily wrapped a sheet about herself. They had been lying abed late, after the strenuous activity of the early part of the evening, and he bad come upon them unawares. That, of course, was often the way of Death.

"I, yes," Oriene said. "Thanks in part to you, I am no longer in danger of descending to h.e.l.l. But when Jolie talked with you before, you told her it was impossible, or nearly.''

"The quest must continue, regardless. From me you need a blank soul?"

"So I understand. To transfer-"

"Come with me."

Orlene hesitated, remembering how Thanatos had come for her when she died and she had fled him. Have no fear, Jolie thought. He is a good man, as well as a good Incarnation.

"May I dress first?"

"Dress," he agreed.

She paused, but he did not retreat or disappear. Just go ahead and do it, Jolie urged. He doesn't even realize there could be a problem, after all the naked souls he's seen.

Orlene went to the closet, s.n.a.t.c.hed down a decent dress, and grabbed for the rest of what she needed. She carried them into the bathroom and got herself in order as quickly as she could. Thanatos waited impa.s.sively, seeming not to move at all.

"I'm ready," she said, emerging. But he was already on his way, and she had to run to catch up. She didn't dare ask where they were going.

In the yard the death-steed Mortis was grazing. Oh, look at that! Vita thought. As with many girls of her age, she was thrilled by the notion of a horse, any horse.

Thanatos glanced at his deathwatch. He turned and put his hands at Oriene's sides. He lifted, and the horse came up and stood before them, so that Thanatos could set her on. Then Thanatos mounted behind her, putting one arm around her in an impersonal way to keep her secure.

The horse took off. There was no wind, no tilt, but suddenly they were riding upward through the sky, leaving the city below. Ooooo! Vita squealed in awed delight.

"Mortis likes you too," Thanatos remarked.

You can hear me?

"I hear your soul. Vita."

I like this too, Jolie thought.

"Women do," he agreed.

They peered down to see fluffy cotton-ball clouds below. Mortis was galloping on air, moving far faster than any mortal animal could. On occasion his hooves kicked up divots of cloud dust, which dissolved behind them. The scene was beautiful, with the morning beams of the sun spearing out from the east, lighting the near sides of the clouds.

I begin to get a notion what Luna sees in Death, if he takes her on rides like this! Vita thought.

"On occasion," Thanatos agreed.

Then the steed was moving down to another city. They had no idea where it was; the speed and magic had been such that it could be anywhere. They had departed at dawn, local time; here it was afternoon.

They landed on a city street amidst traffic. Orlene flinched as a car charged toward them-but it pa.s.sed right through them as if they were ghosts. Yet of course they were not ghosts, exactly; Vita's body was alive and solid, so that meant that Thanatos and Mortis had to be solid, too, to lift and carry her as they had.

Magic, Jolie reminded her.

"True," Thanatos agreed. "Mortals can neither perceive nor affect us unless we wish it."

The horse walked across the street and into a solid wall. They pa.s.sed through the wall and into a lighted factory region at the base of a megabuilding. "This man is about to die of a rare internal electrical imbalance," Thanatos said, dismounting and approaching one of the workers. Sure enough, the man paused before his equipment, and fell back, looking startled.

Thanatos stepped in and reached out to the man-but not to help support him. His hand pa.s.sed into the man's body without resistance and out again, holding the man's soul. The soul came out in a translucent skein, mottled by black patches and white, distorting out of shape. The body sank to the floor, its eyes staring as if still startled.

"But you never gave him a chance!" Orlene protested.

"He might have recovered had you not swept out his soul!"

"He would have endured until I took his soul, but not for recovery. I acted promptly so as to spare him unnecessary pain. When a soul is in balance, a person can not die until it is removed, no matter how hopeless the physical case." As he spoke he was folding the soul like so much gossamer, until it was wadded into a ball, which he placed in a little bag.

He returned to Mortis and mounted. The horse walked back through the wall, then galloped into the air again. "How can you just take lives, all day?" Orlene asked. "It is a necessary part of human existence," he replied seriously. "Without death there could soon be no new life. The old must be cleared away for the new. Even as it is, we are threatened with overpopulation."

Orlene was silent. She hadn't thought of it that way. Soon they came down in another city, somewhere in the world. Mortis halted at a Dumpster similar to the one they had hidden in when fleeing Vita's pimp, so long ago.

"Your turn, Orlene," he said abruptly.

"What?"

"Within that Dumpster is a newborn infant who will die within hours if unattended. No mortal knows of his presence except his mother, who is beyond compa.s.sion in this respect, having such serious difficulties of her own as to be unable to return. My attention is not necessary, as the baby is unsullied and will go to Heaven, but to avoid subjecting him to avoidable agony as the next load of garbage is dumped, crus.h.i.+ng him, I am interceding. You are looking for a blank soul; this one is close enough. Climb in and take it."

"But I can't do that!" Orlene protested. "You are with me, sharing my power for this event by my extension. Do with him as you saw me do with the last case, and the soul will come out for you." Orlene waited a moment, fl.u.s.tered. "But-"

"I understood that you wished above all else to recover and cure your own baby," Thanatos said emotionlessly. "This is the way to obtain one of the seven elements required. How serious is your quest?"

Tight-lipped, Orlene got down and approached the Dumpster. Now they heard it: a faint mewling from within. They climbed up and peered in.

The baby was there, half swathed in dirty rags, grease and blood splotched over his body, short dark hair matted to the tiny skull. "Oh, my G.o.d!" Orlene breathed numbly.

So little! Vita thought. I never realized how small they were. His ankle is no bigger around than my thumb!

Orlene reached forth with a shaking hand to take the soul. Her teeth were clenched.

No! Vita thought. Don't kill him!

She has to, Jolie thought. It would be cruel to let him suffocate in garbage, or to die slowly of exposure.

Thanatos is right: it is an act of mercy to take this innocent soul now.

But he's just an eensy baby! He never did anything to anyone! He shouldn't be killed, he should be held and cuddled and nursed and everything!

Those are not his options, Jolie returned, realizing that they were in effect Orlene's inner voices, her conscience debating while she hesitated. It is wrong, we know, but the world is not governed by right, it is governed by circ.u.mstances, and all we can do is alleviate the most egregious cases. Sometimes the choice is between evils.

You must be good at that! Vita shot back.