Aqua
                         Prologue
            478, Age of the Swan, Early Autumn
    Sunlight. Rippling grass. Wind. Water. She could sense 
all of those without ever opening her eyes.
    And blood.
    Eara Dulef opened her eyes and sat up swiftly, shading 
her eyes with a hand as she peered into the distance. But 
nothing was visible above the swaying tops of the grasses, 
even to a cheetah Elwen's superior vision. Whatever had 
died had done so without a struggle.
    She could still smell the blood, though, rich and 
thickly sweet, causing her mouth to water and her stomach 
to rumble. No one else was supposed to be out here today, 
Eara's meditations on the Goddess being an integral part 
of the pre-wedding ceremony. But someone- even Kyayne, she 
supposed, unable to wait until they were wed- might have 
come out here to hunt. She could ask to share the kill.
    After all, she thought with a small smile as she half- 
stood and stretched a spine sore with sitting in one place 
for almost three hours, she had a right, as the high 
priestess of Chilune within Glelmari.
    She moved off through the grasses in the relaxed 
half-crouch that most cheetah Elwens used even when they 
were not Shifted into cheetahs. It kept her head from 
showing above the grass, and let her long legs do work 
that comforted and supported them.
    And let her ramble on and on about nothing, she 
thought, again with a faint smile.
    The scent led Eara towards the Sky's Eye, a small 
watering-hole where lazy cheernmae sometimes lay in wait 
for game. Eara paused, swinging her tail, at the medley of 
scents that came to her. Blood and water and sun-warmed 
grass were to be expected, but she thought she smelled 
something reptilian, too. And that scent. Elwen, but 
surely not cheetah Elwen.
    She crept forward slowly now, her tail snapping faster 
with both excitement and fear as something warned her that 
this was no ordinary hunter who might share a kill with 
her.
    Grass parted before her, and then there was no more. 
She crouched at the edge of the Sky's Eye clearing and 
stared in fascination at the scene before her.
    A bleeding antelope lay at the edge of the water. 
Strangely, it did not look quite dead, instead feebly 
kicking, and it had only one wound. Not the gaping throat 
wound a cheetah would leave, either. Just a small bite on 
the hind left heel that nevertheless bled profusely. 
Coiled beside it was a kind of snake Eara had never seen 
before, with beautifully patterned red-gold diamonds on 
its scales and dark blue eyes, several shades darker than 
her own aqua ones.
    The snake was speaking, in a voice that did not come 
from her mouth or mind but was nevertheless there, to 
someone lying just out of Eara's sight. The strange Elwen, 
presumably.
    "Come, Zar. You have to eat. I know what and how you 
feel, but this is ridiculous." A pause, as if the snake 
was calculating, and then she said in a subdued voice, "I 
don't think you've eaten since we left Cytheria, to tell 
you the truth."
    There was no response. Eara sniffed lightly, but there 
was no smell of death, either. Could the one the snake was 
speaking to be in a coma, or sick?
    Curiosity as much as compassion made her shift her 
stance until she could see him. She could feel her eyes 
widening and a small, startled growl escaping her lips. 
Her legs tensed automatically, as if to propel her into a 
leap or a lightning-quick dash away, and it took her some 
time to control them, all the while staring at the man 
lying on the ground.
    He slept, or was unconscious, with his face turned 
toward the grass so that she could not see it, his head 
cradled on his arms. But what she could see was remarkable 
enough. The wind stirred hair that resembled feathers, and 
visible through the slit in the back of his oddly cut 
tunic were neatly folded wings. His scent- she extended 
her whiskers to the sides, softly channeling the drifting 
air currents to her nose- was fresh and clean and wild, or 
would have been if he had changed his clothes any time in 
the last dance. A scent of the sky.
    It was her business to know the world beyond the 
Grasslands, for the good of her people, and so she was 
able to put a name to him. Duazad. Falcon Elwen. A member 
of one of the most reclusive races in Arcadia.
    What was he doing here, then?
    The snake seemed to become more agitated and concerned 
every moment. She slithered over to the one she had 
called- Zar? Yes, that was it- and flicked her tongue out 
to lick his face.
    Zar jumped and rolled over. His eyes, a bright, clear 
shade of gray, opened and focused on the talking snake. He 
didn't seem to recognize her at first, but then a piercing 
intelligence filled his gaze. He dropped his head as he 
sat up, speaking wearily.
    "Did you have to wake me up, Lamara?" His voice was 
low and harsh, the ringing of the falcon's cry present in 
every word he spoke.
    "Yes." Lamara slithered over to the antelope, which by 
now had stopped kicking. "You need to eat something. You 
haven't-"
    "I know I haven't," said Zar. His controlled 
bitterness made Eara wince inwardly. "That was the whole 
point. If I ate something, I would probably bring it right 
back up again."
    "It wasn't your fault." Lamara sounded as if she were 
repeating an old and tired argument, one she already knew 
wouldn't work.
    "I know that. But it happened, and there is nothing I 
can do to atone for it. I think that's enough." Zar 
glanced warily at the antelope, studying it as if he had 
never before seen such a creature. "What is that? Is it 
good to eat? How can I eat it if you killed it with your 
poison?"
    Poison, Eara noted to herself. Lamara seemed the more 
aware and dangerous of this pair. It might be good to 
remember that she had a poisoned bite.
    Lamara slowly tapped her tail against the ground, 
cocking her head as she watched the falcon Elwen. From her 
attitude, this was the most interest he had shown in 
anything in several days. "I only bit him on the foot. My 
poison is magical and doesn't really affect the 
bloodstream. So long as you don't eat the hoof, take a 
bite of whatever you like."
    "You didn't answer my other questions." But Zar was 
inching toward the antelope now, dragging himself along 
the ground as if it was too much trouble to stand up. In 
his eyes was a predator's savage hunger, familiar to Eara.
    "I don't know what it is, and I don't know whether 
it's good to eat," said Lamara, in a tone filled with 
carefully modulated sarcasm. "This isn't my world, 
remember?"
    Zar eyed her for a moment, then smiled. It changed his 
face when he smiled, weary as it was; it made him appear 
as if he might laugh, too. "All right. I'll take your word 
for it." He closed his eyes for a moment as if overcome by 
the heat. His hands appeared to shimmer, to cramp and 
twist, and Eara had to look away, her eyes watering.
    When she looked back, he was calmly slitting open the 
belly of the antelope with the talons that had replaced 
his hands. He had done something that was supposed to be 
impossible- Shifting only a part of his body- and he acted 
as if it were nothing at all!
    Her faint gasp must have given her away. Lamara reared 
up like a cobra, hissing, and seemed about to dart 
forward. Zar lifted a warding hand, but the look in his 
eyes as he scanned the grass at the edge of the clearing 
made Eara revise her opinion of how dangerous he was. 
Distracted by grief or not, he had survived fights before.
    "Who's there?" he asked, in a voice at once sharp and 
soft. He flexed his talons, sending blood spraying. "I 
know someone is. If you come out, it will go easier on 
you."
    Well, why not? These were her Grasslands, after all.
    Eara stood tall, a strange sensation with her long 
legs, and stepped forward. "Welcome to the Glelmari," she 
said formally, speaking Universal, the common tongue of 
Arcadia. "It is my hope that-"
    She had to stop then, disconcerted by Zar's intent 
stare at her face. No, not her face; her eyes.
    A moment later, the falcon Elwen bowed his head and 
began to weep.




                        Chapter 1
                       Runeworking
    "Whether two mages trust each other or not is critical 
to the success of the spell. Along with whatever outside 
interferences there may be, it could be the most crucial 
factor of all."
    -From Sorteloni Omefa Toa Caon Altusteno An, or Some 
Ponderings on the Matter of Magic, lorebook, author 
unknown, written about the tenth century of the Age of 
Dawn.

    Just when he thought he had control back, just when he 
was certain...
    This happened.
    For days, he had dreamed of nothing more than 
Dhandra's blue eyes, filled with pain and fear, or love 
and longing, or wistfulness and incoherent need. Dancing 
around those images was Rhyar's laughing voice- laughing!- 
as he pronounced the curse he had laid upon Zar and five 
innocent women. 
    Five blue-eyed women.
    Kalimarina Herves, daughter of the King of Carmai, 
with her eyes like the summer sky he loved. Eyes that 
changed moods in a moment, reflecting now joy, now demure 
maidenhood, now the anger that was the closest image of 
the darkness that lay inside her. Eyes that stilled and 
stared blankly at the sky when he killed her.
    Lamara, a Runeworker stranded on his world by the 
actions of some unknown enemy. Dark cobalt eyes that 
fought against the constraints of friendship, denying 
them, flickering with anger and arrogance. Their seeming 
lightness when he at last forced her to admit what already 
existed- that the alliance between them had become 
friendship.
    Dhandra Liluvi, light Elwen bounty hunter who had come 
after him...
    He couldn't continue the memories there. They were too 
painful.
    And now this. A tall, golden-skinned, dark-haired 
cheetah Elwen woman with aqua eyes, now green, now blue, 
now flashing to a concerned color that was almost gray as 
she knelt beside him.
    "I'm sorry. I didn't think-" Hesitantly, she reached 
out to touch his shoulder.
    Zar saw a flash in the corner of his eye and spoke 
without thinking. "Lamara, don't you dare."
    There was a hiss from the Runeworker, as there always 
was when he presumed to command her, but the flash 
retreated. A moment later, he felt the brush of scales 
against his arm, a silky, comforting rasp, and heard her 
hiss again, this time making it sound like an apology.
    The cheetah Elwen woman was sitting back on her 
haunches and staring at him doubtfully. Her ears- not 
normal Elwen ears, he noted absently, but smaller, 
rounded, and decorated with small golden tufts of hair- 
flicked towards him as if trying to bring the sound of his 
breathing to her more clearly.
    "I'm sorry," Zar said in turn, swallowing painfully 
and keeping his eyes from the woman's face. "I- that 
happens, sometimes." No need to tell her it had never 
happened before Dhandra's death.
    Dhandra's death at his hands.
    Stop it! Both his own thoughts and the tight squeeze 
of the Runeworker around his arm told him that roughly. 
Zar dragged his eyes back to the woman's face, and found 
it unexpectedly easier to face her. Her eyes had turned 
almost more green than blue again, and her pupils had 
dilated to the point where part of the eye almost looked 
black. Her eyes were affected by anger as his were, then, 
though the darkening of his eyes was more noticeable.
    Somehow that gave him the strength to talk.
    "My name is Zar Feathermaster, my lady." He dipped his 
head very gently, having no idea if that was the right 
title for her. "I am sorry if we are trespassing on your 
hunting grounds-" He looked toward the creature that 
Lamara had brought down and then at his own blood-stained 
talons. "We did not know."
    "Nothing of the sort," the cheernma woman said in a 
low voice. "Though some of my kin might not see it the 
same way. You are fortunate that I was alone here because 
of my meditations." She sat back fully and extended a hand 
that, like his own, had long, sharp fingernails. "Eara 
Dulef, high priestess of Chilune for the Glelmari."
    Zar let his eyes widen and his head dip in a small bow 
that he hoped would suffice for his failure to clasp her 
wrist. He had heard that the priestesses of Chilune, 
Goddess of Chaos and Mischief, held enormous power and 
prestige among the cheernmae, almost always leading at 
least one small group of mated pairs, children, and 
unattached young cheernmae-
    What were they called? His memory, once faultless 
except when he tried to recall the time before his exile, 
now seemed to slip and slide on him at every turn. It 
probably had something to do with the damage done to his 
mind.
    "I am honored, my lady," he said. "Did you see us 
land?" He must have been visible, spiraling down like that 
as if he had a wound in his wing.
    "No." Eara turned her head until she was looking 
straight at the strange creature lying beside the water. 
"I smelled the blood, and thought it might be one of my 
own folk come to make a kill and share it with me."
    Zar sighed. "Then we interrupted your meditations. I'm 
sorry," he repeated.
    Her ears cocked towards him, and the suspicion and 
worry both vanished from her eyes, replaced by lively 
curiosity. "You do say that a lot, don't you?"
    "Yes," surprise of his own compelled him to say. "When 
I've dropped in on territory belonging to someone else and 
insulted the high priestess for all I know. I've found 
it's best to be careful at such times."
    Her laughter faded from her face, and she went back to 
studying him, as if his words had told her more than he 
could possibly know. Pretending to be totally unconcerned 
with her scrutiny, Zar turned back to skinning the thing. 
He glanced over his shoulder at her, tilting his head. 
"What did you say this creature was called?"
    The speculation vanished from her eyes, but he had the 
feeling that she was still studying him covertly. "An 
antelope. And I didn't say. Your memory must be bad."
    That stung, unexpectedly. He jumped and hunched away a 
little, wings twitching as he muttered, "Yes, it is. Very 
bad."
    Eara stared at him in puzzlement, but didn't offer him 
an apology of her own. She moved forward in what seemed a 
natural four-legged crouch, as if she were as used to 
walking that way as upright. "Mind if I share it? The time 
for my meditations has passed, in truth, as has the time 
for my fasting. I could use something to eat."
    Zar ignored the slight hiss of the living snake- 
bracelet that he wore. Lamara knew as well as he that 
there was enough for everyone, and it would feel good to 
share a kill with one of the women that Rhyar had cursed. 
As if, he thought in some amusement, he thought he could 
rescue them rather than destroying them by sharing that 
which gave life.
    "You are welcome to," he said, and then found what he 
had been looking for inside the open belly cavity, the 
liver. He pulled it in half and offered part of it to her.
    She ate it in an unexpectedly delicate manner, as 
finicky as any tame cat with food, even licking up the 
blood that spotted her whiskers. Then she closed her eyes, 
and something like a heat shimmer took her over. Zar 
blinked and stared, wondering if she was calling on her 
goddess for power to perform some unknown spell.
    But, no. When he could see again, a cheetah crouched 
beside him, busily gnawing off a haunch of the antelope 
for herself.
    Zar nodded approval- that was more practical; it would 
let her with less mess and more ease- and reached over to 
get his own share. It tasted unexpectedly rich in his 
mouth, almost smoky. If course, he wasn't used to meat 
that didn't come from a rabbit or a bird. The few times he 
had eaten deer, always in Elwen form, it had tasted like 
this.
    Lamara slipped off his arm and took her own portion 
away from the two Elwens. She mistrusted everyone they 
met, he thought tolerantly. Of course, she had good reason 
to. Most Elwens, knowing a creature from another world was 
among them, might be as inclined to kill as to help, and 
she didn't know who had placed her in the form of a whip 
for a hundred years. It could be anyone, an Elwen mage or 
a creature for her own mysterious world.
    Lohtan. He looked around at the Great Grasslands and 
tried to imagine that grass as green as emerald, and lit 
by the faint, mysterious light of two suns, one of them 
blue. Lamara had told him, in a futile effort to cheer him 
up, that Lohtan's larger islands included stretches of 
green field that had never been cut, and shimmered with 
the diamonds that fell from the sky every morning. 
Diamonds were so common as to be worthless on Lohtan. 
Perhaps he would soon see for himself, and be able to 
amass a fortune.
    If he ever returned to Arcadia.
    If they ever reached Lohtan.
    Zar forced those negative feelings away, biting firmly 
into his meat. The taste distracted him for a long enough 
time that he became aware, later, that Eara had lifted her 
long, graceful feline head and was staring at him.
    "What?" Surreptitiously, he tried to rub blood away 
from his mouth. Perhaps he had breached some taboo after 
all, though overall this priestess seemed to be one of the 
more easy-going of the type that he had ever met.
    Eara's mouth opened, as if she would say something, 
but, of course, she couldn't in cheetah form. After a 
moment, she shook her head in frustration and lowered her 
head back to her meal. It was evident that she was 
disgruntled about something, and equally obvious that she 
intended to finish eating before broaching the subject.
    Zar continued eating, but the food lost its savor in 
his mouth and turned into a cold lump in his stomach. But 
forcing himself to eat was a skill he had acquired long 
ago, and honed ever since. You never knew when you might 
have to Shift several times in succession, or perform 
magic so often that you would faint if you didn't get what 
food and sleep you could.
    At last, he finished, and moved to the water to wash 
his talons, Only after they were clean did he change them 
back into hands. Hands could get sunburned in this fierce 
heat, unusually fierce for the time of year; talons 
couldn't.
    He looked over his shoulder, feeling something again, 
and again Eara was staring at him. And again she shook her 
head and lowered it back to the kill.
    Zar concentrated on not feeling ill, on letting the 
meal slowly cool in his stomach and making sure no stray 
traces of blood had gotten onto his face.
    At last, Eara left the body of the antelope, which 
still had plenty of flesh on it, and padded over to the 
waterhole. She spent a long moment gazing up at the sky, 
and another looking into the water, in what Zar could not 
doubt was some sort of religious ritual. Only then did she 
lower her head and lap her fill, tongue curling neatly out 
of her mouth and back in again. She was a perfect killing 
machine, like any great cat, but she also had manners. Zar 
was not sure why he found that thought so highly 
entertaining, but he did, somehow.
    At last, the heat-like shimmer took her over again, 
and a cheetah Elwen turned to face him. Her long 
fingernails traveled through her hair in a seemingly 
unconscious gesture of straightening, and she stared at 
him as if he were an interesting puzzle. Given the 
curiosity she'd shown earlier, he probably was. Zar sighed 
and braced himself for the questions.
    The first one that came hurt in a way he hadn't 
imagined he could still be hurt.
    "What happened to your mind?"
    Zar closed his eyes tightly, more to ward off the 
sting of her gaze than to ward off tears. He had accepted 
what had happened; he could reassure himself of that. What 
he couldn't accept was the horror and pity that lay just 
underneath the surface of her voice.
    "I- U paid a price when I went looking for someone who 
had gone ranna." Her uncomprehending stare quickly made 
him revise that. It was a Lohtanian word, one Lamara had 
taught him, and it had seemed so right, somehow, that he 
had kept on using it. "She had gone on wandering in the 
dream-realm. Spirit cast out of her body by a magical 
accident."
    "Why did you have to go looking for her?" Raised 
brows, tilted head, tail lashing, as if she thought that 
there was a threat for some reason in that innocuous 
question, or the way that he might answer it.
    "I had, in part, caused the accident." Zar was glad 
that Lamara wasn't here to hear that; she was sure to 
disagree with him, and he didn't really have the time or 
the strength to handle her contradictory opinions right 
now. "And it was recklessness of me that left me the way I 
am. I tried once and too soon, without Lamara's help, to 
rescue the spirit." No need to reveal it had been his 
sister. "It flayed my mind, and when I did it again, it 
was too much. I had to give up my telepathy and 
telekinesis, or give up my life altogether."
    "But-" Eara looked at him straight on, as a cat will, 
staring searchingly into your face, seeing so much more 
than you do. "It doesn't feel like a cauterized wound. I 
tried to touch your mind so that I could ask you how much 
magic you have, and it felt as if you were bleeding 
inside. A ragged wound, seeping, with pain flowing from it 
as well."
    Zar recoiled as if he had been slapped, even though 
part of him was fascinated. He had not heard anyone 
describe it before, because all the Elwens who knew had 
been courteous enough to refrain, and his communication 
with Lamara did not depend upon telepathy.
    "Well, I didn't know that," he said when he had 
recovered. "But I do think that you must be wrong about 
the pain. I don't feel anything," he clarified even more 
when she continued to stare doubtfully at him. Inwardly, 
he seethed. What was wrong with people, anyway? Why 
couldn't they leave well enough alone?
    Once, he had thought he envied his worst enemy, Rhyar, 
for having a home, family and friends who loved him, and a 
betrothed who was an even-tempered and intelligent woman. 
Now, he wasn't so sure. Even Lamara's presence had been an 
irritation this last dance. He wanted his old solitude 
back.
    That couldn't be, though, until he had fulfilled his 
promise to Lamara.
    "I'm not saying you should," Eara said, apparently not 
really put off by his vehemence. "But I do think it's 
strange. Unusual," she clarified, when Zar glared at her. 
"I had to ask, you understand. I thought that it might 
represent a threat to my people. Creatures that are Elwen 
in form, but not Elwen in reality, have harassed us 
before,"
    Zar dipped his head in understanding. "You said that 
there was something else you wanted to ask me. About my 
magic?"
    "Yes." Eara leaned forward again, that half-hidden, 
not quite out-loud laughter playing in the smile on her 
lips again. "You Shifted your hands into talons without 
becoming a falcon. I have never seen such a thing done. 
How do you do it?"
    "I am a mage." He no longer scorned to claim that 
title, not since seeing what his people had made of 
themselves ion their long isolation from the world. He was 
more powerful than any of them. "I can focus my native 
powers to do- unusual things."
    "Like what?" She looked slightly suspicious again, but 
Zar spoke freely, both because he could understand her 
longing to protect her people and because he knew it would 
vex Lamara. Sometimes, it seemed as if vexing Lamara was 
the only way to have fun now.
    "I can speak to owls and eagles as well as falcons. I 
can Shift very quickly if I have to. I can call two winds 
at once, if I have to. Other things." He shrugged 
modestly, seeing how she studied him. "It's just a matter 
of staying in the world long enough, and using my magic to 
escape from enough sticky situations, that the powers 
developed. For all I know, this is how powerful they were 
originally supposed to be. But the isolation of my 
people-"
    "Yes." Eara interrupted hastily, which haste made him 
smother a grin. She was indeed a priestess; no other group 
was so close to magic and yet so disturbed by hearing 
mages discuss magical theory. Questioning the power that 
their gods or goddesses gave them was, to many priests, a 
questioning of faith. "Then you could be dangerous to us, 
if you wished."
    Zar hid his sigh as he had the grin. Everyone assumed 
he could be dangerous or useful, just because he had magic 
that was more powerful than the majority of Elwens 
possessed. It was as if the magic was all that existed of 
him, all that mattered.
    And can you blame them for thinking that? some part of 
him asked acidly. You certainly have done nothing to 
discourage that view.
    Zar dipped his head in silent acknowledgment of that 
and then shook his head as Eara looked a little more 
alarmed. "No, my lady, I mean no harm to you or yours. I 
came here to try and open a gate for my companion back to 
her own world-"
    "Must you tell her everything, Zar?"
    Zar shook his head again as his companion slithered 
out of the tall grass and glared at him. He loved her 
dearly, but there were times when he thought she could get 
along just fine by being a little less prickly and quick 
to suspect everyone of having an ulterior motive. She 
could read thoughts, after all. No need to get so 
defensive when there was nothing to get defensive about.
    "I'm telling her what she quite possibly needs to 
know," he told the Runeworker, and turned back to Eara, 
who had filed this exchange away with all the others, by 
the look in her eyes. "As I said, we'll be staying only a 
short time. We learned in Eriaa-ollo-Garameyt that another 
of her kind came this way, long ago, and there might be 
enough magic left in Minamar to effect the opening of a 
gate from one world to the next."
    Eara's face had changed during his little speech, and 
now she threw back her head and laughed. She laughed so 
hard her dark hair shook behind her and she doubled over 
her belly as if she were about to be sick.
    "I'm sorry." He could never stand to be laughed at 
when he didn't understand the reason. His dignity- what 
little he had left- didn't stand up well to mockery. "Did 
I say something funny?"
    "Just- your manner." Eara recovered with a gasp and 
studied him, eyes twinkling. "Are you always like this? 
You assume that anyone you run into will want you gone 
from their lands as soon as possible?"
    "I-" Zar's tongue tied, and he only stared at her in 
stupefied shock. It was the truth, but he had never paused 
to consider it before.
    It had always simply happened.
    That thought eased him past the moment of wonder and 
dismay at how perceptive she was. He spread his hands. "My 
lady, please tell your people that we will be gone soon. 
They need not worry about us."
    "You're so anxious to avoid conflict that you're 
ignoring the reasonable option."
    "Which is?"
    Eara stared at him as if he were mad. "Why, that you 
should stay with us, of course. Our cheerkya is the only 
one for miles in either direction, and the weather here 
becomes unpredictable in the autumn. Surely you would want 
shelter and some place to rest between your magical 
labors?"
    Zar hesitated, staring at her. Truth to tell, he 
hadn't even considered that they would need shelter, that 
he had no more sense of how to survive on these grassy 
plains than Lamara did. He had thought they would find a 
gate and open it soon enough to be gone before they had to 
worry about such things.
    He also hadn't thought that anyone would offer such a 
thing, not given the effect he seemed to have on most 
people.
    "I-" He stammered, looking towards Lamara. The 
Runeworker had similarly not thought about it, and he 
could see her tapping her tail now in a small smile. She 
was amused by his discomfiture. She was urging him to 
accept the offer, or perhaps resigned to what would surely 
be the sensible course.
    Then Zar looked back toward the sober, solemn face of 
the woman offering this to them. Eara might be the high 
priestess of Glelmari, as she had named herself, and 
secure in her power. But her people might well object to 
her bringing an outsider in. And he didn't want to hurt 
her any more than Rhyar's curse was already going to hurt 
her.
    That was the real reason. The eyes, now more blue than 
green, that gazed at him out of that black-spotted golden 
face. He couldn't take the chance that the curse would 
simply start to work by itself, without encouragement of 
any kind.
    "You are very kind," he said abruptly. "For my 
companion, I accept."
    Lamara stirred, staring at him- a surprised gesture 
that Eara didn't miss. She was observant, this one, 
perhaps one reason she had been chosen as high priestess. 
She let a moment pass, then cocked her head and said, "But 
not for yourself."
    "No, my lady. I am afraid that it would not be- 
politic. Or wise," he was forced to add, as her eyes began 
to darken with something closer to disbelief than anger.
    "Really." Eara looked straight at him, and the 
darkness in her eyes was now anger for what secrets he 
might have that might endanger Glelmari, and which he had 
chosen not to tell. "Do you have enemies after you?"
    Zar laughed humorlessly.
    "Yes, I take it." Eara leaned back, her hands lacing 
around her knees. "What makes you assume that we would 
give you up to them?"
    This conversation was taking more and more ridiculous 
directions. Zar struggled to keep the laughter out of his 
voice as he replied, "My lady, your people would certainly 
object. You may ask what reason you have for giving me up, 
but I ask what reason you have for sheltering me. I am 
trouble. I seem to bring that everywhere I go, and I 
disrupt the lives of good people, Innocent people." The 
faces of his family flashed in his mind, suddenly more 
real and present than this high priestess. "Your people 
would tire of me soon enough. I think we should spare 
everyone that unpleasantness."
    "That's not the real reason."
    Zar could feel his eyes narrow and begin to darken, 
and a silver haze hanging around the edges of his vision. 
He fought to force it back, but his temper was far more 
easily roused, and far less easily ruled, now than ever 
before.
    "Really?" His voice grated, taking in additional harsh 
overtones. "And how would you know?"
    Eara's hand lifted to touch something in her hair, 
something he had barely realized existed. It was a 
delicate blue ribbon made of something that smelled like 
silk and not so. "I am a priestess of Chilune. When she 
wills, she lets me see the private motivations of those 
who might threaten my people, or help them, or be 
neutral."
    Zar accepted that without comment, both because he'd 
had Lamara peeking into his mind as she liked for months 
now and because now, with his memory of his crime exposed 
even to him, he didn't think he had any more secrets left 
to hide that were too horrible for others to view. But he 
did have some, and he wasn't about to tell those unless he 
had to, for some strange reason.
    "No," he said, his casual tone apparently catching her 
of-guard. "That's not the whole reason. But the whole 
reason includes painful memories that I have no wish to 
dredge up, and some stories that your probably wouldn't 
believe. Let's leave it, shall we?" He stood up, 
stretching his wings, feeling better than he had in days. 
There was certainly no bleeding inside his mind, whatever 
she said.
    Eara flowed to her feet, also, and stared down at him. 
He was mildly surprised to realize that she stood taller 
than he. Those long legs, probably. The tail drifting and 
snapping behind her head added a few inches of height, 
too.
    "I told you," she said, with a low sound that might 
have been laughter or a growl, "that you need a place to 
rest. If nothing else, my people will feel- easier having 
you within their walls than having you roaming around out 
here, possibly disturbing things that shouldn't be 
disturbed."
    Zar realized, with a blink, that she really did feel 
as if he had insulted her hospitality. That was a first. 
Not even the King of Carmai had taken such things so 
seriously; nor had anyone else he'd met in his nearly 
three millennia of wandering.
    He bowed neatly from the waist. "My lady, if you like, 
I will come with you to Glelmari to reassure everyone that 
Lamara and I mean no harm. But it would be better for 
everyone if I did not stay there."
    "You crew sure of this?" Her eyes were darting, 
probing knives. He wondered if they were backed by god- 
power.
    "Yes." He shuddered to think of what those eyes might 
look like dying, as Kali's had, as Dhandra's had.
    "Stop it." Lamara's low-voiced retort was given in 
such a way that he knew he was the only one who could hear 
it.
    Zar nodded fractionally, and extended his arm to the 
ground so that she could slither up his arm. Eara was 
standing in front of him, tapping her chin with one long 
fingernail, smiling at him doubtfully.
    "You say you will come with me to Glelmari. How do I 
know that you are not planning on spreading your wings and 
flying away to seek this gate the moment my back is 
turned?"
    If she was unused to being insulted, Zar was unused to 
having his word questioned. He smothered his irritation, 
reminding himself that this woman did not know him and 
could thus not be expected to know that he would come 
because he had said he would.
    "I have given you my word." He weighted that sentence 
with the careful heaviness she had given her offer of 
shelter, and was rewarded with seeing Eara's face grow a 
little more thoughtful. Her mule became introspective, as 
well, and she tilted her head up to the sky as if  seeking 
an answer.
    "He will do it, my lady," said Lamara, who was coiled 
about his shoulder now. He felt her turn her head and  
lick his cheek with a kiss-light tongue. "I have never 
seen him break any promise he ever made, except when it 
was broken for him."
    Eara stared at the Runeworker, then slowly nodded. 
"Come," she bade, and turned to walk back into the grass, 
away from the watering-hole. 
    Zar followed, having no fear of what might spot them. 
She walked two-legged this time, not using the crouch in 
which she had approached them. He wondered idly if she 
could sense any danger lurking nearby, if she was attuned 
to the Grasslands as the death Elwens were to the Falchian 
Plains, or if it was safety in numbers that reassured her.
    "Both."
    Zar started, and glanced over at Lamara. Then he 
looked back at the striding back of the priestess, who 
walked in an odd way, now standing tall, now hunched over 
as if she would like to drop to all fours. "Really? I'll 
keep that in mind, Lamara, thank you."
    The Runeworker took that as one of the invitations he 
rarely gave her, to spew out the contents of the minds she 
heard around her. Zar did not really mind, To a 
Runeworker, to read others' thoughts was as natural as 
breathing, and it must be lonely when she didn't have 
someone to share them with.
    "She came out here to meditate before her wedding 
ceremony. She's been betrothed to someone named Kyayne for 
about a century. Apparently, they had to wait to get 
married." Faint puzzlement crept into Lamara's voice.
    "It's because they probably couldn't have children 
before this," Zar risked trying to explain, even though he 
had only a sketchy idea of when female Elwens in general 
could bear children, and none about female cheetah Elwens.
    "Why? Are there too many of them?" Though Zar kept his 
eyes on Eara, he could sense Lamara turning her head to 
scan the Grasslands, which rippled emptily in the winds as 
far as the eye could see.
    "No." Zar could feel the silver flush rising in his 
cheeks, and was not quite sure she hadn't done that on 
purpose. "I mean- they couldn't. Their- ah- they weren't 
ready yet."
    "Oh! Like your people. Too young to be married."
    That was easier than trying to explain that there were 
simply certain times of life at which Elwens couldn't have 
children. "Yes," said Zar simply, and fell silent. If she 
wanted the real answer, she could go looking for it in his 
mind, rather than making him explain it to her aloud and 
causing him mortification.
    Triumphant laughter filled his ears, leaving no doubt 
that she had planned that on purpose. He turned his head 
to glare up at her. "Stop it, stars damn it."
    "Zar, you're much too modest about something that's a 
natural process, you know that?" Which his cheeks flushed 
farther to hear it described like that: "Oh come on, Zar. 
Why? Why can't they really have children, and why are you 
so embarrassed about it?"
    "My people have to be very careful about such things," 
he shot her in a quelling reminder.
    That silenced her, and then the tongue touched his 
cheek again that gesture that was sometimes comfort, 
sometimes apology, sometimes laughter. "I'm sorry, Zar. 
Really, I am. I should have remembered."
    He didn't say that yes, she should have, but she could 
sense it from him, and she fell silent again. Wound with 
it were too many memories of Dhandra for Zar to joke, and 
she respected his privacy. Dhandra had tried to win his 
love. She would then have rejected him, and that would 
have killed him. Falcon Elwens gave their hearts once, and 
only once.
    Sometimes he felt as if she had killed him. He seemed 
to feel nothing strongly anymore except anger and pain, 
bitterness and grief. He was not entirely sure he had not 
become a shadow of himself, drifting along, lost in a 
dream that only seemed like life-
    "A very substantial shadow." Eara spoke quietly into 
his ear.
    Zar starred and glared at both her and Lamara. The 
Runeworker looked loftily in the opposite direction. No 
doubt she felt he deserved it, not having the thoughts 
that she thought he should have. And doubtless Eara could 
not regret having read the thoughts with the power of the 
goddess. Her face certainly did not look repentant.
    "What would you know about it?" Harshness, 
deliberately calculated to make her back off. Zar had not 
understood what it was- still didn't- that drove so many 
people away from him, but he had long ago become adept at 
putting up walls that mimicked the effect, guarding 
against the probing of such painful things.
    "Not much, except what I can make out from your 
thoughts." The expression of irritating sympathy on Eara's 
face did not waver. "And I suspect that you know all about 
it."
    Zar turned his face away, squinting into the southeast 
for some sign of Glelmari- not that he would know what a 
cheerkya was if it knocked him over and sat on him.
    "It's not what you think." Eara's voice was soft, low 
with mocking laughter that he knew to be aimed at him. 
"I'm not a meddler who pries into people's secrets for the 
joy of doing so-"
    Exactly what he had been thinking of her.
    "Stop it!" He spun to face her, raising one hand, 
Immediately Lamara's tail shot out and coiled around that 
hand, binding it fast, but it wasn't the strike that 
counted. It was the intention, the motive, the willingness 
that surged through him to hit this woman he barely knew.
    And, on the heels of that anger and outage and 
uncontrollable fury, came shame.
    Zar doubled over as if he had been hit in the solar 
plexus, swearing softly, refusing to meet Eara's eyes as 
he murmured his apology.
    Her hand briefly clasped his arm in that warrior's 
clasp, then fell back to her side. "I'm not that kind of 
person, Zar. And you're broadcasting your thoughts with 
such force now that I can read them without going through 
my goddess. Or else she is bringing them to me, because 
she thinks I should have them. I'm not sure which.
    "The point is, I am a priestess of the Goddess of 
Chaos and Mischief, and as such, I am responsible for 
healing some of the damage that chaos does to this world. 
I think you have some of that damage. Would you care to 
tell me why I'm receiving that impression?" she added, as 
Zar's head slowly shook. "I'll believe you if you say you 
don't, but only if you say it in a persuasive manner."
    "Hatred did this to me, not chaos," muttered Zar 
tiredly, straightening at last. "Hatred I would like to go 
back and loose on Rhyar's head, if I could. But there's 
nothing I could accomplish with that except another death. 
Innocent people have died already, and will continue to do 
so."
    "Really?" The aqua eyes widened with the same kind of 
appreciative curiosity that a child listening to a horror 
story shows. "And why do you think that this hatred is 
something you must suffer for?"
    Zar glared at her, wary and confused. "I don't know 
what you're talking about. I am cursed, and the nature of 
that curse comes from the hatred. I refuse to answer the 
call of my own hatred, is what I am saying."
    Eara closed her eyes and slowly shook her head, her 
ears and whiskers rippling rapidly back and forth in what 
he could only guess was a display of exasperation. "All 
right," she said after a moment, opening her eyes and 
staring straight into his. "It seems that we're talking at 
cross-purposes, when only one question matters here. I 
will ask it, since you would never think to ask it."
    Zar felt irritation and resentment surge up in him. He 
was not sure if it was resentment of her power to touch 
his mind whenever she liked, when he couldn't, thanks to 
the loss of his telepathy, even sense hers, or if it were 
just male exasperation with women in general. Either way, 
he let it come out. "I don't see why you would wish to 
help me. In any way," he added, seeing her staring at him.
    "I don't believe it," she marveled, in a voice that 
really did sound wondering. "You asked after all. What an 
amazing thing."
    "What do you mean?" Zar fought the temptation to let 
his head fall into his hands, fought the temptation to 
scream at her, asking how meaningful she felt this 
conversation to be. This was nothing more than the same 
endless circling he had done with countless others, 
circling that had always led him to fly away and never 
look over his shoulder.
    "You asked why I should help you. The same question I 
was going to ask, if in a slightly different guise. Why do 
you think I shouldn't help you?"
    Zar lifted his head out of his hands after all to 
glared at her. "Haven't you listened to any one of my 
fifty million reasons? I'm cursed, your people won't want 
me, enemies are quite possibly chasing me-"
    "But," said Eara, "you were intent on not seeking out 
help before you ever met me, before you mentioned any of 
that to me. Why is that?"
    Zar's mouth opened, shut, opened again. Then he closed 
it for good, finding, under that remarkably steady aqua 
stare, that he had nothing to say. His shoulders lifted 
and fell in an apologetic shrug, and looked away.
    "I suppose," he muttered, when he realized she was 
still waiting fore an answer, "it's because- I didn't 
think of it. That's all. I didn't want to avoid people, 
even though that would be best. I just thought of plans 
that didn't include the cheetah Elwens or the plains 
Elwens or whoever might live here."
    Eara walked around in front of him. Her eyes were warm 
suddenly, her smile approving, and the hand she used to 
pat his arm the same light, gentle touch his reachers had 
used to use whenever he would get a particularly hard 
question right. "Good, Zar. Very good. And I'm saying that 
I will help you out of basic Elwen decency, as I would 
help any Elwen in distress. Is that enough of an answer 
for you, or must you assign ulterior motives to me?"
    "It's enough of an answer." One he had never thought 
to hear, one he hadn't thought to find good enough ever 
again. But enough.
    "Good." She started to turn away again.
    But Zar felt he had to try one more time to dissuade 
her, to show her the danger she was getting involved in. 
He spoke quickly, before Lamara could hit him with her 
tail to shut him up. "My lady, you saw that outburst just 
now. I might quite possibly be dangerous all on my own, 
without the curse and the enemies and who knows what else 
I bring with me."
    Eara looked back at him and shook her head. He had 
thought her similar to Dhandra at first- the same cool 
competence was there, the same self-confidence, the same 
ease with herself and the world- but the soft look in her 
eyes couldn't be further from the image. That, and the 
amused knowledge.
    "That? That wasn't an outburst, Zar. I've seen far 
worse from people with little or no justification. You're 
having some trouble getting your emotions back under 
control, that's all. Completely natural, and actually 
better than that frozen shell you've been locked in. 
You're no danger, to yourself or others. Now come along. 
There are some people at Glelmari who will be dying to 
meet you when they hear a falcon Elwen has come."
    Still, he hesitated, not really believing that she 
could have any conception of the danger...
    "At the least, if you're going to perform magic in our 
hunting grounds, the least you could do is acknowledge our 
presence here." Her voice held a bite to it that was not 
quite sarcasm. "Perhaps even ask our permission to use 
Mage's Gate?"
    Zar nodded sullenly, and followed the confident 
cheetah Elwen priestess across the grass again.
    Confident that she would tell him what "Mage's Gate" 
was in her own good time.
----------------------------------------------------------
    As it turned out, they met another cheernma before the 
ever reached the cheerkya. A voice called from the grass a 
short distance away, either speaking words in a language 
Zar had never heard, or simply crying out a wordless, 
guttural sound of welcome.
    Lamara's tail tapped against his neck, nervously, but 
Zar hushed her with a smile, seeing the relaxed grin on 
Eara's face as she turned and called back. Then she 
dropped to all fours, seemingly about to make a swift dash 
to the hidden welcomer.
    There was no need. The grasses rippled and parted 
around a tall male cheetah Elwen male who walked in the 
same odd, crouched way that Eara did. His eyes were 
glowing pools of liquid gold, bright with intelligence and 
joy. His hair was dark like Eara's, but clipped short 
around his head, resembling a lion's mane, almost.
    Eara flung herself forward in a two-legged run to meet 
him. He caught her almost before Zar realized that she had 
begun to move, hugging her and swinging her around in a 
circle as he laughed and spoke quick words in that 
guttural language. Teasing her, from the sound of it.
    Zar looked away politely as they began to progress 
from simple, open joy to a rather more intimate reunion. 
He sensed Lamara watching with avid interest and slapped 
her on the scales.
    "Look away."
    "Why?"
    "This isn't your world, Lamara. When we get to Lohtan, 
then I'll abide by Lohtanian customs. Until then, you 
abide by Arcadian. Now look away."
    "You mean that?" asked the Runeworker in a strangely 
eager voice as she looped her tail around his neck and her 
head around the tail, so that her eyes were looking into 
his instead of at the two cheernmae.
    "Mean what? About you abiding by Arcadian customs? 
Most definitely. Our hostess seems relaxed, but I wouldn't 
put it past others to be just a little more touchy about 
things like that."
    "No. About your abiding by Lohtanian customs if you 
ever come there."
    Zar gave her an odd look. "I'll hardly have any 
choice, will I? You seem formidable, and I can't imagine 
that any of your people are less so. I'd imagine that I'll 
have to abide by such customs if I want to get home with 
my Elwen hide in one piece. Or is something else bothering 
you?" he asked as the light into those dark blue eyes 
deepened.
    "Why do you ask?"
    "Just- you seem smug, that's all, and so far as I know 
I've given you no cause to feel that way."
    "Oh, that?" Lamara coiled herself up into an even more 
uncomfortable position, or what would have been one if she 
had possessed a less flexible spine. "You give me endless 
cause for amusement every day, Zar."
    Once, that would have been pronounced in a sniping, 
arrogant tone, Now it was said in a laughter-edged, 
strangely wistful one.
    Zar shook his head and gave up trying to understand 
her. "Are they done yet?"
    "How should I know? You told me not to look."
    "Stars damn you, anyway," Zar muttered, and looked 
away from her. He stared sightlessly at the rippling, 
sun-warmed, golden horizon until Eara's hand fell upon his 
shoulder. He thought it squeezed rather than tapped, as if 
conveying a silent warning, or perhaps encouragement.
    "Kyayne, this is Zar Feathermaster, a falcon Elwen 
mage," she was saying as he turned around. "Zar, this is 
Kyayne Gnilkraya, my betrothed." She flashed the male 
cheernma an adoring smile, and received one in return, 
before the golden eyes turned on Zar.
    The resemblance to another man Zar had known, Lord 
Corraebno, was eerie enough to be frightening. Never mind 
that Corraebno was a land Elwen, Lord of a powerful court 
in Carmai, a land three provinces away, and perhaps King 
of that troubled place by now. The look in the golden eyes 
was the same as it had been in the silver ones.
    Measuring him. Sizing him up. The look of a man who 
knew his own limitations and was checking to see if Zar 
knew his. Wondering if he would make a useful ally, if he 
could be trusted, or any other of a wildly varying number 
of things.
    Zar swallowed his annoyance and studied the man 
carefully in return. Other than that first impression, 
there was little revealing about him, other than his 
striking coloring. Like Eara, he wore a tunic and leggings 
that molded close to his sides, allowing maximum freedom 
of movement. The tunic and leggings were so close in color 
to his own skin so as to make him almost naked, and might 
be woven partially of his own fur. Zar had heard that some 
of the shapeshifting races, without ready access to the 
kind of cloth used for making clothes that would 
conveniently change shape with the wearer, did such 
things.
    His own magical senses instinctively reached out, 
searching for some estimate of this one's magical 
strength, and found almost nothing. He hid his suspicion 
and surprise well, or so he thought.
    He gave them both a full, formal falcon Elwen bow from 
the waist, his wings spread wide behind him. Lamara 
tightened her hold on his neck a little.
    Kyayne's eyes flickered to her, fixing her with the 
same steady stare he had used to study Zar. Lamara was no 
more easily intimidated than the man she called friend, 
though. She lifted her head, her tongue flickering madly, 
and hissed loud and low.
    "That is a most unusual snake," said Kyayne, in a 
voice whose deepness made Zar start. It had even less of 
music than his own did. "Your familiar, perhaps?" His eyes 
returned to Zar's face, and the dark brows rose in 
inquiry.
    So, he had enough strength to tell that Zar was a 
mage. That did not surprise Zar, only confirming his 
belief that this man was more than he seemed. He shook his 
head, before Lamara could make even less diplomatic 
objections, and said, "A friend, my lord. I have come to 
help her open a gate back to her world."
    At the word "gate," Kyayne's eyes leaped and flared 
like raging flame. Zar did not miss the minute flicker 
they gave in Eara's direction, and swallowed his bile only 
with difficulty. 
    It was just as he thought. This man thought of the 
advantages that he could wring from the magic of a mage 
strong enough to open gates, and foolish enough to trust 
whoever came his way. It was all he deserved for agreeing 
to accompany Eara back to her cheerkya in the first place-
    Lamara's tail dealt his neck a stinging slap. Zar 
ignored her, though. In this, he knew he was right. There 
was a curious sense of hope and hunger in the way Kyayne 
looked at him, and he had seen that look before. People 
who needed help, who assumed that that need gave them a 
claim on him, and who managed to trick or persuade him 
into helping.
    Somehow, he always gave his word. HIs heart always 
betrayed him.
    "You are welcome," Kyayne was saying a moment later, 
his eyes expertly shuttered, just as Corraebno had been 
able to do with his gaze. It made one wonder where a 
cheetah Elwen, so far from the outside world where such 
games were a necessity, had learned such a skill. "I 
extend to you the welcome of the fighters of Glelmari 
Cheetah-home, my Lord Zar. No blade and no claw shall be 
raised against you while you are here."
    That was a surprise, and Zar found himself responding 
in kind before he stopped to consider it. "Thank you for 
that graciousness, my lord. In turn, I shall raise my hand 
against no one of Glelmari, except in defense of my own 
life."
    Kyayne chuckled. "I hardly think you need to raise 
your hand, my Lord Mage."
    Zar made his glare as chill as he could without 
letting his eyes darken or making it actually impolite. "I 
do not deserve that title, my lord. I came here for one 
purpose only. I shall soon depart, hopefully leaving 
everything exactly as I left it."
    Kyayne's head tilted; Kyayne's eyes blinked. "Ea was 
right about that," he murmured. 
    Zar chose to ignore that as well, turning to Eara. "My 
lady? I thought the good citizens of Glelmari awaited us?"
    The high priestess laughed, linking her arm with 
Kyayne's as she spoke. "Yes, Zar, they do. This was merely 
the first welcoming party, the one who couldn't wait any 
longer." She looked up again at Kyayne- who overtopped her 
by several inches; Zar was beginning to feel dwarfed- and 
beamed.
    "You should have returned from your mediations hours 
ago, Ea." Kyayne's deep voice was soft with affection as 
he ran his fingers through her hair. "The sun-" He looked 
up at it, then appeared to slump. "I could have sworn it 
moved more than that."
    Eara laughed tauntingly and skipped away from him. "If 
you want me to forgive you for doubting my word about what 
time I would be back, then you'll have to prove that you 
can outrun me."
    "How do I know you'll not be using the favor of your 
goddess to help you?"
    "You don't," Eara said lightly, and then she was away, 
skimming through the grass with a speed that, even though 
she was on two legs, stole Zar's breath. Kyayne followed 
immediately, leaving the grass trembling in his wake.
    Zar followed the two earthly lightning bolts, shaking 
his head and smiling despite himself. They were beautiful 
to watch, effortless, graceful movers.
    "So am I."
    Zar glanced at her, smiling at the challenge in her 
eyes. "Really? Think you can compete with them?" Looking 
back, he saw that the cheernmae were out of sight already. 
With a grunt of annoyance, he spread and flapped his 
wings, calling on his magic to rise into the air.
    "No," Lamara said firmly, and her tail coiled around 
his neck when he would have flapped his wings again. "Drop 
back to the ground. It's time that I showed these Elwens 
what Runeworker magic can do." Her eyes sparkled with a 
look that Zar mistrusted immediately, but he slowly 
settled back to the ground.
    "And what are you going to do?" he asked, holding out 
his arm belatedly as she began to slither down it.
    "This," she said. Then she rose in a graceful curve 
that reminded Zar of nothing so much as a strand of 
spiderweb blowing in the breeze. She swayed back and forth 
with the same light, delicate grace, and a humming throb 
that Zar knew she was not making aloud seemed to pulse all 
through her. It was a sound so sweet that he found tears 
flowing down his cheeks. He wiped them away with a grin 
and watched.
    It was not often that he got to see her work. Just 
watching, and not participating, in magic was sometimes 
more enjoyable than doing it.
    The red-gold light that he remembered from other times 
he had seen her form a rune radiated back and forth along 
her body, from head to tail, as if seeking an entrance or 
an exit. Lamara had formed a rune he did not know in the 
meantime, a delicate, curve with her head so that her body 
was lopped back over itself, while her tail clasped his 
wrist in a second coil.
    "Open your mind to me, Zar," she said calmly, in a 
voice that rang with music and magic. "As you do when we 
speak," she added as he hesitated, glaring at her 
suspiciously.
    Zar nodded cautiously and dropped those undefinable 
barriers, straining to hear her voice.
    Instead, what he heard was more of that faint, musical 
sound, a song now and not a hum, that raced through his 
own body and set his bones to humming. He laughed, the 
first time he could remember really doing it in ten days, 
and the music inside him danced and jigged as if delighted 
that he was joining it in creating harmony.
    He was still laughing when his feet rose a few inches 
off the ground.
    He caught himself with a gasp and stared at Lamara. "I 
thought you said we weren't going to fly?"
    Lamara, caught in the grip of her magic, did not hear 
him. His feet rose again, until he drifted easily clear of 
the golden grass, hovering as if borne by the gentlest of 
winds. Zar began to relax as he enjoyed the sensation. 
There was no jerking of muscles and beating of wings as 
there was when he flew, only this effortless levitation. 
He had never before thought himself clumsy in the air, but 
he was, compared to this glide.
    Then, with no warning at all, of course, they shot 
forward.
    Zar yelped and automatically tried to spread or fold 
his wings to check their forward momentum, his scrambled 
brain telling him one moment that he was not flying and 
the next that he was falling through the air. But it was 
neither. He swooped upright, without moving a muscle, over 
the Grasslands, faster than he had ever dreamed of moving.
    Faster than a falcon in a dice!
    The same pure, clean feeling that marked the hunting 
dive came to him, and he laughed aloud, throwing his head 
back and spreading his arms. The wind came and played with 
the feathers that grew on his head, so strong that it 
almost blew it behind like normal hair. He laughed even 
harder as the wind grew stronger for the moment it needed 
to deal him a stinging slap on the face.
    He thought he saw Lamara looking at him with one 
amused cobalt eye in the moment before it became glazed 
again with her magic.
    Zar tried to persuade himself, as they began rising 
and dipping again over the grass like some capricious 
songbird, that he had felt something more wonderful 
sometime in his life, But nothing came immediately to his 
mind. This- if it was like anything, it was like the 
dreams he had of flying as a child, before he realized how 
much was sheer muscle power, and how much was magic, both 
of which were work.
    This was magic, magic he need not expend, magic Lamara 
seemed not to mind using.
    They rose suddenly into the air, and he saw the two 
cheernmae just below them. They had been caught up in 
another embrace, but now they stared upward, wonder and 
awe coloring their faces.
    Zar waved cheerily to them, and pointed to the snake 
on his wrist, who had maintained the same position in 
defiance of gravity and the wind. "Talk to her, not me!" 
he yelled as he thought he saw Eara's lips frame a 
question. "I'm not doing it, even though I wish I was! 
You'll want to-"
    Then they were gone, disappearing behind the pair, 
falcon Elwen and Runeworker. He didn't know if they had 
heard him anyway, with his words torn away by the wind.
    It didn't matter. Zar spread his wings and beat 
experimentally once or twice, just to see what would 
happen. 
    He immediately rose as if he had jumped onto something 
extremely soft and yielding. He shot up so fast that he 
hastily folded his wings again, fearing the power of his 
launching for the first time in his life. Immediately, the 
steady glide forward resumed again, even faster this time, 
or so it seemed.
    Zar laughed yet again- his throat was getting raw from 
the unaccustomed exercise as well as the wind- and spread 
his wings cautiously, just half-extending them.
    He rose in a gentle, magical curve that made his eyes 
water with tears not entirely caused by the wind. This was 
just like what he had dreamed. There was no work to it. He 
was ascending as effortlessly as the sun, the wings that 
bore him up ones of magic alone.
    Zar rolled onto his back, a move he had never dared 
try for an extended period of time, and stretched his arms 
out as if to embrace the clouds. This was even more 
enjoyable, like being on his beck in a warm current of 
water. He let his head loll and closed his eyes, feeling a 
smile play over his face, for one of the few times in his 
life truly content, truly feeling as if it were something 
that he wanted to go on forever.
    Something slammed into him, accompanied at the same 
time by a shriek from Lamara.
    The Runeworker magic faltered and failed, Zar reacted 
on instinct before he knew what he was doing, one hand 
cupping the arm that held Lamara close to his body, his 
wings flapping madly as he called on his own power to lift 
them.
    He was still reeling from that blow of the unknown 
projectile, but he recovered swiftly enough. And the magic 
did not leave him as Lamara's had so abruptly. His wings 
caught the wind, and lifted him up a good way above the 
Grasslands into a precise circle.
    Zar stifled a mental shudder to see how close the 
grass had been even after a fall that had lasted only a 
few seconds, and yelled at Lamara. "Are you all right?" 
His farsight took over, extending his perception in all 
directions, looking for the strange attacker.
    There was no response from the snake, and when he 
looked down, it was to find her just barely hanging on by 
limp muscles. He craft her close to his chest, murmuring 
nonsense words, all the while running a hand lightly down 
her scales. His farsight was telling him nothing useful. 
In desperation, he trained it on Lamara, unable to tell if 
she was unconscious or hurt or simply shocked into not 
responding.
    The farsight still sought out minds, in a pale shadow 
of the power that telepathy had once given him. Zar nodded 
in grim satisfaction when it told him that she was still 
alive, just knocked into blackness of a kind that was 
suspiciously like sleep.
    But what could have knocked a Runeworker, a mage more 
powerful than himself, into sleep?
    He got his answer when a hefty blow hit him in the 
middle of the back again. Zar rolled onto his back, wings 
working like mad, his right hand transforming into a talon 
even as he lashed out.
    The thing hovering there darted away too quickly for 
him to catch it, too quickly even for him to see what it 
was, but it did not immediately come back. Speed or no 
speed, it respected Zar. Perhaps it was as unsure of him 
as he was of it.
    He circled for a long moment more, his right hand 
slowly falling back to cradle Lamara when no more options 
immediately presented themselves. His farsight continued 
to reveal nothing. Well, two shocked cheernmae were 
drawing closer with incredible speed, but that was all. No 
one hidden in the grass below, and nothing flying above or 
around him.
    Then something hit him again.
    Zar screamed a battle-cry that conveyed as much fear 
as challenge and spun about. Again, nothing there. Not 
even the blurred flash he'd thought he'd seen out of the 
corner of his eye when he turned around the first time. 
For a falcon Elwen who hadn't been caught off guard 
physically in years, it was an unnerving experience.
    He spat at nothing in particular, and fell towards the 
ground with strong, practiced wingbeats that he 
nevertheless felt were not swift enough to carry them both 
out of danger. But he dared not try a dive. If something 
hit him with that kind of force while he was going at 
falcon speed, it could kill both him and the Runeworker.
    Wasn't something already trying to do that, though?
    But Zar didn't know for sure, and he was not about to 
risk it.
    He landed just ahead of a place in the grass that 
Kyayne and Eara would shortly pass, and sank to the 
ground. He knelt there, wings spread and trembling, every 
feather on end. His left arm, wound with stunned 
Runeworker, dipped close to his chest even when he saw the 
two cheetah Elwens. He barely stopped himself from hissing 
at them. He had not realized that he would feel so 
protective of Lamara if she were hurt or wounded; it had 
never happened before.
    "Zar? Are you all right?" Eara's face was ashen as she 
knelt down beside him.
    "Yes." Zar looked back down at Lamara. "But I'm not 
sure if she is."
    "Let me see."
    Zar willingly held out the Runeworker to the 
priestess. The gods and goddesses would sometimes heal if 
called upon by a priest or priestess they favored, and 
called with proper respect.
    Lamara stirred weakly, and coiled herself more firmly 
around his arm. Eara shook her head, smiling, when Zar 
reached out to dislodge the snake, and laid a hand on the 
red-gold scales.
    "I can work just as well- perhaps better- if I'm not 
holding her, actually. I've found it can interfere with 
the healing process if there's-"
    There came a blinding flash of light, blue and gold 
and red and white and green and dozens of colors that Zar 
had no names for. He fell back, away from the light, 
certain it was another attack. His suspicions were 
confirmed when he heard Eara scream from beyond the 
brilliance.
    He stood, about to fling himself into the air, when 
the light dissipated enough for him to see Kyayne 
crouching beside Eara. The male cheetah Elwen stared at 
the fallen priestess, then looked up at Zar with murderous 
fire in his golden eyes.
    "What did you do to her?"
    "She tried to heal Lamara, and- that happened..." 
Zar's voice trailed off as he realized that the timing was 
too great to be coincidence. There had been something that 
had prevented Eara from healing Lamara, instead of an 
attack upon the Elwens themselves.
    "I see," said Kyayne, and turned back to Eara, worry 
slowly diminishing as the priestess sat up.
    "I'm all right." Eara brushed away her betrothed's 
relieved hug and looked up at Zar with a faint smile. "It 
seems whatever magic protects her objects to a priestess 
of Chilune, or simply to me, healing her. I think you must 
do it."
    "I don't have any healing magic."
    "Perhaps not, but I think you can do it by calling on 
her magic," Eara said, her eyes watching him closely. Thy 
were almost the color of the summer sky now, bright with 
both hope and forceful decision. "I think there is a bond 
between the two of you that will permit such a thing."
    Zar hesitated no longer, but laid a hand on Lamara's 
smooth scales. Almost immediately, the same brilliant, 
fitfully twinkling light edged his hands. He could feel 
warmth stir in the scales, an alien magic reaching towards 
him to include him in some connection he did not 
understand.
    But he didn't need to understand it. When the warmth 
briefly increased and then faded along with the light, and 
Lamara stirred, lifting bright eyes to his, he thought it 
was worth it. He hugged her close, murmuring the nonsense 
words again, trying to deal with the relief crashing 
through him. 
    Did he treasure her that much? Had she come to mean 
that much to him?
    Before he could ask if she felt the same, Lamara asked 
in a quiet voice, "Where did that attack come from?"
    "I don't know- I couldn't use farsight to locate the 
attackers," Zar stammered, puzzled by the intensity in her 
eyes.
    That intensity turned to despair when Lamara turned 
her head away and spoke a single word.
    "Nightwalkers."
    Nightwalkers. The enemies of Lamara's kind in Lohtan, 
a type of evil creature serving the Night instead of 
Lamara's Rune. She had always refused to talk about them.
    Zar shivered, despite the brightness of the sun and 
the residual warmth of the magic, and embraced her again. 
"We'll have to fight them?" he murmured, in a question as 
much as a statement.
    His blood grew even colder when she didn't argue the 
point.




                        Chapter 2
                           Eara
    "When help is offered, and if one deigns to accept it, 
one then must offer help in return."
    -One of the First Lessons, taught to falcon Elwen 
children in Eriaa-ollo-Sweptor.

    Lamara cocked her head into the corner of his vision 
and hissed, long and deeply. "Yes. This. I would know it 
anywhere." Here eyes flashed with a strange light that Zar 
thought seemed eagerness as much as fear, and her tail 
lashed out so hard that it strung the side of his neck.
    "I never thought I would see it again, though," she 
finished, and now fear lingered alone in her eyes and his 
voice.
    Zar laid a comforting hand on her head just behind the 
scales, even though he was conscious of what that meant. 
She had never expected to return to Lohtan for a hundred 
years, and had never thought to meet them here. That might 
imply that she didn't know how to deal with them.
    Lamara surely sensed his dark thoughts, but she 
flashed him no reprimand, only a grateful look and a 
quick, flickering kiss from that forked tongue. Even now, 
he had to control a desire to flinch from it.
    "Squeamish." She spoke to him on that band indicating 
that the was the only one who could hear her, her thought 
tinged with laughter. Her tail tapped slowly against his 
shoulder.
    "Yes," he admitted blandly, and went bask to looking 
at the thing Lamara had said she recognized, and which 
Eara and Kyayne hadn't stopped staring at since it was 
discovered.
    It looked like a footprint. Or so Zar's mind said, 
because there was nothing else it could logically be. 
Granted, it was not the track of any creature he had ever 
known, being seven-toed in both front and back, and with 
some of those toes, at least, looking as if they bore 
irregular lengths of claw. But better to call it a track 
than-
    Than a hole into nothingness, he answered himself with 
a bluntness that surprised him, He hadn't thought he would 
have the courage to actually say it.
    The track was utterly dark. So far as he could tell, 
the Grasslands under it had simply ceased to exist. It 
might be a hole all the way to the center of Arcadia, or a 
portal into the void between the stars, the void that was 
said to kill Elwens if and when they ever went there, with 
sheer wrongness, sheer opposition. He thought he could see 
it widening as he watched, expanding, drawing him in...
    "Stop that, you idiots!" Lamara's warning was meant 
for all of them, but that didn't stop the slap she gave 
him with her tail from seeming especially sharp. He rubbed 
the side of his neck, already almost resigned to it, while 
Eara and Kyayne blinked and shook their heads like people 
awakened from a dream.
    "What is it?" were Kyayne's first words as he turned 
to Zar, his eyes bright and belligerent, glowing with 
challenge. Eara put a concerned hand on his arm, but he 
shook her off, turning his head from Elwen to snake to pin 
them both with bright stares. "What?"
    "I think the rack of a Nightwalker," said Lamara in 
what sounded like abstracted interest, staring at the 
track once more. Zar was about to ask why it didn't 
hypnotize her, when he noted that her body was curled into 
a subtle parody of the rune of healing she had used on him 
before. She was protecting herself from even this faintest 
sign of her enemy's presence.
    Somehow, that only increased the churning fear in his 
gut, rather than his delight that she could protect 
herself, that she had means of defending herself against 
the evil magic after all.
    "What is a Nightwalker?" Kyayne's question sounded 
more than a little desperate. Zar gave him a sympathetic 
glance, deciding that the man didn't really want to 
believe evil of them, but was bent on protecting his home 
and his people. He had been badly shaken by this enemy he 
could neither see nor understand. "Is it something from 
your home world? Are you going to destroy it, or do we 
have to get rid of it ourselves? What drew it here?"
    Eara put a hand on his arm again, this time gripping, 
so that he could not simply shake her away. "Are they 
going to answer your questions, Ky, if you don't give them 
time to do so?"
    Kyayne flushed and briefly bent to sweep a kiss over 
his betrothed's brow. "I'm sorry," he said to Zar, his 
scent and his face reflecting pure chagrin. "But what are 
we to do?"
    Zar realized, in some dim surprise, that the man 
didn't blame him for this, after all, as so many people 
had blamed him for things that came in his wake. He was 
simply asking for help to solve a problem that he could 
not solve by himself.
    "That's because it's not your fault, silly Elwen," 
said Lamara to him, before speaking to all three. "The 
Nightwalker was likely drawn to my Runeworking. They hate 
and fear all powers of the Rune, but they desire it, too, 
much as some creatures of darkness in your world feed upon 
the light." She looked again at the track, and this time 
the flush of magical energy through her resonated in Zar's 
own bones. "Though why one would be here in the first 
place..."
    "They are not common visitors to Arcadia, then?" Eara 
asked this question in a calm voice that Zar could almost 
feel guiding him back to reason.
    "No. In fact-" Lamara hesitated, then looked the other 
way. Zar could feel her projecting an aura of confusion 
and hesitance that he wondered if the cheetah Elwens could 
feel.
    He touched her gently behind the head again. "It's all 
right, Lamara," he whispered, taking no care to disguise 
his reassurance from Kyayne and Eara. They must not think 
that she was refusing to tell them out of sheer Runeworker 
arrogance.
    "And why mustn't they think that?"
    He stared at her, his face blank, knowing she would 
pluck the answer out of his thoughts: because it wasn't 
true, that was why.
    She tapped her tail in a smile and then looped it 
around his neck. "You and your honesty. All right." She 
looked back at the cheernmae, who had remained silent 
throughout the entire little performance. "The 
Nightwalkers have to be brought into Arcadia, rather like 
animals escaping a cage."
    "Through a Runeworker gate?" Kyayne's eyes widened, 
and he looked in all directions, his tail lashing, as if 
Nightwalkers might spring out of the grass and attack at 
any second.
    "Yes."
    "That can't be true." Eara's voice, soft, full of 
disbelief for the first time. Zar, looking at her, saw her 
shaking her head with a wide, puzzled frown overcoming her 
face. "There would be more of them here in Arcadia if that 
were so, if they escaped every time a Runeworker opened a 
gate.
    "Ah. Well." Lamara looked even more ill at ease. It 
took another patting from Zar to reassure her. "You see, 
the Runeworker- must- ah-"
    "Invite them through." Zar spoke for her without 
meaning to, and received a dirty look before she turned 
her head away, moving it up and down in a slow, reluctant 
nod.
    "Why in the name of Chilune would you wish to do 
that?" Kyayne said, visibly upset. His tail snapped back 
and forth with the speed of a whip now, and his golden e 
eyes flared and danced like raging flames. Zar wondered 
how often he got angry like this.
    "To remove them from Lohtan, of course," said Lamara, 
as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "They 
breed like rabbits. We don't want them cluttering the 
place up." She paused, as if studying his reaction, and 
then added, "Same thing with humans."
    Which announcement staggered Zar. But he supposed he 
shouldn't have been surprised; humans had come from other 
worlds, he knew. He chuckled and shook his head at Lamara. 
She just looked smug and watched the cheernmae.
    Kyayne's face was so bright a gold that he looked as 
if he was going to spontaneously combust at any moment, 
without waiting for death. "You- you were responsible for 
that plague on our beautiful world, our peoples, the 
devastating wars that-"
    He lurched forward as if he meant to strike at the 
Runeworker with claws or teeth. Zar raised his wings and 
hissed, forcing him back. Lamara, he thought, looked 
amused by the whole affair.
    As she had planned to be.
    "You did that on purpose!" he muttered from between 
gritted teeth in her general direction.
    "Yes." Again, that private communication. She hadn't 
done so much of it in months. He wondered if she trusted 
their hosts less than she admitted. "I want to see how he 
reacts, Zar. I read your thoughts about him, and I don't 
think that's the real Kyayne- whatever the Rune hid last 
name was. I think he was only acting that way to impress 
Eara, and he is really quick to anger, and a bit simple. 
Let's see, shall we?"
    Zar understood her desire to test this man about whom 
they knew far less than they knew about Eara, but her 
little "experiment" seemed likely to get them killed. Eara 
had to lay a hand on his arm and shake her head, murmuring 
several long sentences in the cheetah Elwen tongue, before 
the flames in Kyayne's eyes died and he turned his head 
sullenly away.
    "Accept my apologizes, please, my Lord Zar," he 
muttered.
    Zar sighed and dropped his wings, folding them to his 
back. "An old, old score, Lord Kyayne, settled with the 
blood of humans and Elwens both an Age and more ago," he 
said softly. "Forgive me for also losing control of 
myself."
    He saw Eara's face twitch, and her eyes go briefly 
unfocused as she tried to reach out to him with her mind. 
Then her eyes came back to the present and she scowled at 
him. He shrugged helplessly, holding his hands out as if 
to say there was nothing he could do.
    Lamara hissed in his ear, saying the things Eara had 
probably wanted to say. "You weren't out of control. It 
was that fool who-"
    "Please, Lamara." To his pleasure, there was evidently 
enough exasperation in his voice to shut her up. "I think 
that they want and deserve some answers about the 
Nightwalkers."
    "I can tell you," said Lamara to everyone, "that I am 
not sure how Nightwalker magic translates onto this world. 
Not as well as my own, I think. But they are still a force 
to beware." She looked back at the black footprint, and 
her body again shimmered with energy. "There is a power in 
the darkness, for them, that will trap and hold the soul 
of anyone foolish enough to look into it. They use dark 
light in the preparation of their weapons. They also have 
powers all their own that are not so different from the 
Rune's. One of those is that they cannot be seen by any 
means that I know of, except normal sight when they are 
right in front of you."
    "Dark light?" Zar muttered.
    Her tail squeezed his neck briefly. "Nothing like the 
force we battled in Carmai, Zar. The name just happens to 
be the same."
    He fell back into silence, reassured, and looked at 
the cheetah Elwens to await their responses.
    Eara and Kyayne looked at each other. Telepathically 
speaking, Zar guessed, though he could not even sense the 
smooth flow of mental energy now. Some part of him ached 
with loss, but he forced himself to ignore it, and watch 
Eara's face attentively as she turned back to look at 
them.
    "Yes, I think you should come with us to Glelmari," 
she said, almost solemnly, as if there were no longer 
anything to be enthusiastic about. "It seems that you are 
the only one with some knowledge of these Nightwalkers and 
how to defeat them. Will you come with us?"
    Zar took a deep breath. That invitation was extended, 
very plainly, only to Lamara. Whatever the reason Eara had 
wanted him to come to Glelmari in the first place, the 
reasons had changed, and now, just as clearly, she wanted 
him to stay away.
    Lamara shook her head slowly back and forth. "I think 
my friend should come with us. He may have something to 
offer us, with his knowledge of magic."
    Contrary snake!
    Lamara did not slap him for the thought, but only 
turned his head and looked at him mildly. Somehow, his 
protests withered and died under that calm, dark blue 
gaze.
    He found himself nodding.
    Eara was biting her lip thoughtfully, her glance oddly 
imploring. But Zar did not have time to read in what way 
before Kyayne spoke up.
    "You think that we should bring them back, Ea? 
Especially when the snake as much as admitted that her 
magic lures them? Far better to leave them out here where 
they will draw off the pursuit, I say!" Kyayne folded his 
arms and glared down his nose at Zar.
    Zar stifled his chuckle, suddenly understanding part 
of Eara's reason.
    "No," said the high priestess of Chilune, her eyes the 
color now of the sea after the storm. They were fixed 
calmly on Zar's face. "She's right, Ky. They both need to 
come."
    "But-"
    Eara reached out and touched his arm again. "You saw 
him heal her, Ky. They are bonded in some way, as you and 
I are. She may need him to help her drive the Nightwalkers 
away." Already, the alien word fell easily from the 
priestess's lips, Zar thought. "Would you willingly 
separate them?"
    "Try to separate us," Lamara corrected in a sweet 
voice.
    Kyayne glared at all of them but Eara for a moment. 
When his eyes fell on her, they softened, and he nodded 
even as he stepped away from her.
    "All right. I agree. They can both come with us." His 
gaze turned to Zar as he spoke the next words,  even 
though they were ostensibly addressed to both. "I trust 
they will remember that they are here as guests of 
Glelmari Cheetah-home, and behave accordingly."
    Zar nodded soberly, even though ye felt like bursting 
into laughter. He wondered how often Kyayne had these 
suspicions of some other man trying to steal Eara away. A 
dancely basis, perhaps? Or was it as rare as once a month?
    Once a day?
    "Stop grinning like a fool," Lamara hissed in his ear, 
not on their private link but softly enough that Kyayne 
would not hear.
    "It's just amusing," Zar whispered back.
    Her tail stopped twitching as if she would slap his 
neck and tapped slowly instead. With the air she was 
projecting, that was her equivalent of a reluctant 
chuckle. "Very amusing, I'll admit. He's one of those 
people you love to tease. But he's right, my friend. We 
have accepted the invitation, and we must act like 
guests."
    Zar nodded solemnly, and then saw Eara watching him. 
He smiled, looked from her to Kyayne, and shook his head.
    The priestess looked both relieved and embarrassed. 
She tilted her head and spread her hands wide, in a way 
that seemed to say she knew how annoying her Kyayne could 
be, and she apologized for the inconvenience, but she also 
wanted them to know that she loved him anyway and he would 
get better as he became accustomed to Zar.
    Even as Zar wondered how she had managed to pack that 
much meaning into a single gesture, she sprinted ahead to 
take hold of her betrothed's arm once more. He appeared 
much happier with her beside him, speaking quietly and 
constantly in the cheetah Elwen tongue, now and then 
waving his arm as if to direct her attention to something 
particularly wondrous. Eara always obligingly looked and 
made soft impressed noises. Any lack of sincerity that 
might have been behind them was more than made up for- at 
least to Zar's way of thinking- by the adoration with 
which she watched her husband-to-be.
    "I wonder why she's agreed to marry him?" said Lamara. 
"She seems to have fallen in love with him, but you 
wouldn't think that an intelligent woman could be happy 
with a stupid man." She paused, then added, "Actually, I 
have seen that happen."
    Zar laughed. "I know. But it's not for us to question 
their reasons or motivations, always assuming there is any 
reason for love anyway. We're guests, remember?"
    "That doesn't mean wet have to act like idiots."
    "I hope you remember that."
    Which comment earned him a reprimand with that oft- 
used tail and a glare that was not serious. Zar gently 
rubbed the scales on the back of her head, considered 
speaking about the way he had healed her, and decided to 
leave it for now. It could always wait for later.
    "Thank you."
    Zar nodded and followed the cheetah Elwens again, this 
time firmly on the ground.
----------------------------------------------------------
    Glelmari was nothing like he'd expected it to be. 
Actually, he had never studied the cheetah Elwens 
extensively and didn't really know what to expect, but he 
would have said huts woven of the common grass on the 
Grasslands and adorned with conveniences that would serve 
the cheernmae in either form.
    What appeared instead were several soaring buildings 
that lifted and fell like things seen in a mad fantasy. 
Zar wasn't sure what they were made of. It might have been 
golden stone; it might have been grass that they had dried 
and stiffened without losing any of the rich color. Given 
the impossible angles and strange balconies that twined 
around the buildings like confections around a cake, they 
might have been built of dream-stuff itself. He simply 
didn't know.
    "Neither do I, if that's any comfort," Lamara muttered 
in his ear.
    "Not really."
    The temples- that was what his mind insisted on 
calling them; they looked most like temples to Chilune- 
were all open to the sky, and in places the walls were 
replaced by pillar-supported low roofs to let in the wind 
and the sunshine. He could see that the stone- surely it 
was stone?- had been carved into ledges that appeared to 
serve as sun-bathing places or even beds. Cheetahs 
sprawled at their ease in the sunlight, flanks moving 
softly as they breathed. He could not tell if they were 
animals or cheernmae.
    The "streets" of the Cheetah-home were largely 
trampled avenues of grass paved with the same mysterious 
material that the buildings were made of. They dipped past 
the temples with no apparent pattern, no rhyme or reason. 
But then, this people worshiped the Goddess of Chaos. 
Perhaps they didn't need rhyme and reason.
    Cheernmae strolled or scrambled casually, on four legs 
or two as they chose, through the streets, stopping now 
and then to watch a juggler perform or a brief, brightly 
color illusion spangle this or that building. Zar could 
hear their voices from here. Spoken by many of them, their 
language lost some of its guttural character and took on 
an almost musical note.
    "Beautiful," Lamara murmured in his ear,l studying the 
"city" as if she were a connoisseur of such things. He 
knew from the puzzlement and awe she was projecting that 
she had never seen anything like this either.
    "Yes, I think so," said Zar, and then had to shake his 
head as they simply passed into Glelmari. There was no 
boundary between the plains and the city. Cheernmae 
departed without concern for walls or guards, though a few 
turned to stare curiously at the newcomers walking beside 
the high priestess and her betrothed.
    None of them stopped, though. Zar began to wonder if 
this place was like Eriaa-ollo-Garameyt, of the cheetah 
Elwens, like his people, were so locked in complacency 
that they could not be bothered to evince even the 
simplest sign of curiously.
    "I don't think so," Lamara said. "FRom what I can pick 
up from their minds, they're happy, not complacent. 
They're ready to fight when they see a threat. You're in 
the company of the high priestess, and she's nor screaming 
for help, so I suppose they don't really see you as a 
threat."
    Zar shook his head, silently berating himself. If he 
had any sense, he would have  thought of that himself. It 
was ridiculous that he automatically assumed something 
evil about everyone now. He made a conscript effort to 
relax.
    The stares grew more frequent and longer as they 
penetrated into the city. Zar noted that the city seemed 
larger, too, and when he turned, he could see nothing of 
the Grasslands. A border did seem to cut the plains off 
from Glelmari now, a shimmering wall of golden energy that 
enclosed many more buildings than he had seen previously.
    He turned back to see Eara smiling at him, almost 
mischievously. "Welcome to a home of those who worship the 
Goddess of Chaos," she said, width a slight bow that Zar 
felt was more mocking than anything.
    Kyayne must have felt so also, because he didn't 
object. He just stood here, smiling first at Eara and then 
at Zar, as if he were in on a private joke they might or 
might not share.
    "My lady?" Zar glanced over his shoulder, not knowing 
whether he feared more to find the wall still there or 
gone. But it was there, shimmering, rippling, as if it 
were cloth to be stirred by a wind that Zar did not feel. 
It was blastedly hot, he thought distractedly, and the 
heat seemed to be amplified by the city, even though it 
did not reflect from the stone. This was an odd place in 
more ways than one.
    "What's the matter?"