Going Under by Justina Robson Page B

everyone still picking on her if they had quit bothering Zal's family?
    "And the little lady," Mazarkel tried to wink but he was too drunk and had to resort to blinking and nodding, his small horns fizzing with sparks. He reminded Lila of walking roadkill that was animated by electricity.
    "Fear not," Zal said idly, "we'll all be leaving you soon enough, if we can find Teazle."
    Mazarkel nodded with the collective sagacity of thirty pints of beer. "Not that we don't enjoy your company, cousin coldheart. It's just like ... well ... better when it's just us. You make us look reserved. Nothing personal ..." He tapped Zal's chest. "Ah, Teazle. It is said he has the Country Vice. The tragedy of people like him. No doubt he is off sating it if he's agreed to go back to the miserable human world or that overgrown greenhouse you call home. At least you married into something worthwhile on that score. No'ffence, luv," he leered at Lila.
    At this Zal's expression darkened and she thought she saw the shipmaster actually flinch. Mazarkel gave some kind of parting gesture and slithered back down the steps into the hold. Lila listened to the flap and snap of the Ahriman banners as they turned into the wind. She sighed, "So, what's the Country Vice, dare I ask?"

    "Fighting," Zal said, pointing south with his arm to direct the master. He reached back and took Lila's hand, drawing her close to him at the rail. The wind blew his long hair back out of his face. "No weapons. But no duels either. The demons who live beyond civilisation aren't like the demons you've met so far. They're much much nastier. The Country Vice is to fight these wild demons alone and unarmed. Nature to nature."
    "I thought that would be approved of. Why is it called a vice?" Lila asked, enjoying the warmth of his body next to hers.
    "Because the high of surviving the fight is addictive, and addictions are slavery," he hesitated and shared a wry look with her. She knew he was thinking about his own problem with fire elementals. "To be honest, Teazle probably has no match in the cities. I doubt many people would consider fighting him now. He'd have to go into the outback to find something that could test him."
    Lila, who'd done a lot of workups in the safe ranges of her Al simulator on possible tactics for fighting Teazle, none of which resulted in victory, wasn't surprised. "Why do those demons stay outside the cities?"
    "Most of them are feral and kill anything on sight," Zal said. "Some of them are hermits, working on alchemies or arts of their own. Some of them are mad. Those are the easy ones. Teazle kept talking about going beyond the Gulf of Sighs. It's a place where there's a long inlet of ocean that cuts off a spar of the continent. The city demons walled off the land bridge ages ago and they police it vigorously. Convicts do tours of duty there. Beyond the bridge is a wilderness and beyond that are the Demons of the Waste. You won't find them in a tourist book. We don't like to talk about them."
    "The poor relations?"
    "Not exactly." He turned to the shipmaster who was still watching him with a hopeful expression. "Turn to the highlands and bring up the guns," Zal said, disappointing him. "Prepare a Scatterwhisper Shot."

    The wizened old demon nodded but hesitated and said, "And if the Sikarza Master is not there in the country?" He looked very much to Lila as though he was hoping that they would soon be going home and was too bothered to cover it up with a show. Agitation made strings of saliva hang from his ragged jaws.
    "Then we'll make for the wall and bring up the bigger guns," Zal said.
    "And if he does not answer then?"
    "Then you can send for the House Drake and I will look alone."
    At this the old demon sighed and nodded eagerly in relief. He turned and began to bark orders at his crew, who began to open deck hatches and heave at various kinds of extraordinary-looking weapons.
    "We could just leave him a note," Lila said, watching.
    Zal shook his head,