Maxie’s Demon Read Online Free Page A

it? In thermodynamics?’
    His immaculateeyebrows shifted maybe a millimetre. ‘I’m impressed. Yes, a joke really,by a nineteenth-century boffin called Clerk Maxwell. A discriminating gate that only let molecules through one way – a potential perpetual motion machine, among other things. If it worked, it’d violate entropy; and we still have a hell of a job proving it wouldn’t. They hadn’t quite got round to computers, so he had it worked by a demon. Well, I often think of the Spiral the same way, only with probabilitiesinstead of molecules. The wilder probabilities pass outward, but they power the centre, which keeps on generating more. And there are lots of gates. They open on to all these … worlds, realms, regions if you like. You can reach them – a lot too easily, sometimes. You can steer your way between them, if you’re the right kind of natural navigator, pass into pasts and futures and times thatnever were at all. Myths, legends, ideals, dreams, even delusions if they’re self-consistent enough – all the shadows cast by our everyday, mundane world.’
    He caressed the head of his stick. The lanterns flickered in the draught. ‘Everywhere has a shadow of that kind. Every country, every region or city creates its archetype, its shadow self, where its past and present – and future, sometimes– mingle with its mythical existence. Even people cast shadows, the mythical counterparts that grow up around a real person, like Robin Hood, or King Arthur. Or the George Washington who really did throw a dollar across the Potomac – and probably cut down that goddamned cherry tree, for all I know. And out on the Spiral they all come together, these shadow worlds, drifting and shifting around usas if we live at the hub of a wheel.’
    He downed animpressive swig of beer, and sighed happily. ‘Which is another name for the Spiral, in fact. Hence the name of the inn.’
    I shrugged. ‘I’d have thought the Pub at the Hub would have been better.’ But despite myself, I was impressed. This citizen was the best value since the late Marquis of Bath, an authentic visionary. And he had the money tokit out his own private fantasy, that was evident. I wished I had some of what he smoked.
    He shook his head, a little grimly. ‘You still don’t understand. This isn’t the Core – or the Hub – any more. This is the Spiral. And out here the rules are all changed. It’s a jungle; it has paths, but there’s a pitfall every few feet, and wild things lurking in the bush around. Anything’s possible – literallyanything you can think of. Even … I suppose you’d call it magic. Anywhere in the Spiral, along its margins even – reaching out into our world, as I told you. It can get powerful – horribly powerful. Maybe Maxwell spoke truer than he knew.’ He smiled at something, definitely not me, and I didn’t like that smile one bit. Then he shrugged. ‘Of course you don’t believe me. I don’t expect you todo that – just to be careful.’
    ‘Thanks, I’m sure. Don’t get het up on my account. It’s what I’m good at.’
    ‘Is it? Is it really? The best, the safest thing you could do is head back to that junction, right now. But here’s something to think about. When you were standing in that field, by the wreck, didn’t the junction look farther away than it should? In every direction?’
    ‘A meretrick of thesetting sun—’
    Suddenly he looked really dangerous. ‘Don’t piss me about, boy. How far would you have to have flown in that thing? A hundred yards? Two hundred? Then why didn’t the landing reduce you to instant corned beef? Don’t waste your snappy answers on me. Save them for yourself. You’ll need them.’
    ‘Sure,’ I said. Neutrally, because that flash of anger had put the frighteners on me. ‘Er– but the other ways—’
    ‘Out the door, turn right and down the village street, straight over the crossroads.’
    ‘Thanks,’ I said, trying to get up as if I wasn’t