"And one place in them is much like another," Aliza noted, "at least in Air."

"Not so," said Arvad. "But your human eyes cannot perceive the differences."

"Indeed," said Elrelet. "Why, we have passed a hundred demon homes, all solid as rocks but quite invisible to your eyes. My own was among them, and Cray knows well how solid it is."

"Solid enough to raise a lump on my head when I bumped against one of its walls," he said.

"He was a poor swimmer in those days," said Elrelet.

"I would have been a better swimmer if I'd been able to see where the walls were," Cray replied. "If we can't see anything in Air," said Aliza, "why are we here?"

"Oh, you'll see something, never doubt that. The demons' houses may be invisible to us, but the demons themselves can be quite apparent when they wish. Ah, there they are now." In the distance-though dis-tances were hard for the human eye to judge in the emptiness of Air-a mass of gray cloud had become visible, and it was growing in size with every passing moment. "They're expecting us, aren't they, Elrelet?"

"Very much so," replied the demon. "And they're eager for your arrival, too. You see, my lady, when Cray was first in Air, he taught these local demons a human game, and they're always eager to try their skill against him. It's been some time now since they've had a chance for that."

"I fear they'll be sorely disappointed," said Cray. "I haven't kept up my practice."

"What sort of game could a mortal play with de-mons?" Aliza wondered.

"Any game he could play with mortals, provided the demons had some interest in it."

"They're very interested in this one," said Elrelet. "Excessively interested, if you ask me. But then, the demons of Air have always been the most enthusiastic gameplayers of all the demon realm. Ah, Cray, they have your old weapons ready and waiting for you."

The mass of cloud had broken up into a dozen or more similar patches, and as the travelers approached, these patches assumed approximations of the forms of men, some of them more accurate than others, though none remotely mistakable for the real thing. One of the cloud men came forward to meet Cray. It had arms and legs and a head but no face, just puffy grayness where the features should have been. In its arms it carried a blank shield, a sword, and a suit of steel chain.

"No, no, my friend," Cray said to it. "I'm no longer skilled enough to challenge you. But I'll judge a match or two if you like."

"No, fight me," said the creature. "I've been prac-ticing since last we met."

"And I have not." Cray shook his head. "You'll beat me soundly, I'm sure, and I have no desire for bruises just now. However ... " He glanced toward Aliza. "I might name a champion to fight for me.

Would that do as well?"

"No," said the creature, "but I'll fight your cham-pion anyway. Who shall it be?"

"Arvad," said Cray. "If my lady does not mind doing without her couch for a little time. I'm sure it will only take a little time for Arvad to beat you."

"Arvad shall not beat me! I shall beat Arvad."

"You shall not!" Arvad replied.

To Aliza, Cray said, "Perhaps Regneniel could look after you while these two settle their dispute?"

"Yes. Of course. Regneniel, come here so that I may hold fast to you." She closed one hand around the icicle. "No need for a couch if I'm just going to be staying in one place." The Air demon withdrew from Aliza and took on as near a human shape as any of the assembled demons. The two challengers faced off while the rest backed away to form a rough sphere around the fighters. The two sprouted long swords of gray cloud stuff from their right hands and blocky shields from their left and slowly began to circle each other.

Cray had seen many a fight, both between mortals and between demons; he watched Aliza now instead of the demon warriors. She clung fast to Regneniel, with both hands now, for as Arvad had left her she had begun to swing to one side and had only been able to right herself with the strength of both arms. As the two demons fought, as blow upon blow rang like metal, not cloud, sword against sword, sword against shield, her eyes were wide and almost unblinking, her lips parted just a trifle. She watched the battle with total concentration.

At first the demons' strengths and skills seemed evenly matched. But gradually Arvad became the more aggressive. After an initial period of sparring, it began to slash steadily, barely giving its opponent time to recover from one blow before launching another. At each slash, a fragment of the opponent's shield would break off and sail away; soon the shield was reduced to a mere nubbin, and the other demon was forced to take Arvad's blows entirely upon its sword. Then, abruptly, the sword was cloven in two, and so was the stubby cloud torso of the other demon. The two parts of its body lost their form, the limbs and the head shrinking away until there were just two blobs of cloud floating beside Arvad, who raised its sword in acknowledgment of triumph.

Aliza looked at Cray, her eyes still wide. "This is a game?"

"Just a game," he replied, and he pointed toward the fighters.

Arvad's opponent was reforming itself, the two halves coming together, and all the little pieces that had been hacked away from the shield rejoining the main body, which took a humanlike shape once more, though weaponless now, and bowed to Arvad. "Per-haps another time I will beat you," it said. "But for now, I yield to your superior skill."

The demons all around broke into raucous cheers.

"You see," said Cray, "the game is gauged for demons. To a demon, being hacked in half is nothing. In fact, it is one of the few blows they count as a winning one, for a demon has no trouble fighting on without legs or a shield arm or even a head. Believe me, it's a strange experience indeed to fight a one-armed torso made of cloud."

"You've done so?"

"Yes."

And you won?"

"That time, yes. Though the creature parried my blade fairly well for a while. It was long ago, of course."

"You must have been a fearsome fighter."

He grinned. "No more than middling, I assure you. But most of the demons were far worse back then."

"And how would you rank these two now?" "Arvad was always my best student. But the other was good, I must admit. Either of them would proba-bly put most human warriors to shame."

"And where would you rank them in relation to yourself, when you were at your peak?"

He shook his head. "I told you, my lady, I was only middling skillful even then. At my peak, several de-mons, including Arvad, were able to beat me soundly."

"They beat you?" said Aliza. "Then how is it you are still alive? Or can you also put yourself back together after being cut in half?"

Cray laughed lightly. "No, my lady, though it would surely be a fine talent to have. No, I always yielded before there was any real danger. Demons never yield, but they respected it as my choice."

"You trusted them so far?"

"I was teaching them the fine points of their new game; it would have been foolish of them to kill me as long as they enjoyed the learning. And soon enough they understood that I was just a harmless, friendly creature without any desire to be a slave master. So I've had no trouble with them at all."

While they had been speaking, another match had begun, two cloud warriors of very nearly equal skill, and Arvad had stayed among the surrounding demons to cheer at every well-placed blow. When the match was done, it returned to the mortals, and to Cray it said, "You and I should take each other on again sometime. It's been too long."

"Too long indeed," Cray replied. "These arms have lost their affinity for sword and shield, and you would find it a poor exercise, I know. However, I will tell you that your undercut could have been faster; you might practice that."

"I will."

"And now, I think the lady has probably had enough of combat for one day. I had hoped to show her a few things about the world of Water before this journey's end. We can always return for another glimpse of Air at some future time."

"You are my guide," said Aliza. "I'll look wherever you point."

"Very well then-to the boundary of Air and Wa-ter, my friends."

The audience of demons did not seem to notice their departure but remained clustered, cheering yet another set of combatants.

"Have you participated in that game, too, Elrelet?" Aliza asked as they sped away.

"Not I," said the demon. "My interests don't lie in bashing my fellow creatures about. I fear too much of Gildrum rubbed off on me in my youth, and I have less of a love for rough and tumble than the average Air demon. I prefer to take my ease in my own house, or to visit with good friends."

"Do any of the other sorts of demons practice this kind of fighting?" "Some few of every other sort," said Arvad. "Though the demons of Water and Ice have less interest in it than those of Fire."

"Few indeed of Ice," said Leemin. "And those only the youngest and most foolish among us."

"They come here occasionally to test themselves against the warriors of Air," Arvad said. "But it is true that this game appeals most strongly to ourselves. It suits our nature well, and we are all grateful to Cray for introducing it among us."

"Which I did purely by accident," said Cray. "They saw me at my own sword practice in Elrelet's house once, and immediately they had to try their own tal-ents at it. Little did I realize how much of a change I had wrought in Air by a bit of sword swinging."

"We needed a new game," said Arvad. "We needed to develop new skills and a new way of ranking each other. And I for one am glad of it, for I am in the highest ranks of Air demons now, where I was for-merly lost and struggling in the middle. Of course, Cray did me the favor of teaching me personally, so perhaps that has something to do with my success."

"Nonsense. You had considerable native skill. It would have come out even without my personal help.

You only needed practice."

"That may be as it may be, but still, whether as a result of your guidance or my own diligence, I have met nearly a thousand challenges successfully, and some of them far more formidable than this last. Far more.

Why, not long ago I fought one of the champions of Fire, and the match went on so long that half the spectators tired of watching and flew away. I'd lost both of my legs by the time it was over, but I still had most of my shield, which was more than my opponent could say. You would have been proud of me, Cray."

"I'm sure," Cray replied, and he let Arvad chatter on about past matches until the boundary between Air and Water became visible in the distance.

The surface of Water was as vast and flat as the surface of Ice, but instead of being faintly milky with a dusting of snow, it was a clear blue deeper than sap-phire. From afar, Cray and Aliza saw their reflections in it as in any pond, saw themselves approaching slowly in the arms of two demons of Air, with a miniature sun at Cray's shoulder and a sliver of white ice at Aliza's and a sparkling star behind them. They came to a halt barely an arm's length from that surface.

"Touch it," said Cray.

Tentatively, Aliza brushed the surface with the pads of two fingers, then laid her palm flat upon it. "It resists me. And it feels quite hard."

"Try prodding it with just one fingertip."

She did so, and that finger sank slowly into the surface like a spoon through jellied soup, ripples spread-ing from it as from a stone dropped into a still pool. When she withdrew her finger, it was wet, though her palm had not been. "Strange water," she said.

"It has a kind of skin," Cray told her. "Or else it would dissipate in Air like dew drying in the sun. Shall we enter?" "I'm ready if you are."

"Good. Now don't be startled as Arvad covers you completely. It will keep you from getting wet as well as from drowning." As soon as he had said this, he saw the demon pallet expanding to envelope her in a skin-snug gray cloud which then cleared to colorless transparency.

"It seems comfortable enough," said Aliza, looking down at herself as if searching for some spot that was still opaque. She tried to touch her thigh with one hand but could not because of the intervening cushion of demon substance. She clapped her hands together, but demon gloves kept them apart and muffled the sound as readily as woolen ones would have. She swung her arms wide, then in an arc. "I hardly feel it at all," she said finally.

"I'm here, though," said Arvad.

"Its voice," exclaimed Aliza. "Like a breeze on my cheek."

"Well," said Cray, "what is an Air demon made of but breezes? Come, we'll enter Water now. I'll go first, Elrelet. Arvad can bring my lady Aliza after."

When Elrelet had covered him completely, Cray lifted his arms above his head like a diver poised to fling himself from a high cliff. The demon tilted him toward the surface of Water and thrust him, and itself, forward, a living spear cast at an endlessly broad target. Cray pierced the surface smoothly, and as Water enclosed him, he felt it resist his motion as Air never had. Here he could truly swim, and, paddling easily with hands and feet, he turned about to watch for Aliza. Behind him the boundary was a perfect mirror, and he saw only his own reflection staring back at him, and the dimness of Water all around. The light of Air was sealed away by that mirror, and though this world was suffused with its own internal radiance, that was deep cobalt to Air's azure. But the dimness was dis-pelled in a moment, as Gildrum passed through the barrier, bringing yellow sunshine into Water. Aliza came next, her diver's posture somewhat awkward, but good enough to cleave the mirrored surface. Regneniel, the icicle, was at her shoulder as before. Leemin followed after her, a slender shaft that ex-panded itself into a star once more on this side of the boundary.

Aliza glanced about. "So this is Water. It seems as empty as Air, just darker."

"Don't be so quick to judge by what you see here," said Cray. "The demons of Water rarely spend their time so close to Air. If we want to view them and their works, we'll have to move on to more favored haunts."

They moved on, with Gildrum in the lead like a torch.

Presently, Cray stretched out one arm to point ahead. "There."

In the distance, a large cluster of yellowish lights became visible, perhaps a hundred of them, like tiers of candles.

"What is it?" asked Aliza.

"Water," replied Cray. "Nothing but water."

At closer approach, the lights resolved into the mul-tiple reflections of Gildrum's radiance upon the curved faces of a mass of transparent bubbles, the whole cluster floating in the midst of Water like a sacof fish roe in a pond. With nothing to compare it to, its size was impossible to gauge; when Cray called his party to a halt, it was only visually as large as the circle of his arms.

"This is a good vantage," he said. "Now, my lady. you mustn't be deceived by the apparent size of this structure-it's larger and farther off than it might seem. Each of those bubbles could easily encompass your cradle room, and so the entire mass is comparable in size to your palace."

"And what function does this structure serve?" she asked.

He smiled at her. "An excellent question. When I first visited, I thought it was the castle of some great Water-Lord."

"But there are no Water Lords," said Elrelet.

"And then I thought it must be the communal dwelling of some great number of Water demons."

"But they all live elsewhere," said Elrelet.

"Then what is it?" asked Aliza. "A storage place for some sort of treasure?"

"They have no treasures," said Elrelet. "What they do have is the ritual."

"Ritual?"

"We've come here to view it," said Cray. "Unless we're too late."

"I shouldn't think so, said Elrelet. "They practically promised me they would wait until we arrived."

"A Water demon's promise," murmured Arvad. "As good as a Water demon's swordsmanship."

"There they are," said Gildrum. "I'll dim my glow so you can see better." And it shrank to a single candle flame.

Without the Fire demon's light, the structure of bub-bles seemed to vanish in the deep blue of Water.

And then, all about the place where it had been, a shim-mering began to fill the blue, an iridescence that slowly solidified into a chain of glowing milky spheres. Like a living strand of pearls, they wound about the cluster of bubbles, illuminating it with a pale, opalescent light. One sphere led all the rest, swooping, now slow, now faster, and the others followed precisely. As they cir-cled the structure, their reflections glinted from it, multiplying their presence a hundredfold. And then those reflections emerged to join the procession, leav-ing duplicates of themselves behind, which emerged in their turn soon enough. How many of the myriad pearls that finally danced the figure were true demons and how many mere images, no human eye could determine.

After a time, the orderly pattern began to break up, the participants finding individual movements, racing, bobbing, interweaving like gnats at sunset over a hedge. Now two would come together and bounce apart; now three or four would meet and scatter at a touch; now a handful would collide and fuse into a single larger sphere and burst, showering their fellow dancers with more pearls than had united. Soon the bubble struc-ture was completely engulfed in a boiling mass of Water demons, more each instant, until suddenly they fountained outward in all directions and vanished.

Though he had been expecting it, Cray still flinched at the fountain, as countless opalescent spheresex-ploded toward him. But none reached him. He and his companions were left unharmed, untouched in the blue of water that now seemed darker than ever.

Gildrum brightened and dispelled that darkness.