"No," she replied. "No, I had no idea-are there demons who are native to my kingdom?" The idea of a demon calling himself a "native" seemed absurd, but where else would they have come from? Had she ever heard where demons came from? If she had, she could not recall; they had simply been part of Mazonia, to be dealt with, but carefully, for they were dangerous. They were allowed most of the freedoms and privileges of a citizen, in exchange for the oaths they swore to the Queen, and that summed up all she had ever known about them, until crossing wits with Ware.
"No, I was born-yes, dear Xylina, we are born-in one of these places of wild magic. Most of us were, in fact-and most of us had no idea what our own nature was, until something revealed it to us. There have not been any demons born since the kingdom of Mazonia was founded, though. Perhaps the change that made your kingdom and conjuration possible ended the conditions that permitted the creation of my kind." He fell silent for a long time, but Xylina had the feeling that it was because he was thinking. "I know that I have told you that in many ways, we are not different from your kind, but I have not told you why we feel this way."
"That is true," she admitted. "And I thought you were mad to say something like that-that is, until we met the Sylvans."
"Ah, the Sylvans." He chuckled for a moment. "No, that is not what I meant. You see, most of us had at one point every reason to believe that we were of your kind. Humans born in the realms of wild magic can have so many things odd about them-everything from extra fingers to extra heads, and powers ranging from conjuration to wingless flight. There seemed no reason in my case to think that I was any different from the humans about me. I thought only that I had a particular talent for dematerialization and for entrancing. No one told me that these were things associated with demon-kind; perhaps no one knew. I thought I was no different from the rest of the folk I knew."
He fell silent again, and Xylina asked the obvious question. "How did you find out differently?"
"Ah," came the reply, "I fell in love, you see."
There was such a bitter sorrow in those few words that Xylina would have left it there. This was the first time Ware had allowed the conversation to drift into the area of the personal. She was not certain she wished to hear or know more. But Ware seemed now determined to continue.
"I fell in love with a human woman-and my nature became-obvious. I was appalled. Horrified. It was a very difficult time for me." He took a deep breath, and let it out in a sigh. She wanted to ask what he meant, but she felt she dared not. Let him reveal what he chose, she decided. If she overstepped the bounds, he might never tell her anything again.
She did not question why she wanted to know these things about him; it was more than simple, or even perverse, curiosity. It was almost as if she had to know.
"I am not a light-minded creature, Xylina," he said, after a moment. "I am not a philanderer. That was why it was so difficult for me. I honestly had not thought about this for a very long time, you know-it was a very painful period, and I often choose to forget it. But I was true to her for as long as she lived-"
"But you outlived her," Xylina was moved to say.
"By more years than you can reckon. I had not thought to find another woman like her." He chuckled dryly. "Then, as I gained in experience, I realized that like every first love, mine was somewhat callow. I would not care for her, if I met her today-though I cared for her deeply then. So then I thought that I would never encounter a woman who could match my somewhat demanding tastes. And for many, many years, I did not. I do not engage in liaisons for amusement, and so I remained without liaisons of any kind. Then, of course..."
He said nothing more, but Xylina knew him well enough by now to fill in what he did not say. He was as honor-bound in his way as she was in hers. He had certain rules-"playing the game," he called it-and he would not violate those rules for any reason.
What this confession meant, then, was that he was telling her something she had not even dreamed of. He had been in love with this unknown woman; presumably she had loved him in turn, never mind that he was a demon. He had said that he was not light of mind or heart; that he did not have affairs simply to assuage his lusts.
It followed, therefore, that not only did he desire Xylina, he was actually in love with her. Not the kind of "love" that a Mazonite male could offer to his mistress, a fawning kind of lap-dog emotion, but something astounding, the love of an equal for an equal.
She did not know what to say, and sat bundled up in her wrappings, trying to find some way to turn the conversation to something more comfortable.
In the end, it was Ware who did just that, telling her tales from his wanderings that almost made her forget what he had revealed. He had a knack for storytelling, and it did not hurt that his experiences of other times and places were fascinating. But when he stopped, out of courtesy, to let her sleep, she found her thoughts going back to his startling revelation.
And she fell asleep wondering just what she was going to do about it.
Finally, the mist-barrier in the distance signaled that they were about to reach a new region, and Xylina put all her speculations aside for the moment. As eager as she was to get out of this realm of giant insects and killing plants, she was reluctant to face a new set of dangers. Yet she had no choice-for the shard lay ahead.
But for once, when the expedition crossed the border, Ware gave a brief exclamation of mingled pleasure and apprehension. Xylina looked at him askance, for there was nothing in this stark landscape to give cause for such an exclamation.
"This is territory that I know," he said. "In fact-it is the same place where I was born. It has moved, of course; I did not expect to find it here-but I think we can be certain that it is the same."
Xylina wondered what it was that made him so certain; Ware himself had said that realms that looked familiar would often have changed in ways both unexpected and deadly. Still, she was not going to argue with him just now.
The land immediately in front of them was a hilly grassland, with never a sign of trees or bushes. The grasses were waist-high, and rippled in a brisk wind, green and silvery-grey. Yellow-gold, white, and pink flowers dotted the sea of grass, and closer to the ground many herbacious plants filled in among the tall, slender grass stems. There was nothing in sight but grass for as far as Xylina could see, but she did not trust her eyes. In land like this, entire villages could be hidden in a fold between the hills, and they would not know one was there until they stumbled on it.
That was, in essence, exactly what Ware told them. "The magic in this realm is confined to the people and their domesticated beasts, and not the plants or the wild things. There is much conflict in this realm; virtually every tiny enclave of humans is at war with every other enclave, and they trust outsiders no more than they would trust their familiar enemies. We are as much at peril here as we were among the beasts behind us. More."
Xylina nodded, slowly. "So, we must trust no one, and nothing, is that it?"
Ware nodded his agreement, and she sighed. "Well then-which way are we to go?"
Faro consulted the instruments that Ware had entrusted to him, and pointed off into the entirely trackless grassland. Xylina considered the lack of roads, and the supplies that they had left.
"Can the wagons go through this?" she asked Horn.
He considered the grass. "I think so," he replied. "Don't hold me to it, though. That stuff might get tangled up in the axles, and if we have to cut the wagons loose every couple of cubits, we might as well not have them."
"All right. Men," she said, projecting her voice so that it would carry to the rear of the column, "we're going to try taking the wagons across this, but if they can't make it through, we will have to leave them. If that happens, we will load all the beasts with as much as they can carry, and ourselves as well. Faro, Ware and I will march with you, in that case. But for now, we will try to keep them with us."