"And you can run some with Chet, too," she continued. "So you can help him find his talent." There was no hint of the discomfort she must have suffered getting the word out.
Chester stared at her. "His-you mean you-"
"Oh, come on, Chester," she snapped. "You're wrong ten times a day. Can't I be wrong once in my life? I can't say I like it, but since magic seems to be part of the centaur's heritage, I'll simply have to live with it. Magic does have its uses; after all, it brought you back." She paused, glancing at him sidelong. "In fact, I might even be amenable to a little flute music,"
Startled, Chester looked at her, then at Bink, realizing that someone had blabbed. "Perhaps that can be arranged-in decent privacy. After all, we are centaurs."
"You're such a beast," she said, flicking her tail at him. Bink covered a smile. When Cherie learned a lesson, she learned it well!
"Which seems to cover that situation sufficiently, tedious as it has been," the Demon said. "Now if you are all quite ready to depart, never to return-"
Yet Bink was not quite satisfied. He did not trust this sudden generosity on the part of the Demon. "You're really satisfied to be forever walled off from our society?"
"You can not wall me off," the Demon pointed out. "I am the source of magic. You will only wall you off. I will watch and participate anytime I choose-which will probably be never, as your society is of little interest to me. Once you depart, I forget you."
"You ought at least to thank Bink for freeing you," Cherie said.
"I thank him by sparing his ridiculous life," X(A/N)th said, and if Bink hadn't known better he might have thought the Demon was nettled.
"He earned his life!" she retorted. "You owe him more than that!"
Bink tried to caution her. "Don't aggravate him," he murmured. "He can blink us all into nothingness-"
"Without even blinking," the Demon agreed. One eyelid twitched as if about to blink.
"Well, Bink could have left you to rot for another thousand years, without blinking himself," she cried heedlessly. "But he didn't Because he has what you will never understand: humanity!"
"Filly, you intrigue me," X(A/N)th murmured. "It is true I am omnipotent, not omniscient-but I believe I could comprehend human motive if I concentrated on it."
"I dare you!" she cried.
Even Chester grew nervous at this. "What are you trying to do, Cherie?" he asked her. "Do you want us all extinguished?"
The Demon glanced at Grundy. "Half-thing, is there substance to her challenge?"
"What's in it for me?" the golem demanded.
The Demon lifted one finger. Light coalesced about Grundy. "That."
The light seemed to draw into the golem-and lo, Grundy was no longer a thing of clay and string. He stood on living legs, and had a living face. He was now an elf.
"I-I'm real!" he cried. Then, seeing the Demon's gaze upon him, he remembered the question. "Yes, there is substance! It's part of being a feeling creature. You have to laugh, to cry, to experience sorrow and gratitude and-and it's the most wonderful thing-"
"Then I shall cogitate on it," the Demon said. "In a century or so, when I have worked out my revised nomenclature." He returned to Cherie. "Would one gift satisfy you, feeling filly?"
"I don't need anything," she said. "I already have Chester. Bink is the one."
"Then I grant Bink one wish."
"No, that's not it! You have to show you understand by giving him something nice that he would not have thought of himself."
"Ah, another challenge," the Demon said. He pondered. Then he reached out and lifted Cherie in one hand. Bink and Chester jumped with alarm, but it was not a hostile move. "Would this suffice?" The Demon put her to his mouth. Again Bink and Chester jumped, but the Demon was only whispering, his mouth so large that the whisper shook her whole body. Yet the words were inaudible to the others.
Cherie perked up. "Why yes, that would suffice! You do understand!" she exclaimed.
"Merely interpolation from observed gestures of his kind." The Demon set her down, then nicked another finger. A little globe appeared in air, sailing toward Bink, who caught it. It seemed to be a solid bubble. "That is your wish-the one you must choose for yourself," the Demon said. "Hold the sphere before you and utter your wish, and anything within the realm of magic will be yours."
Bink held up the globe. "I wish that the men who were restored from stone by the absence of magic, so they could return to the village of magic dust, will remain restored now that magic is back," he said. "And that the lady griffin will not turn back to gold. And that all the things killed by the loss of magic, like the brain coral-"
The Demon made a minor gesture of impatience. "As you see, the bubble did not burst. That means your wish does not qualify, for two reasons. First, it is not a selfish one; you gain nothing for yourself by it. Second, those stone and gold spells can only be restored by reapplication of their inputs; once interrupted, they are gone. None of those people have returned to stone or gold, and none of the similar spells in your land have been reinstated. Only magic life has been restored, such as that of the golem and the coral The other spells are like fire: they burn continuously once started, but once doused remain out. Do not waste my attention on such redundancy; your wish must go for a selfish purpose."
"Oh," Bink said, taken aback. "I can't think of any wish of that kind."
"It was a generous notion, though," Cherie murmured to him.
The Demon waved his hand. "You must carry the wish until it is expended. Enough; I become bored with this trivia."
And the party stood in the forest that Bink and Cherie and the colt had left It was as if the Demon had never been-except for the sphere. And Bink's friends, restored. And the reviving magic of the forest. Even Cherie seemed satisfied with that magic, now, Bink shook his head and pocketed the wish-globe. All he wanted to do now was to get home to Chameleon, and he needed no special magic for that
"I'll carry Bink, as usual," Chester said. "Cherie, you carry the Magician-" He paused. "Crombie! We forgot the loud-beaked griffin!"
Bink felt in his pocket. "No, I have him here in the bottle. I can release him now-"
"No, let him stew there a while longer," Chester decided. Evidently he had not quite forgiven the soldier for the savage fight the two had had.
"Maybe that's best," Cherie agreed. "He was in a life-and-death struggle when he was confined. He might come out fighting,"
"Let him come!" Chester said belligerently.
"I think it would be better to wait," Bink said. "Just in case."
It was dusk, but they moved on rapidly. The monsters of the night seemed to hold no terror, after their adventure. Bink knew he could use his stored wish to get them out of trouble if he had to. Or he could release Crombie and let him handle it. Most of the more dangerous wilderness entities were still recovering from the shock of the temporary loss of magic, and were not aggressive.
Chester had a problem, however. "I have paid the fee for an Answer," he reminded the Good Magician. "But I found my talent by myself. Now I could ask about Cherie's talent-"
"But I already know it," Cherie said, coloring slightly at this confession of near-obscenity. "Don't waste your Question on that!"
"You know your talent?" Chester repeated, startled. "What-"
"I'll tell you another time," she said modestly.