Sixty-three

They were sitting together side by side on the hideous red bed. Henry held himself rigid, taking great care not to touch her. ‘There’s stuff you need to know,’ he said.

Blue watched him and waited.

‘I can only tell you while my implant’s deactivated. I’m me now, but the thing is I remember. I know what the demons are doing. I know what Beleth has been planning.’

‘What?’ Blue asked.

‘Total conquest,’ Henry said. ‘They’re going to take over your whole world and mine.’

The plan had been in place for years, Henry said. The aim was demon mastery of both the Faerie Realm and its analogue, the human world. The means was to be a breeding programme. Beleth decided it should be tested first in the human world. Up to that time, there had been sporadic attacks by demons on humans. But the new plan meant an end to overt action. Demons no longer harassed humans openly, but concentrated instead on kidnapping selected individuals and breeding with them. It was a difficult process. The offspring were often sickly and many died. But enough survived to be infiltrated into positions of power in the human world.

‘They started off with tribal chiefs and witch doctors in Africa,’ Henry said. ‘Then later it was European kings and their advisors, popes and priests and people like that. Recently it’s been politicians and dictators. They’re not all bad, of course, but some of them are demon children linked to the Hellmind by blood. They’ve been nudging humanity towards Hell for ages now.’

‘Didn’t anybody notice?’

‘That was the really clever part,’ Henry told her tiredly. ‘As soon as they started infiltrating, they all worked hard to convince people demons didn’t actually exist.’

‘That’s ridiculous,’ Blue said.

‘I know,’ Henry nodded. ‘Beleth didn’t think even humans could be that stupid, but one of his advisors drew up a strategy. Instead of hiding, demons kept appearing to humans, but in silly forms. Leprechauns and boggarts and stuff like that. Anything that sounded dim. Lately it’s been little green men from outer space. Nobody takes them seriously.’

‘Wait a minute,’ Blue interrupted. Something he’d said earlier was niggling her. ‘If breeding with humans was so tricky, why didn’t they just implant people the way they did with you?’

‘New technology,’ Henry said. ‘They simply didn’t have it when Beleth drew up his plan. They’ve started using implants now, of course. The British Prime Minister and the American President both have one. But the demons have to be careful. These things show up under X-rays. If humans found out what was really happening, it could sink the whole plan. Beleth doesn’t want that – it’s been working far too well already. So you see,’ Henry added.

After a moment, Blue said, ‘See what?’

‘Why we’re here,’ said Henry.

Blue saw nothing of the sort. She wanted to take Henry and shake him, but she controlled herself.

‘Why are we here, Henry?’ she asked quietly.

‘Infiltration,’ Henry said. ‘It’s worked so well in my world, they want to try it in the Faerie Realm.’ He hesitated, turned his head away from her and murmured, ‘Starting with our child.’