The Door Into Fire (8 page)

The hope and jealousy that ran through Herewiss in that one bare moment were terrible, but they didn’t last long; they dwindled and fragmented as the thought did when Sunspark finally pulled away from the contact.

Herewiss found himself left with a few pallid shreds of the original concept.
I’m not big enough of soul to hold so much at once…
(That’s where you come from?) he said to Sunspark.

(Somewhere there. I’ve forgotten exactly where. I’ve been so many places.)

(Can you take other people into those—those places?)

(No. It’s a skill each must learn for himself.)

(Oh...) Herewiss sighed, shook his head. (Well. You are a fire elemental, aren’t you?)

(I am fire, certainly,) it said.

(How did it happen that you got caught out in the rain?)

(I was eating,) it said, and Herewiss thought of the distant brushfire he had seen. (I was careless, perhaps—I knew the storm was coming, but I thought I could elude it just before it started to rain. However, the rain came very suddenly, and very hard, so that the shock weakened me—and then it wouldn’t let up. I thought I would go mad or mindless—we do that when too much water touches us. It is a terrible thing.)

Herewiss nodded.

(You saved me,) the elemental said, almost reluctantly, and there was something in its tone that made Herewiss regard it with sudden suspicion. (I—) It cut itself off. Herewiss’s underhearing caught a faint overtone of concealment, fear, artifice. (—thank you,) it finished, a little lamely.

The hesitation told Herewiss what he needed to know. The old tales he’d unearthed in his studies claimed that elementals and creatures from other planes respected nothing in the worlds but their own ethic. That ethic, the “Pact,” stated that travelers-between-worlds must help one another when need arose, and return favor for favor, lest the overwhelming strangenesses and dangers of the many worlds should wipe out the worldwall-breaching ability and all its practitioners forever.
But there are so many stories,
he thought.
Still --

(Sunspark,) Herewiss said, doing his best to mask his slight uncertainty with a feeling of conviction. (You would have been left mad and in horrible pain if I hadn’t helped you.)

It looked at him, no emotion showing in its eyes or its tone of thought. It moved its legs experimentally. (I think I could stand up now—)

(Sunspark. You owe me your well-being at this moment. Otherwise you would be out there still, in the rain.)

It shuddered all over, so that its nonchalance of thought did not quite convince him. (What of it?)

(A favor for a favor, Sunspark. Until the End.)

He held his breath, and held its eyes and mind with his, and waited to see whether the line that appeared again and again in Ferrigan’s old tale would work.

Sunspark looked at him, its eyes distraught, his underhearing catching its consternation and unease, its desire to be out of there, away from this horrid narrow little creature who knew of the Pact but didn’t even know what its own self was—

(Sunspark,) Herewiss said again, this time letting his thought show his disgust at the elemental’s trying to slip out of an obligation by concealment. (A favor for a favor.)

It closed its eyes. (What do you want?)

(You know very well!)

It sighed inwardly. (A favor for a favor,) it said. (Until the End. What do you want of me?)

Herewiss paused for a long moment. (I’m not really sure yet. Get up, if you think you can, and we’ll discuss it.)

Sunspark struggled a little and then heaved itself all at once to its feet. It stood there for a moment swaying uncertainly, like a new foal. (That’s better,) it said. (You know, I am likely to be a lot of trouble to you—)

Herewiss stood up too. It was distinctly unnerving to have something the size of a horse looking down on you and talking to you, especially when it wasn’t really a horse. (You’re trying to frighten me,) Herewiss said. (The stories are true, it seems. If you refuse to aid me, you’re forsworn, outside the Pact, outside the help of any of the other peoples who walk the worlds. No traveler survives long under such conditions. You owe me a favor, a large one, and you will repay it.)

The elemental looked at him with grudging respect. (I will. You understand, though, why I did not—)

(You weren’t sure whether I lay within the Pact or not. And who wants to be bound when it’s not necessary? But I’m within it, by intention at least…and if that’s not enough, there’s ancestry.)

(Oh?) It understood him, but there was some slight confusion about some of the nuances he had applied to the thought, and Herewiss didn’t know which ones.

(Yes. I am descended from Ferrigan Halmer’s daughter of the Brightwood Line; she walked between the worlds, or so our traditions say. My father is presently Lord of the Brightwood—)

Sunspark stared at Herewiss, and emitted a wave of total shock and incredulity. (Your progenitor is still
alive??
)

(Uh—yes. My mother is dead, though—)

(Well, of course. Why two different concepts for your progenitors, though?)

Herewiss was becoming more than slightly confused himself. (One of them is a man, and the other was a woman—)

There was a brief silence. (You are a hybrid? Well, such matings aren’t unheard of in parts of the Pattern—)

(Uhh—no. “Man” and “woman” are different forms of the same creature.)

(Oh. Like larval and pupal?)

Herewiss was shaking his head in amazement. (Well, uh, not really—)

The elemental was bewildered, but still intrigued. (This is too hard for me,) it said finally. (I can’t understand how your “father” is still extant after union. But there are patterns within the Pattern, and no way to understand them all. No matter. Your “father” was a master of energies, you said—)

(I did? Well, yes, you could say that, though how you mean it and how I mean it is—)

(Later. What does his mastery have to do with you?) (Well, among other things, when he dies, I’ll inherit the Wood—)

(Well, of course. How can it be otherwise, but that progeny shall take their progenitors’ energy unto them?)

(Uh—right.)

(I think I see. Are you seeking to bring your progenitor to his ending that you may have his energies?)

Too puzzled to be angry, Herewiss said, (No. I am traveling to find a friend who is being held against his will, and to release him.) He kept the thought as simple as possible, feeling that this was no time to go into the political ramifications.

Herewiss could feel Sunspark pondering the whole thought curiously, taking it apart. (Oh. This person is your mate?)

(Uh—my loved, yes.)

Sunspark looked with interest at the concept “loved.” (Your mate. And you will unite and engender progeny? You seem young for it...)

(It, ah, it doesn’t quite work that way. You see, we are both men...)

(Yes?) It waited politely for the explanation. Herewiss sagged against the wall, looking for the right words.

(Well—see, Sunspark, in this world, “progeny” are— well, there are many ways to achieve union, but there is only one way to have a child. The women bear the children, always; and though men may know men in, uh, union, and women may lie with women, a child only happens if a man lies with a woman. There have been times when babies were supposed to have happened when women lay together—but it’s hard to say, because men had been sleeping with the women too.) Herewiss, to his utter surprise, was becoming embarrassed. Even Halwerd at four years of age had not been as completely confused about sex as Sunspark obviously was. (My loved and I are both males and cannot have ‘progeny’ of our own.)

Sunspark digested this. (Yours is not a fruitful union? Yet you pursue it? Such behavior is not survival-oriented for a species.)

Herewiss laughed. (Perhaps it wouldn’t be if the Goddess hadn’t given our kind the Responsibility. When we come of age—)

(Oh. You come into heat too? Well, there’s one similarity, anyway.)

(Uh, I’m not sure. But when we come of age, or soon after, we must have union in such a manner as to reproduce ourselves at least once—one union for a man, one bearing for a woman – though there are some who say it should be two. That’s between each woman and the Mother, though. After that Responsibility’s discharged, union is our own business, and we may love whom we please.)

The roan stallion stood there and mused over this. Sunspark was now fully recovered, and it looked magnificent as the mount of a king—its hide a true deep crimson, bright as blood, and its mane and tail glittering like wrought gold even in the subdued light from the door.

(How very strange,) it said. (Union again and again, it seems, without consummation. And even without progeny! —So your “loved” is in durance?)

(Yes.)

(And you are going to free it?)

(Him. Yes, and then go back to my work.)

(This is definitely too much for me,) Sunspark said. (You will go to your mate—and
not
unite—and then go do something
else?
)

(Well, we may, uh, unite, but—yes.)

(What else could you possibly want to
do?
)

Herewiss sighed. (I have, well, a certain kind of Fire within me—)

(Yes: that’s why I was heading in this direction, as well as because the rain felt less over here. I could feel the fire, and I thought we might be related…though I didn’t understand how you could not be distressed by the water. I see that we aren’t relatives, though, except in a rather superficial manner.)

(That’s for sure,) Herewiss said. (At any rate, I have this Fire—but not control of it. With the Flame, one must have a tool, a focus with which to dissociate it from one’s self, or it won’t work. I’m looking for such a focus. It would be a shame to die of old age and never have had use of the Flame at all ...)

(Excuse me. “Die?”)

(Uh... 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.)