Free The Door Into Fire by Diane Duane Page B

cease to exist?) Herewiss said.
    Sunspark actually shied at the thought. (That’s an impossible concept.)
    (...pass on? Go through the Door into Starlight?)
    (Oh, you mean leave your present form,) Sunspark said. (I see. Why the time limit, though? Is it a game?)
    Herewiss shook his head slowly, not knowing what to say. Sunspark sensed his bemusement, and fell silent.
    (Where are you headed?) Herewiss asked.
    (I have been roaming— like the rest of my kind, I am condemned to restlessness. But you’ve bound me to you by the Pact, and I must pay back your favor in kind.)
    Herewiss thought for a moment. (Well enough, then. If you’ll keep company with me until you have opportunity to save my life, I’ll consider the favor paid. With the things I’m going to be doing, it shouldn’t be too long...)
    (Done, and done,) Sunspark said. (Shall we match off energies to bind the agreement?)
    Herewiss raised his eyebrows, uncertain what to make of this. (It’s in the nature of my kind to match off energies whenever possible,) Sunspark said. (The loser’s energies are bound to the winner’s, so that when the winners come to mate, their progeny are more powerful than the parents. I think you would probably consider it as something of a social exchange. Like—) it slipped further into his mind to find an analogue—(like clasping hands?)
    (With a little knuckle-work,) Herewiss said, grinning. (I hear a certain air of permanence in the thought, Sunspark. Are you looking for a way to make an end of me accidentally, and so be free of our agreement?)
    (Make an end? Oh, I see, force you to change form.) Sunspark chuckled softly, with innocent savagery. (I told you I was probably going to be trouble for you…)
    (Yes,) Herewiss said, laughing himself. (Trouble indeed. Sunspark, I’m minded to try my strength with you. I’d like to engage in a social exchange with you, for I’d sooner have a friend than someone whom I could never trust, and that’s what you’d most likely be without this—)
    It looked askance at the concept “friend.” (You want to mate with me? ) it said, incredulous. (How perverse. And how very interesting—)
    There was something about the sudden smile in its voice that made Herewiss wary. (I didn’t say that, ) he said. (Never mind it now, Spark. There seem to be differences in our ways of looking at things, and with luck we’ll have leisure to discuss them later. How are these matches usually handled?)
    (Best two fights out of three.)
    (So be it. I have certain limitations that you haven’t, though, and I’ll ask that you take them into consideration so that the match will be a fair one.)
    (Who ever said anything was fair?) said the elemental in surprise.
    (True, but it behooves us to try to make it that way,) Herewiss said. (Will you agree not to burn me up, or otherwise kill me?)
    (“Kill?” Oh, form-change. My, you have a lot of ways to say it. What a shame, that’s one of the best ways to win a match. Why should I refrain?)
    (I don’t want to leave this form yet.)
    (Is it that comely? You can always get another, can’t you?)
    (Not just like this one, certainly; the process isn’t under my control. And besides, I would no longer be able to reach my loved if I lost this body.)
    (That would be tragic,) Sunspark said, (but then, all union is tragic, when you come right down to it…. Oh, very well. There’s something here that I don’t understand, and since you keep insisting, it must be important. I won’t ‘kill’ you. Shall we begin?)
    (Right here??)
    (Where better?) said Sunspark, and then the change came upon it, and Herewiss had no time to think about anything.
    The creature that leaped at his throat had many of the worst characteristics of Fyrd—a nadder’s coily, scaled body walking on the ugly hairy legs of a bellwether, and the knife-sharp legs of a keplian at the ends of those legs. Herewiss wrestled wildly with it, trying to get some kind of decent hold, but there were too many