Na nearly panicked. “What are these? Some sort of demons?” Her eyes darted here and there. “They are everywhere!”

  “Those are trees,” Xido told her. “Like vegetables but considerably rger. Harmless.” He snickered. “Unless one falls on you.”

  Im gazed uneasily at the towering objects. “They can’t move, can they?” He thought not but was unsure.

  “Not even an inch. And I ask you not to move either while I go back and attend to the demon.” He turned toward their portal and ughed to see only a grassy hill before him.

  “It is gone!” gasped Im.

  “Only hidden,” the deity assured him. “That is how things are in this world.” He strode forward confidently and disappeared.

  “I don’t think that demon can live here,” said Na, taking a seat on the ground and looking into her bag. She shook her head and put it down. “Let’s wait till Lord Xido returns before we eat.”

  “You mean the sun, don’t you?” asked Im. He looked up at the yellowish orb, apparently a little past the zenith. “It wouldn’t sustain it.”

  “Right. Maybe Xido can get it somepce proper.”

  “We might have broken the geas Tindeval pced on it by going through those gates,” mused Im. “That would mean it could go back to its own world. As long as it can dodge the police there.”

  It might have been half an hour ter when Xido appeared in front of them, apparently out of some deep shadow. “No need to use the gates myself,” he expined, “so I came direct.”

  “What of Qu’orthseth?” asked Im.

  “Right now it is back where we started. It seemed the best pce to leave it until I could work something out.” He sat down on the ground beside them and opened his pack. “Akorzef was able to reconnect with its home world and feed so that is to the good. We, as, have only this horrible food from your city. Since it came through the gates with us, it should be as nutritious here as it was there.” He tore into a loaf of mushroom bread. “There is plenty of good edible stuff around but you’ll need to learn about it. I’ll stay with you a while.”

  He chewed for a time, seemingly in thought. “I told Tindeval we had found our way and sent him on home. Although he insisted on hearing the tale first and mentioned some nonsense about building a temple over the portal. Then I poked a hole between the worlds and came back to you.” Xido rose. “all right, here goes.”

  “Are you going to summon Qu’orthseth?” asked Na.

  “No, you are,” the god told her. “That is considerably more of an undertaking here than it was in Hirstel. You will run into unaccustomed resistance; indeed, I doubt you could do it at all unless I help.”

  “Help?” The sorceress did not look happy about this at all.

  “I’ll pop over and try to bring old Akorzef back with me. I might or might not be able to accomplish that — it is a rather rge demon and I am one small god. But it should weaken the fabric enough to help you accomplish a summoning. Me pushing and you pulling!”

  Im saw a problem with this. “Won’t it be pulled back after a time?”

  Xido smiled slyly. “No, for the geas Tindeval pced on it remains in force. It would seem passing through that world of fire was not enough to break it. Not sure why!”

  “Maybe the ck of sun there? It may have still been connected to the one in its home world,” suggested Na.

  “As good a guess as any,” admitted Xido. To Im he said, “Akorzef is still going to be bound to you, boy, until you die. Or until we can find another solution.”

  “Your very own demon bodyguard,” observed Na. “Qu’orthseth will be disappointed. It hoped to be freed.”

  “It already understands and accepts this as the best way. At least for now. You can start, Na.” With that, Xido seemed to pull shadows about himself and disappeared.

  “I wish that book hadn’t been given back to Tindeval,” muttered the sorceress, and began preparing her incantation.

  “A circle?” asked Im, a tad timidly. This powerful woman was intimidating!

  “Not needed. We’re not trying to keep it captive, nor is it likely to attack us.” She frowned at that thought. “Though one never knows with demons.”

  “It needs me alive.”

  “That is true. Me it might see as a future threat.”

  She spread her arm wide, eyes shut, and began chanting. Im watched, attentive. He had never seen a great magician work, at least not from this close. But then, there wasn’t much to see, really. He knew how spells worked.

  Na, however — he found himself fascinated by her. She was not particurly young, approaching what would be middle-aged among his people, perhaps a century or so old. The wizardess was a slender woman, of no great height, with perhaps the hint of a pot belly and rather rge, pendulous breasts above her long, striped skirt, now somewhat ripped and ragged about the hem. She was a bit heavy in the brow and square in the jaw as was not uncommon among their people.

  And a great shock of curling hair, the color of dawn’s light on the walls of Hirstel, was swept back to fall almost to her prominent buttocks. Im, we must mention, was quite ignorant of women of any sort, powerful sorceresses or not, and was, moreover, truly young, a boy in any world. But he was quite old enough to appreciate Na.

  There was something in the air before her, a movement, a wavering, an opening. That yellow — surely that was the sky of their home? Former home, Im reminded himself. A moment ter the bnk face of Qu’orthseth appeared, a massive red shoulder, an arm, before the demon’s entire body popped out of the rift, as if released all at once.

  Xido stepped out behind it and the passage between worlds closed. “Now I can tell my sister I know what giving birth feels like,” he announced.

  “And I the midwife?” ughed Na.

  Qu’orthseth’s thunderous ugh joined hers. “I grew from a bud, centuries ago,” he said, “but I do not mind being reborn here.” It stopped, standing still for a few seconds. “Yes, I can still connect to the sun of my world.” The demon looked up. “This one is too puny. A little better than the one in Hirstel, though, it must be admitted.”

  “We shall have to find a source of nourishment ourselves soon,” said Xido. “In the morning.” He smiled at his human companions. “I am quite sure neither of you knows how to light a fire. It is time for your first lesson.”

  “Can’t I just say an incantation?” asked Na. She mumbled something they couldn’t make out and shook her head. “I guess not,” she admitted.

  “Get some wood,” Xido told them. “Those brown things lying on the ground.” It was to be expected that they picked up some brown things that were not wood at all be we needn’t go into that. Soon, the god had the sticks id and ready.

  “Now, most humans, those without magic, would have to start the fire through some physical means and you would do well to learn those. They require less effort. But we are all magicians here.” He reached out a hand, plucked a torch from somewhere, and began to set fire to his stacked wood, lighting it here and there. “You can learn that sort of thing readily enough. It is how magic is done here.” He gnced up at the pair. “And in many worlds.”

  Na gazed at the bze that began to leap up before her and then at Xido himself. “There were no demons or other servitors involved in that, were there?”

  “No. I just reached into another world and, um, borrowed the fire. Of course, the ashes of the brand I brought will flit back to that world ter on, but not before I was able to get our own fire going. This is what you need to learn to do, both of you.”

  “So we shall,” decided Im.