A Life Less Ordinary (31 page)

I frowned. “They wanted to see if they could die and yet remain in the world?”

“Allah is not so easily cheated,” Dervish agreed. “The Rationalists were unable to create ghosts at will. There is something that we humans have – a soul – which the magic-based creatures lack. When we die – when we lose the anchor of our bodies – our souls go onwards to heaven or hell, as Allah wills.”

“But there are ghosts who are allowed to remain on Earth,” I said, puzzled. “Why do some remain and others are forced to go onwards?”

“We don’t know,” Dervish said. “Sometimes it is an act of mercy; sometimes there seems to be a reason for the ghost to remain behind on Earth. We don’t know for sure. Certain parties within the Rationalists, however, wanted to push the experiments far further forward and may have enlisted the aid of the Nameless Elf.”

“I see,” I said, slowly. The name – or lack of it – meant nothing to me, yet somehow I was sure that it was important. “Who is the Nameless Elf?”

Dervish studied me for a long moment. “I hope,” he said finally, “that you’re not considering anything dangerous?”

I said nothing. In truth, I had no idea what I wanted to do or say.

“The Nameless Elf was tossed out of the Elfish Kingdoms a few hundred years ago,” Dervish said, when I said nothing. “The Queen told him to leave and stripped him of his name, the most important thing to an elf. We don’t know what he did wrong or even if he did
anything
wrong. The elves aren’t human, Dizzy; they forgive or condone things that horrify us and they have laws banning things that seem hilarious to a human observer.”

I wondered, briefly, if the Nameless Elf was Cardonel’s father, but the timing didn’t work out. Cardonel had claimed to be younger than that, barely older than me. Besides, the elves seemed to blame the half-breeds for existing, rather than blame their parents for bringing them into the world. They reminded me, far too much, of aristocrats disowning bastard children and denying that they had ever existed. Even so, it sounded odd. The elfish society is very different from ours.

After going through the Ordeal, I’d read everything Master Revels had had on the elves. Their society made little sense to us. Elves had been known to commit treason and get away with it, provided that they did it in the proper and acceptable manner. Queens had been dethroned and sent into exile, only to return, overthrow their replacements and regain control of the elves. And yet, putting the merest foot wrong could produce a horrific punishment. The elves had an elfish criminal that, every day, they used as a source of magic, relying on his immortality to replace what they took from him. No one, least of all the elves themselves, remembered what he had actually done to merit the punishment. Or at least they wouldn’t admit to it.

And then there was the way they treated human slaves…

“He found a place within the magical world,” Dervish added. “His arrival excited much interest from various different parties, including the Rationalists and the Sceptics. They wanted to know what he knew, so they made deals with him. And what he did with those deals…”

Dervish shook his head. “Do you understand how rare it is for the entire magical world to unite around a single cause?” he asked. “The rumours got out and they spread, and they spread, until finally someone was moved to investigate. And what they found…the entire magical world was united in horror at what the Nameless Elf had done. They linked their power and confined him to a single place, trapping him there forever. They should have executed him, or confined him to the Dark Continent, but no one dared take that step. Who knew what the elves would make of it.”

I couldn’t see the elves caring about what happened to someone they’d stripped of his name, but perhaps they would find themselves forced to take notice if one of their people was killed by the magical world. Master Revels – or his counterpart of that time – wouldn’t have wanted to risk antagonising the elves too far, not when they could invade the magical world and wreak havoc.

“Since then, he’s been a prisoner,” Dervish added. “It isn’t a harsh confinement – people can still go in and out – but he cannot leave. For an elf, used to running where he pleased, it is a suitable punishment. No one should enter, in my view, yet the others didn’t listen when walling him up forever was suggested. And not everyone who goes in to talk to him comes out again.”

I shivered. “And what happens to them?”

“You don’t want to know,” Dervish said. “The Nameless Elf performed experiments on some of his victims, using their flesh and blood to delve deeper into the mysteries behind how magic and humanity go together. For others, he merely killed them and ate the bodies, or performed horrendous acts on their living flesh. He is a monster and I sent your master to see him, believing that he was the link between the ghosts, the fire and the Rationalists. And he hasn’t come back.”

I felt icy resolve crystallising in my mind. I’d freed the slaves and all that had happened was a caning. I would gladly take another caning if it meant rescuing Master Revels from captivity. He didn’t deserve to be left to suffer and I had the uneasy feeling that if the Thirteen realised that the Nameless Elf was involved, they would choose to let the matter drop rather than confront him. It wasn’t as cowardly as it sounded; the Thirteen had bound themselves into treaties with the elves and threatening the Nameless Elf might break them. The elves just
looked
for an excuse to fuck with humanity.

“Right,” I said. I stood up before I could think better of it. “Tell me where I can find the Nameless Elf.”

Dervish shook his head, firmly. “No,” he said, sharply. “Dizzy, even a fully-trained magician would have problems
escaping
an angry elf, let alone getting answers out of him. You would have to put him in a position where he had no choice but to answer…and elves are very good at avoiding such positions. I cannot let you go to confront the Nameless Elf, not alone.”

“I have to go,” I said. I knew that it was going to be dangerous, yet…I felt as if I had no choice. Perhaps Cardonel could give me some advice on how to deal with the Nameless Elf. Perhaps I wouldn’t have to fight him to convince him to give me honest answers. Perhaps…there were just too many possibilities. “You sent him there and now you’re talking about abandoning him.”

Dervish’s face, already dark, flushed darker. I had the impression, just for a second, that he was going to hit me. I had, after all, insulted his courage and few men bore themselves well under that sort of insult. Of course, advising someone to stand up to homicidal maniacs, as Blackadder said to Baldrick, was the sort of advice that should be treated with extreme caution. If the Nameless Elf had been less terrible, dealing with him shouldn’t have been a problem. And, in the magical world, power and the will to use it was the key to advancement.

“You don’t understand what you’re getting into,” Dervish insisted. “The Nameless Elf is
dangerous
! If I am supposed to be taking care of you…”

I shook my head. “You have a daughter to take care of,” I said, firmly. “I will deal with the Nameless Elf.” I hoped I sounded confident, for I very definitely was
not
confident in the slightest. “Where do I find him?”

Dervish, reluctantly, gave me directions and wished me luck. I gave him a hug, much to his surprise, and walked out of the mosque, heading back towards the market. I’d had some ideas when I started to think about confronting an elf, for while elves were all-powerful within their own dimension, they were very much reduced in the human world. Still powerful, still dangerous, but they were hardly unbeatable. If the Nameless Elf had been invincible, the magical world wouldn’t have been able to confine him. I told myself that as long as I remained calm and focused, the Nameless Elf wouldn’t be able to bother me. In the market, I bought a handful of vital supplies, including a pair of weapons the Nameless Elf wouldn’t be able to touch. I might not have been allowed to take anything like it into the Elfish Kingdom, but I could use them in the human world.

I called Cardonel and asked him to meet me at his apartment. When I walked in, he kissed me at the door, his hands roaming all over my body. It was clear what he wanted and I surprised myself by feeling another burst of lust myself. I kissed him back hard and started to fumble with his trousers, allowing him to push me up against the wall and pull down my own jeans. I gasped in delight as he pushed inside me and started to move faster and faster, bringing us both to the boil. Afterwards, we just clung to one another, holding tight. I hadn’t realised how much tension I’d been feeling until it drained away.

“I need your help,” I said, once we’d undressed, showered and pulled our clothes back on. I like sex – one of the reasons my mother called me a slut and threw me out of her house – but I always feel unclean afterwards. Oh, not in a religious sense; I guess that, just like a cat, I like being clean. I didn’t see any reason to make him wear a condom – I’d taken contraceptive measures – and he’d come inside me. “I have to visit the Nameless Elf.”

Cardonel started. I was holding him and I felt the shock ripple through his body. It dawned on me, too late, that Cardonel probably hated the Nameless Elf. He might have been tossed out of the Elfish Kingdoms, but at least he’d once been part of them and a respected elf, rather than a half-breed who, through an accident of birth, had been condemned never to have a home. The Nameless Elf, at least in some ways, was what Cardonel wanted to be. He was an elf, with all of the powers and abilities, but without a home or even family.

“Look,” I said, slowly. I seemed to have developed a remarkable talent for antagonising people. “I’m sorry if I…”

“It’s not your fault,” Cardonel said, sourly. He shook his head and then looked up at me. “Dizzy, my sweetheart, have you quite lost your mind?”

“No,” I said. I knew that Dervish would probably disagree. So would most of the magical world, if they knew anything about it. “I have to find Master Revels, whatever it takes.”

Cardonel winced. “If you walk into the Nameless Elf’s territory, you may not walk out again,” he said, darkly. “I once went to ask him, when I was young and stupid, if he could help me become a full elf. I escaped by the skin of my teeth.”

I smiled. “At least you escaped,” I said. “How did you do it?”

“It wasn’t a pretty sight,” Cardonel admitted. “I’d tell you, but I might want to use the method again. In any case…it wasn’t a pretty sight.”

“Oh,” I said. A number of possibilities leapt to my mind. I pushed them back down as far as they would go. “Cardonel, darling, I have to go.”

“Do me a favour and stop talking like a romantic lead,” Cardonel said. I laughed. “I understand what you want to do and why you want to do it, but it could kill you – or worse – for nothing. I ought to tie you to the bed and leave you there until you come to your senses.”

I snorted. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Dizzy…”

“Yes, I know what you mean,” I sighed. All the men in my life either seemed to be over-protective or intent on doing me harm and generally treating me like crap. I supposed I should be grateful that Cardonel was one of the former. “Now tell me…how do I deal with the Nameless Elf?”

“You don’t,” Cardonel said. “The Nameless Elf is completely insane. You cannot count on him to even follow the normal rules that elves have to follow. Because he lost his name, many curses and commands just slid off him. He is quite capable of tearing you in half for no other reason than it amuses him, or deciding that he wants to hurt you because he thinks he
shouldn’t
hurt you. He spins between rationality – or a version of rationality – and absolute madness. If you come upon him while he’s embracing madness, you’re dead. He once skinned a pair of visitors alive and wore their skins as clothing for several years.”

He shook his head. “If he’s feeling rational, he may talk to you and agree to deal with you,” he added. “You can make bargains with him then, but remember he’s not bound by most of the rules of magic. You cannot trust him to keep a promise and you certainly cannot make him swear on his name.”

“Because he doesn’t have one,” I guessed, dryly.

“Precisely,” Cardonel said. “There are people here who believe that he actually
wants
to break promises in the hopes that the laws of magic will rebound on him and destroy him. He’s been cast out from everyone like him – apart from me, nothing remotely elfish has visited him since his exile began.” He held up a hand. “But don’t go feeling sorry for him. Based on what we know he’s done, ever since he was exiled to our world, he thoroughly deserved the sentence from his Queen and worse. He should have been executed and to hell with the possible consequences.”

He reached out for me and held me close. “Are you sure that you have to go?”

“Yes,” I said. I wasn’t going to back down now. “There’s no choice.”

“Idiot,” Cardonel said. He kissed me. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, more of a goodbye kiss. I realised suddenly that he feared that he would never see me again and it almost broke my resolve. I kissed him back gently and turned away so that he wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes. “While you’re with him, remember that he still has most of the elfish powers. Watch your back.”

I waved goodbye and walked out of the apartment, wondering if I would ever see it again. Dervish’s directions had been very clear. Like many places in the magical world, the Nameless Elf’s prison co-existed with a place in the mundane world, adding a certain additional power to the wards sealing him into place. The Nameless Elf was trapped within the Edinburgh Dungeons, a popular tourist attraction. I realised, in a moment of insight, that the mundane world had been encouraged to build their tourist attraction on top of the prison, just to tap their power and use it to keep him imprisoned. It was surprisingly clever. I sensed the hand of the Sisterhood somewhere within the spells.

“Well,” I told myself. I was standing just outside the Dungeon. I could feel the Nameless Elf’s presence now, a shimmering sense of insanity that threatened to contaminate anyone who touched it. I almost turned and walked away. I hadn’t had so many doubts when I’d freed the slaves. There, I’d been secure that I knew that I was doing the right thing. Here…I felt terror, enough terror to weaken my knees and drive me away. “Here goes nothing.”