“I shall have to start teaching you the ways of wizardry in this world,” said Xido. “I suspect you will need to unlearn as much as you learn. Especially you, Na.”

  Na looked half-asleep. “Um-hum. I’m forgetting stuff already.” With that she pulled her bnket over herself and dozed off immediately.

  “You are both talented sorcerers,” continued Xido. “You’ll do well here. But Na has it right — we all need a good night’s rest.” Soon the deity was asleep at well.

  But Im knew he had pced wards around him first. Xido was taking no chances with those demon constables possibly being in the neighborhood. It was likely Qu’orthseth lurked close by, too, and its little warning spells also clung to the boy.

  Of course, the demon, being but a demon, had only small magics. Great skill in sorcery was not a gift given to its kind. Im tossed for a few minutes, probably not nearly as long as it seemed to him, before sitting up. Both his companions slept. Why shouldn’t he go out? Why shouldn’t he accept his invitation?

  Why shouldn’t he explore his new world and everything it had to offer? He slipped out of his bnket and through the open doorway. It was still pleasantly warm. Temperatures dropped rapidly in Hirstel as soon as the sun set, just as days were invariably hot.

  How strange night was here, full of sounds that Im had never heard in the streets of Hirstel. That murmur was wind, but not the moaning wind of the desert. This wind whispered through the trees. And all those whistles and chirps and creaks made by the creatures of the night! They were all around Im. He was in a world filled with life.

  That hut over there. Would old Oerasee be awake? He suddenly felt a great misgiving about all this. A movement in the shadow of the house put him suddenly on alert. Ah, it was the woman who had given him the note. Or drawing, maybe he should say. Did the people here know how to write? Why was he wondering about that now?

  She moved out into the moonlight. The moon here was much like that he had known in the world of his birth. It would be in a different phase back home, though, wouldn’t it? The woman — not quite a girl but certainly not very old — smiled at him. Im feared his smile in return looked most foolish.

  Her nose was nearly as big as her mother’s, wasn’t it? No matter. She held out a hand and he took it. How calloused! Ha, perhaps she was wondering why his was so soft. The woman murmured something, not very loudly, and in Ildin. That didn’t matter either. He let her lead him toward the woods.

  And there, she put her arms around him and her lips to his. A moment ter her hands were straying elsewhere. Why is this happening? wondered Im. It seemed so strange, so unbelievable, so dreamlike. Was this Ildin simply lonely, here in this little vilge with no husband? He allowed his hands to stray also.

  It was fortunate that he allowed his eyes to stray momentarily, as well, for he spotted two rge forms moving among the trees, glinting bluish where the moonlight filtering through the leaves struck them.

  Oh, do I see disappointment in a face here and there? Remember I am a family storyteller! If you want that sort of thing, go to my worthy but lecherous colleague on the far side of the bazaar.

  “Run!” Im yelled. Had the young wizard taken a moment to think he would have realized the demons would have no interest in the Ildin woman. Nor would she have understood what he said. But Im was not about to stop and think right then!

  Several things happened at once. The demon police rushed toward him. The woman looked like she wanted to scream but no sound came. And a rge red body transposed itself between the pair of demons and their target. That was enough time for the Ildin to turn and run toward her vilge.

  Im backed away a bit more slowly. He might be safer remaining in the vicinity of Qu’orthseth. The constables had halted and now words were exchanged by all three demons. Words Im did not understand. With no facial expressions, it was hard to tell anything. They might be exchanging pleasantries or preparing to murder each other.

  One pushed forward. Qu’orthseth pushed back. As they grappled, the other tried to slip around them. Ah, so that was the pn. Old Qu’orthseth wasn’t all that bright, to let itself get entangled in such a manner. And now Im was in very real danger.

  He turned to run. There was Xido, calmly watching the whole thing. “You could handle those cops yourself with a little training,” he said. “At least, banish them back to their own world. But I think I’ll do more than that.” The god stepped forward and regarded the approaching demon in a rather nonchant fashion. The blue-green form hesitated.

  It said something to Xido, who shrugged and replied, in the nguage of Hirstel, “Too te. You were warned.” He reached out and suddenly one of the demon’s arms started to — shrivel? Or wilt, maybe. Its shriek was that of storm winds; it immediately disappeared.

  The god nodded, knowingly. “I thought it would pop back. There was probably a safeguard in pce, to send them home the moment they might be harmed.” The other demon had also disappeared and now Qu’orthseth ambled toward them. “What were you doing out here?” Xido asked.

  “Um, I just came out to relieve myself. I guess I wandered too far away.”

  Xido gave him a most suspicious look but said nothing, only turning back toward the vilge. However, Qu’orthseth leaned down toward the boy. “I won’t tell,” promised the great crimson demon. Its whisper sounded like rocks falling into a ravine.

  There was no sign that anyone in the vilge knew anything had happened. Nor was there any sign of the woman Im had accompanied into the woods. He slept surprisingly well the remainder of the night.

  Xido was gone when he awoke. Im stepped out of the hut to see the lean god approaching. “I’ve been talking with Oerasee,” he told Im. “She says that her daughter is in great fear of something. A nightmare, perhaps.” A hint of a smile appeared. “There were great red and blue creatures in it, hundreds of them rushing out of the woods. Most odd.” With that, he went on in to wake Na.

  The three breakfasted together, again making the better part of their meal on the food of Hirstel. Or we should say Na and Im did; Xido had no need and ate the food the vilgers had given him. “We could leave this morning or wait another day,” the god told them. “I’ll leave that to you.”

  Im wanted to get going at once; a certain feeling of embarrassment might have had something to do with that. Na, on the other hand, wanted to rest a while and learn more of the nguage. More of the Ildin in general, she said.

  “Very well,” spoke Xido. “We shall remain today. It no doubt is better to give you more time to acclimate to this world. And, indeed, to learn.” He busied himself scraping the st of the egg yolk from his earthenware pte with a piece of bannock. “Not just the nguage,” the god went on. “It’s time to learn something of the magic.”

  He put the pte aside. “We’ll start at the very beginning. You both know there are a multitude of other worlds out there. An infinite number of them.”

  Na nodded, perhaps a little impatiently. “All of Hirstel learns that early. It is the source of most magic.”

  “And you have both built up strong defenses against those other worlds. That was necessary to your very survival in Hirstel, and even so they would have constantly impinged on your unconscious mind. That is what drives your people mad.” He looked from one to the other. “What you need learn now is how to lower those defenses a little and look into the other realms.”

  “But we already deal with those realms,” objected Na.

  “Indirectly, by using spells and summonings as a buffer. Calling a demon to you is not such an easy undertaking in this world. Oh, it can be done, certainly, but there are almost always easier ways to do things.”

  “I have heard of those who become lost in those other worlds,” said Im.

  “All the more reason you need learn to deal with them,” came Xido’s reply. “Perhaps the most useful thing of all you might learn is how to communicate with other sorcerers from afar. And that very much involves entering other realms.”

  “Then we’ll learn,” Na decided. “When we’re better rested.”

  Xido rose. “Understood. How are you all feeling this morning, anyway? Any problems with the food?”

  Na stood as well, stretched, sighed, smiled. “Not too bad, just tired.”

  “My throat feels a little scratchy,” Im admitted.

  “Undoubtedly,” said Xido, “you let yourself get too close to one of these Ildin.”