"And there won't be another for the better part of a year. Plenty of time to make up a lost day, one single lost day."

Hesitantly, she nodded.

He squeezed her fingers gently. "Then come along with me. Let me be your host for an evening. Let me serve you my favorite wine. And we can look at the stars above Spinweb. I promise you, they'redifferent stars."

Her lips compressed into a thin line as she looked away from him, down at the floor. "I can't."

"Would you disappoint my mother? After she made you that beautiful tapestry?"

"I've repaid that several times over, I think."

"Not toher. "

"And you yourself said no repayment was necessary."

Cray leaned toward her. "You're not afraid to meet my mother, are you?"

She raised her dark eyes to his face. "I am not afraid of anything."

He smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. Then you'll come."

She pulled her hand away from his, pulled it back to shelter behind her other arm. "No."

"Why not? Give me one good reason why you won't come to Spinweb with me for supper."

"I don't have time."

"A better reason than that, Aliza."

She looked into his eyes for a long moment, and then she said, "Very well. My grandfather wouldn't like it."

"Your grandfather?"

"He has already expressed his displeasure at the amount of time I have spent with you, away from my studies."

"You told him?"

"No, but he has his ways of knowing."

"His ways of spying, you mean."

"I am his apprentice. It is right that he should be concerned with the way I use my time."

"He was displeased ... yet you commanded Regneniel to admit me, and here we are once more, together."

"That was by my choice."

"Then choose to come with me to Spinweb. You've traveled with me to Air; Spinweb is only a little farther."

She shook her head. Very softly, Cray said, "Is it the human realm that you fear, or is it your grandfather, who wants you to spend your whole youth inside these walls?"

Her gaze was defiant. "I told you I don't fear anything or anyone. Don't accuse me of your own weaknesses."

"Then come with me to Spinweb."

"I don't wish to displease him more than I already have. I owe him too much."

"Must your every act please him, Aliza? Why not please yourself? Why not please me? You'll give him his due-you always have. Now take some small frag-ment for yourself."

"But all of this is for myself!" She turned her whole body sharply, toward the hearth. "Regneniel, is that pot boiling yet?"

"Very nearly, my lady."

"Then bring it here." She directed the demon to fill the vase with the steaming liquid. "Observe, Cray Ormoru, that the powder is now completely dissolved. Next we must chill the container. When I was a child and first practiced this, I let it cool naturally, but I don't care to spend the time for that now, so Regneniel must breathe cold, very gently, upon it. Very gently."

The demon bent close to the vase and opened its beak. Cray, sitting opposite, could see no entry to its gullet, just seamless whiteness at the inside base of its beak, as smooth and blank as alabaster. But he could feel the cold coming from it, not as a breeze but as a slow seeping, as if chilled metal lay close to his flesh, drawing the heat from him. He shivered and moved back.

"It is enough," Regneniel said after some moments. It closed its beak, and with that closure, the cold vanished, abruptly replaced by the soothing warmth of the hearthfire.

Aliza glanced at Cray. "Now watch closely." She crouched over the vase, crystal rod in hand. Then she gestured to him peremptorily. "Closer."

He eased forward till their heads were almost touching.

"Now," she whispered, and she tapped the side of the vase with the rod.

Crystallization began at the point of disturbance and moved outward, spiky shards like ice forming one after the other almost too fast for the eye to follow. Within two heartbeats the liquid in the vase had become a solid. Aliza picked up the vase and turned it upside down to show that no fluid remained to spill out.

Cray took the vase from her hand and turned it, staring down into its crystalline contents.

"I didn't have to tap it," she told him. "I could have dropped in a speck of salt or even a speck of dirt.

That would have been enough of a disturbance to start the crystals growing. You see, the liquid had all the proper raw materials to form these crystals; all it needed was an impetus to begin-the vibrating wall of the vase or some bit of foreign matter. Just so, Ice has all the proper raw materials to form this palace; and the cradle room was its impetus. But the palace is no more alive than the liquid was or than thesecrystals are."

Cray set the vase down on the floor. "You used no sorcery for this?"

"Any ordinary mortal could have taken these mate-rials and achieved the same result."

"Even ... me?"

"Of course."

He clasped both hands around the vase. "There is a pattern here," he said. "I can feel it. There was none in the liquid, but the solid is ... interlocked. Interlaced. One could almost call it ... woven."

"Of course the solid is interlocked. How would it hold together otherwise?"

"Indeed, how?" He chuckled softly and laid one hand flat on the floor in front of him. "And how did I not realize that before now? I've been surrounded by such a solid, yet I had to see one born before I could comprehend its nature. Aliza, you've given me a whole new world to study."

"What-crystals?"

He nodded. "Shall I learn to build myself a palace out of quartz sand, Aliza?"

She shrugged. "Do as you will. It doesn't matter to me."

"Nor to me, I assure you. Nor do I care whether this palace is alive or dead." He reached out to her, touched her shoulder with one gentle hand. "All that matters to me is that you come to Spinweb for supper with me this evening. An evening, Aliza, no more unless you wish it. You needn't stay overnight.

But my mother is an excellent cook. And I have a special gift waiting for you there."

"Another gift? Why do you persist in giving me things, Cray Ormoru?"

"Cray. Just Cray."

"Very well-Cray."

"I give you things because I derive pleasure from the giving. Would you deny a friend such a small pleasure?"

"If you wanted to give me something, why didn't you bring it along with you, then?"

"No, no. Part of the gift will be your seeing how the gift is made. And that must be in Spinweb."

"You think to lure me with mystery."

"I must lure you with something." He climbed to his feet. "Come with me, Aliza. I promise you good food, good wine, and good company. Make your deci-sion now, for I told my mother I'd return quickly, and I've been gone too long already; I don't want her to think something terrible has happened to me."

Aliza scrambled up. "You're leaving?" "I must."

"But you haven't been here very long."

"Long enough. Waiting while you were in your med-itation chamber used up most of the time I'd allowed myself. And my demon friends are outside, surely wondering about me."

"We can tell them you're safe. They can tell your mother."

He shook his head. "I must go home." He bowed to her. "Forgive me, but ... farewell." He turned toward the stairway that led to the dining hall.

"I thought we could talk over supper," she said to his back.

"Forgive me."

She hurried to catch up to him. "You know, you can't leave unless I allow it."

He paused on the steps and, without looking back at her, said, "Am I a prisoner?"

"Yes!"

The doorway at the top of the stairs suddenly filled with mist that solidified into a mirror.

"Aliza," he said quietly, "this is foolish. You won't keep my friendship by locking me up."

Her fingers touched his elbow lightly, tentatively. "Stay."

He shook his head. "If you want my company, come along. I'm more than willing to talk over supper at Spinweb." He turned to her at last and caught her hand with his own, pressing it firmly against his arm.

"Prove to me that you are not afraid of the human realm. Or of your grandfather. Spend an evening in a strange, exotic place."

She looked up into his eyes. "Is it evening in the human realm?"

"It is, at Spinweb. And the moon has probably just risen."

"And your mother really wants to meet me."

"Very much."

"I'm not ... accustomed to meeting people."

"You'll find that she is a very kind and tolerant lady."

"The human realm." She shook her head. "I'm only doing this because you and I are friends."

"We are friends," said Cray, and when he looked to the doorway once more, it was open.

* * * Because neither Leemin nor Regneniel had ever visited Spinweb and, therefore, did not know where it lay, Cray and Aliza had no means of reaching it di-rectly from Ice. Instead, they had to journey to Air, to use Elrelet's portal there. Elrelet easily carried both of them, one cradled in each of two arms extruded from its cloudy mass, while Gildrum sped to Fire and its own route home. Leemin stayed behind, having no interest in supper. And Regneniel stayed, too, until such time as Aliza should call to it from the human realm, her presence there a beacon to guide it to Spinweb.

Elrelet's portal opened high above Spinweb's walls. From that vantage, the sun was still visible, riding the horizon like a huge cabochon ruby. The sky opposite was already a deep, pure ultramarine, and a few stars were visible there. Below, the garden at the heart of Spinweb was lit by a host of torches.

"Call your demon now, if you like," Cray said as they sank slowly toward that beckoning glow.

"No," said Aliza. "I would not insult another sor-cerer by bringing a strange demon into her home. I respect her boundaries, just as I would expect her to respect mine. Unless, of course, you foresee some need for it ... "

"No. Not at Spinweb."

"Then let it stay in Ice until I am ready to return." She looked down, toward the torches.

Though the season was deep winter and snow lay heavy among the trees that surrounded the castle, there was no snow on Spinweb's parapets, and none in the garden. There, a perpetual sorcerous summer reigned. Illuminated by flaring torchlight, a thousand fragrant blossoms lay open to the night sky, blossoms that did not ordinarily spread their petals after dark but which, in obedience to Delivev's will, displayed themselves for this evening's meal. A table was set in the midst of all this color and perfume, a table laid with an embroidered cloth and slim tapers in silver candelabra, with dishes of fine porcelain and goblets of crystal to rival Aliza's own. At one end of the table sat Delivev, an embroidery frame in her lap, her head bent over the work. Before her, the candles were burnt halfway down.

The gust of wind that marked Elrelet's descent into the garden made the candles flicker wildly. Delivev looked up and, seeing the travelers, set her embroi-dery aside and rose to greet them with a smile. Cray embraced her quickly and then turned to present Aliza.

"My dear," said Delivev, holding her hands out toward the young woman. "I have heard so much about you. Welcome to my home."

Aliza stared a moment at Delivev's outstretched hands, then hesitantly raised one of her own to grip one of them.

Delivev immediately grasped Aliza's hand with both of hers and urged the young woman toward a seat at one side of the table. "It's so very late. You must be famished."

"I know I am," said Cray, pulling the chair out for their visitor and then taking the one beside her for himself.

"I'm sure Gildrum won't mind if we sup without him. Elrelet, you'll stay, won't you?"

"For your cooking, I will always stay," said the demon and, molding its cloudy substance into a vaguely human form, it took the seat opposite hers. "Wine?" inquired Cray's mother, and without wait-ing for an answer from Aliza, she filled the young woman's goblet with a pale amber fluid. "Cray tells me you like a tart wine, so this may be too bland for you. Still, I find it goes quite well with fowl."

Aliza sampled it as the others poured their own shares. "Very nice," she said.