Down to the Bone by Justina Robson

Author:Justina Robson [Robson, Justina]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: fantasy
ISBN: 9781616143794
Google: ugmlwau_DD4C
Amazon: 1616143797
Publisher: Bill
Published: 0101-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

‘I just want a portal and some conversation,’ Lila said, lowering her hands slowly and giving herself a little shake. Blood pattered onto the marquetry floor. ‘You really should look for the wipes. That’s going to stain horribly if you leave it.’

There was a briefly hissed but very audible passing of ‘what-thefucks’ along the line but mercifully a woman in a tailored suit with fetish boots and immaculately waxed black hair appeared from the plastic veils and strode forward with businesslike predation in her expression, one hand tucking the tips of its fingers into the impossibly tiny pocket of her fitted tweed jacket. She moved like a catwalk model and was as tall and thin as a pole. The precise line of her lipstick left no room for compromises.

‘Phitti, Dedalon,’ she addressed the semicircle of guards with easy authority. ‘Cover the back.’ And there she stood, waiting for them to slouch past her to their new, less interesting posts. None of them gave her a second look, which to Lila meant only one thing.

‘Shivaud, I presume.’

The barest flicker of a wintry smile crossed the woman’s whitened face. She was beautiful at a short distance, the paint making her more so, a kind of geisha but with a sadist’s mouth. ‘Most people assume I will be a man. I can usually put up my second in my place while I play hostess in the background. Then again, most agents are men.’ She flicked a glance at Zal and lingered on him for a moment. ‘And human.’ When her gaze came back to Lila she put her head to one side and offered the merest of social smiles. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’

Lila showed her Agency credentials and this time Shivaud paused long enough to read them before standing back.

‘So?’

‘We’ve come to clear the road,’ Lila said.

Shivaud’s black lensed eyes narrowed slightly but she inclined her head with the grace of a lady and gestured behind her. ‘Come in then, and we can talk.’

On the other side of the bead curtains was a room filled with sofas and entertainment tech. They passed through it, trailed at a distance by first one and then another of the more handy types Lila had seen before. Then they came into a red and gold silk room with views over the strip towards the bay; clearly a demon’s lair. If the opulence and grandeur of the furnishings hadn’t given it away – piling style on style and packing in pirate chests full of concealed weapons – the people it contained would have.

It was a large room, separated into semicircular areas by lush waterfalls of satin in dark colours, offering multiple sightline issues. Within the outer zones waterpipes and incense bowls simmered with the mixtures Lila had identified earlier – everything from trip mixes to poisons. Bodies in various states of undress and consciousness lay around; the retinue of the favoured passing the boring daylight hours of afternoon in their comas of choice. Demons were

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