‘Yes.’
‘What does it look like?’
Michael hesitated. ‘You won’t believe me.’
‘Try me.’
‘It’s a brass cube. Featureless. No external moving parts.’
The King nodded, unsurprised. ‘All right. Now both of you listen carefully to me. Michael, if you can map the internal workings of the engine and provide me with a blueprint, I’ll let you and the women go back to the Asian Heavens, free and unharmed. Semias.’
‘I know,’ Semias said. ‘If I give him the information you’ll leave me here in the city and I won’t be kept locked up and separated from myself any more.’
‘That’s the deal. Will you both cooperate?’
‘I will,’ Michael said.
‘Very well, I will as well,’ Semias said. ‘Let the boy eat and rest, he’s falling over on his feet. I’ll take him back this afternoon and we’ll map out the internal structure for you.’
‘Provide me with an incorrect blueprint and I will knock every tower in this city down, one by one.’ The Demon King glared at Michael. ‘And if I don’t produce a working identical engine from the blueprint you give me, I will hunt down everybody you love and I will torture them to death myself.’
Michael slept through most of the day and went out to the dining room as dusk was falling, feeling dehydrated and exhausted. Neither of the women were there, and he went up to their rooms and rapped on their doors. He sent his senses into the room, searching for them, and didn’t find them. They weren’t anywhere in the building. He stormed back down to the kitchen and yelled at the cowering demons.
‘Where are Rhonda and Clarissa?’
‘The King took them, my Lord,’ the small female demon said. ‘He said to pass on the message that he will hold them safe until you produce what he wants.’
‘Where’s Semias?’
‘Who?’
Semias appeared next to him. ‘I’m all around you, lad, I am the city. Eat something…’ He looked around. ‘Not good enough.’ He concentrated, and the kitchen glowed into life. Preserved meat, smoked and netted, hung from the hooks on the sides of the walls, and baskets of vegetables appeared next to the stove. ‘Feed the boy and then we’ll get to work.’
He led Michael into the dining room, which gleamed with even more splendour while the spirit was present, and sat him at the table.
‘Can we do this?’ Michael said.
‘We can,’ Semias said, sitting next to him. ‘Do you think they’ll keep their side of the bargain?’
‘There’s a small chance they will,’ Michael said.
‘Can you find the women and teleport to them? Take them out now and leave.’
‘I don’t know where they are. Do you?’
‘They’re not within the city.’
Michael rubbed his hands over his face with defeat. ‘I don’t have any choice. I have to help him. I just hope he doesn’t find too many military uses for the technology when we unlock it for him.’
‘Don’t worry, he won’t.’
The demons emerged from the kitchen with plates of food. Suddenly Michael was starving and Semias remained silent as Michael wolfed the meal down.
After he’d eaten they returned to the gravity engine room and stood on the walkway. Michael turned his metal senses into it and stood for a moment, bewildered, as he watched it work. It appeared to be clockwork; cogs and springs worked in jerky mechanical motion within it, but there were places inside the engine where the mechanics didn’t mesh. It was like looking at the interior of a clock through a shattered window.
‘What the hell is going on in there?’ he said.
‘You can see inside?’ Semias said.
Michael nodded a reply, moving along the walkway to get a view from a different angle. Some of the pieces appeared to be only half a cog, but still turning as if they were circular. The nature of the interior was giving him a headache.
‘It’s four dimensional,’ Semias said. ‘All of the movement is in three dimensions, but it’s bent through four. That’s where the weird interior joins are.’
‘I see,’ Michael said. ‘The Sidhe could work in four dimensions?’
‘Can you teleport, lad?’
‘No,’ Michael said, confused at the sudden change of topic. ‘I’m stuck here. Something about this place screws my head up.’ He rubbed the back of his skull, which was still tender. ‘Or there’s permanent brain damage from being smacked around too much in the last week or so. Wouldn’t be the first time.’
‘Could you teleport before you arrived here, though?’
‘Well, yeah.’
‘That’s moving in four dimensions. You lift yourself above the flat piece of paper that is our reality, and drop yourself somewhere else, moving through the fourth dimension. You do it yourself.’
‘But…’ Michael shook his head. ‘Okay, if you say so, all this advanced physics is beyond me. But I can’t manipulate things like the interior of that machine.’
‘No, I do that. I have multi-dimensional control within my city. All the parts were built by our artisans, and then I put it together.’
‘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.’