Regneniel sank to the floor at her feet. "My lady, your grandfather charged me to look after you, and when he finally gave me to you, that was still my purpose. I don't trust these other demons you speak of.

They are not your slaves. Why should they serve you?"

"If they don't serve me, Regneniel, I'll call you soon enough, be assured of that. But I think everything will work out well. Now, I command you, go home and do whatever it is that free demons do for the next two months unless I call you sooner."

The demon climbed to its feet. "As you wish, my lady." And, like a javelin thrown by some doughty warrior, it flew from the room.

Aliza watched Cray and Gildrum as they sat in silence at the table. Neither of them looked after the departing Regneniel. Cray quartered a pear and ate each slice with slow relish. Gildrum slouched in his chair, as if its crystalline surfaces were cushioned com-fort. At last Aliza said, "I thought you'd follow it, to make sure it really went away."

"No need for that," said Gildrum. "I know it's no longer within these walls."

Aliza looked to Cray with raised eyebrows. "So you were wrong."

Cray finished the last slice of pear. "Wait," he said. "It's just gone to report your command to your grandfather, and to receive his instructions. It will return. In the meantime, why don't we show Gildrum about your palace, Aliza? I've told him of it, but words never could match the reality of something so marvelous."

They spent an agreeable time wandering through both sides of the building, and Gildrum appeared to have no difficulty comprehending the mechanism of the connection between them, though he could not explain it to Cray's satisfaction. "Perhaps only a de-mon could truly understand such a thing," he said.

"Humans simply are not accustomed to living in more than one plane." The other side of the palace was pleasantly warm now, not stifling as it had been in summer; beyond its walls, snowcaps were still visible on the surrounding mountains, snowcaps as sparkling with sunlight as the bare crystals that showed there in summertime, but covering a greater area. Between palace and mountains, the coarse quartz sand was clear of snow; for Gildrum's benefit, Aliza caused a patch of it to fountain upward and form a slender column.

They returned to the Ice side of the palace at last, but when Aliza would have halted in the dining hall, Gildrum moved on, as if curious to see the kitchen, though he had already done so. Just inside the kitchendoorway, he halted. "Come here, my lady," he said.

Aliza and Cray joined him.

He pointed up at the ceiling, which was well above the reach of human arms. "Regneniel."

Cray and Aliza looked up. They saw the ceiling, its broad horizontal facet glowing, half concealing the room above.

"Where?" said Aliza.

"There's a thin sheet of transparent crystal overlaying the real material of that section," replied Gildrum.

"That's Regneniel."

"But Regneniel isn't transparent."

"Why not?" said Cray.

"It's never been transparent."

"You didn't know it could be a bird or a mouse, either."

Aliza pursed her lips. Then she raised one hand to the sapphire. "Regneniel, if that is you, come down here and assume your usual form." When nothing happened, she turned to Cray. "Well?"

He shrugged. "If you're not its master, then it doesn't have to obey you, does it?"

Aliza looked to Gildrum. "You'resure?"

He smiled. "A demon knows a demon, my lady. Regneniel is as obvious to me as a man would be standing out on your plain of sand. But if you doubt, just invite Elrelet or Leemin in, and they'll point to the same place, I promise you."

"Coached by you."

"You aim your suspicions in the wrong direction, my lady," said the Fire demon.

"Regneniel must find itself in something of a dilemma here," said Cray. "Its true master has ordered it to keep watch on you. It knew, of course, that Gildrum could see through its disguise; it probably even warned your grandfather of that. But he couldn't let the two of us be here unobserved and probably doing twice the damage to your studies that I did alone. So here it is, recognized yet not daring to reveal itself because it is still masquerading as your slave, and if it is your slave it has just disobeyed you. A dilemma indeed. How can it obey your grandfather and you at the same time? It can't. The masquerade is over, Regneniel. We know you for what you are." After a pause, during which no Regneniel revealed itself, he added, "It must be hoping that you won't believe us."

"We'll prove this one way or another," said Aliza. "Regneniel! Come here! Immediately!" She pointed peremptorily to a spot two paces in front of her feet.

For a moment yet, nothing happened, and then the ceiling facet that Gildrum had indicated peeled away from the rest of the ceiling and floated lightly to the floor, changing its shape and opacity along the way sothat in a few heartbeats the familiar form of the de-mon stood before them. It sank to the floor before Aliza, laying its beak at her feet.

"Forgive me, my lady," it said. "You told me to go to my home in Ice, but this is my home in Ice, my only one. I have no other place but at your side."

Aliza's pale face was hard as she looked down at the demon. "And why did you not obey me when I com-manded you to come down the first time?"

"My lady, I feared your displeasure."

"Buthow did you disobey me, slave?"

The beak tipped up toward her. "You neglected to saywhen I was to come down, and so I took the liberty of interpreting the command ... liberally."

Gildrum chuckled softly at that, and Aliza turned on him sharply. "Why is that amusing?"

He bowed to her. "I did the same, my lady, when I was a slave. A demon master must always be very careful of how he phrases his commands, especially those that the demon does not wish to carry out."

"Then you're acknowledging that Regneniel is my slave."

Gildrum shook his head. "Only that it issomeone's slave."

To the Ice demon, sternly, she said, "Regneniel, I command you to go out of this palace, to go out of sight of this palace, and to stay that far off until I call you back. I command you to go now."

"Please, my lady," it said, "don't send me away. My life is nothing away from you. My only content-ment is by your side."

She recoiled a pace. "Do you beg to disobey me, slave?"

"My lady, have pity on me and let me stay."

"She has no pity, Regneniel," said Cray. "You should know that."

"Please don't make me go," it whispered.

Aliza crossed her arms over her bosom. "Are you disobeying me?"

"My lady, I am only asking you to reconsider."

With a sidelong glance at Cray, she said, "Regneniel, are you truly my slave?"

"Yours alone, my lady, yours faithful as long as you wear the stone."

"Did you expect any other answer?" said Cray. "It has been most carefully instructed."

"Set it a task," said Gildrum. "Not just to leave, which I perceive it will postpone one way or another forever at this rate, but a concrete task. Test your control by giving it a command that Everand wouldnever allow."

"For example?" asked Aliza.

"For example, it can come and go as it will in Everand's castle; therefore, command it to bring you back his head, without his body attached."

Aliza's dark eyes widened. "That's a fine test but somewhat ... final, don't you think?"

"Quite final. But you care nothing for your grandfa-ther, he's seen to that. This is only just recompense for his crimes."

"An excellent idea," said Cray. "And Gildrum, Elrelet, and Leemin shall go along, as far as they can, to see that Regneniel does not dawdle on the way."

Aliza looked from Cray's face to Gildrum's and back again. Then she closed one hand about the sapphire and said, "Yes, Regneniel, I command you to go to my grandfather, to kill him, and to bring back his head as proof. I command that this be done immediately."

The creature seemed to be looking up at her with its eyeless head. Its beak opened and closed once before it finally spoke. "My lady, I cannot penetrate the spell that surrounds his walls. No demon can."

"Nonsense," said Cray. "You did it a thousand times when you were his slave. I don't doubt that you have a portal directly into his quarters."

"That portal closed when he gave me to the lady Aliza!"

"And it can be reopened whenever you wish. Don't think you can lie to me about demon powers, Regneniel. I may not wear rings on my hands, but I know demons. Your portal into Taranol's castle is still there as well, but if you used it, there would be demons in plenty waiting to bat you aside.

Fortunately, that is not a consideration in Everand's case. He has no other slaves to turn you away, nor any other powers that would keep you from doing your duty."

"My lady," said Regneniel, "will you believe this mad human or me?"

Gildrum said, "Cray knows demons."

"His accomplice, my lady, not to be trusted any further than himself!"

"Enough of this!" cried Aliza. She pointed a finger at Regneniel. "Not another word from you. Go to the demon world of Air this moment, and do not return until I call you. This moment!"

"And don't try to come back and hide in the palace," said Cray, "because Gildrum and I will be staying for a long, long visit, and we'll find you."

"Go!"

The demon crawled backward a short distance, its polished belly sliding upon the crystalline floor, its tiny arms flapping like stunted wings. It fetched up against the hearth, one narrow foot slipping in among the embers, raising a spray of gray ash to dust its pale marble flesh. Then, slowly, it raised its beak and neck like a proud man facing insult, and it came erect stiffly on its spindly legs. "As you wish, my lady." Ina sudden burst of motion, it leaped into the hearth, shot up the chimney, and was gone.

Aliza turned to Cray. "Regneniel has never given me this kind of trouble before, but it is gone. You seem to have been ... incorrect."

Cray looked at Gildrum. "Well?"

The Fire demon leaned over the embers and peered up the flue. "These chimneys all connect with each other and lead out to the human realm by way of the cradle room. Regneniel would seem to have taken that route. It certainly isn't in the palace any longer."

"So you have to admit that you were wrong," said Aliza.

Cray shook his head. "I admit only that Regneniel is a very clever creature. Obviously, your grandfather forbade it to reveal that you are not its true master, and yet he also commanded it to stay here and spy on you even if you dismissed it. It tried very hard to do both, but that just wasn't possible as long as Gildrum and I were here. Now, I wager it's gone back to him for fresh instructions."

"Or it's obeyed me," said Aliza.

"Do you really believe that?"

Her cool dark eyes bored into his. "I don't know what to believe."

He touched her arm softly with just the tips of his fingers. "You do care for your grandfather. You must or you wouldn't hope so hard that I'm wrong."

She frowned. "I don't want to believe without proof. I don't want to believe just because you say I must. Who are you, after all? Just a stranger. He is my blood."

"He is," said Cray, "and that makes his actions all the more shameful." His fingers slid gently up her arm to her shoulder and rested there with the least possible pressure. "A little while ago you were willing to com-mand his death because a stranger suggested it."

"If Regneniel had gone then, I would have called it back immediately. Just beginning the journey would have been proof enough."

"Perhaps. But the journey wasn't begun. And now you must ask yourself why. You must consider who lied to you-two strangers or the demon that has tended you most of your life. I know this is a hard choice for you. I wish it could be easier."

She twisted away from him and covered her face with her hands. "You have disrupted my life, Cray Ormoru. You have deluged me with sights and sounds and notions I never asked for and never needed.

You have made me doubt everything that was certain in my life, even myself. And all in the name of a mirror that broke when it saw me. Oh, that mirror is well broken, may it never be remade! Friendship you call it, but I call it devastation. How little I suspected what would happen when I allowed you inside these walls!"

Cray went up behind her and, taking her shoulders between his two hands, laid his cheek against her smooth, dark hair. "My dear Aliza, I only wanted what was best for you." Again, she pulled away, and now when she spun about to face him, her hands dropped down to her sides and her eyes blazed defiantly. "Do you presume to know what is best for me? You and your demons and your Seers? Do you think that just because you have power over the things of the human realm that you know what I need? You, who presume to know somuch about my grandfather, whom you've never even seen!"

Her vehemence took him aback. Where was the line, he wondered, between indignation and anger? She might not be able to cross it, but he had never seen her so close to it before. Her voice was like a tangible force, beating at him, and when he answered her, his own voice sounded strangely thin and uncer-tain in his ears. "Yes, I did think I knew what you needed." He hesitated. There was a thickness in his throat as he looked at her, as he tried, with his eyes, to bridge the gap that lay between them, a gap of mere air that now seemed to him like a bottomless chasm. He wanted to reach out to her, but he knew she would only back away. So well, he knew her, but beyond that? They had touched, but that had only been flesh to flesh, a brief meeting of exteriors. What she was, inside, behind those eyes, seemed still as distant from him as at that first moment he had seen her in the mirror. Were they friends? Or had they just passed near each other a few times? He did reach out, with a truncated gesture. Now he understood the mir-ror's message only too well, and pity rose in him for every person who had ever looked into that glittering surface. For himself. The words came hard to his lips. "But ... perhaps ... I only really knew what I needed."

She shook her head. "I don't understand."

His hand fell limp against his thigh, as if it were made of stone. His whole body felt heavy, strengthless, and Ice seemed to press close upon him, chilling him to the marrow. "No, of course you don't. You can't." He looked down at the crystalline floor. "I didn't understand myself. I didn't want to understand.

I must have denied it a thousand times. But now I see it clearly."

"What?"

Very softly, he said, "That I love you. That I love you more than I have ever loved anyone or anything in my whole life."

"Love?" she said sharply.

He nodded. "Everything I have done for you, to you, because of love. Oh, not at the beginning. I don't think so, anyway. At the beginning it was pity. I felt so sorry for you, shut away here without any human leavening for your life. Who else was there to help you but myself? I thought of it as help, truly I did. I don't precisely know when pity turned to love. Perhaps it was over a goblet of wine. Or under the stars.

Or perhaps it was only just a moment ago, when I realized how deeply I have distressed you. Forgive me, my lady. Forgive me." He took a deep breath and felt a shudder pass through him. "Perhaps ... we would both have been better served if you had never let me into your palace at all." With an effort, he straight-ened his back and raised his head. He met her eyes and saw their fire replaced by ... puzzlement.

He tried to smile, but his lips could only make a crooked grimace, and his own eyes were bleak as the winter he felt sweeping through him. "It might be best if Gildrum and I left now. I'm sure you can explain to your grandfather that you've broken off your friendship with me; that will please him. You can return to your studies and be just as you were before." His throat had so thickened that those final words were a mere whis-per that would have been lost if the barest breeze had stirred the room. He wanted to turn away from her at that, to punctuate his statement, but he could not force himself to do so. He could only stand and look into her face with that farce of a smile on his lips.

"Wait," she said, even though he had not moved a step. "I didn't mean for you to go." "No?" he whispered.

She frowned and clasped her hands together tightly "It isn't that you haven't been interesting. Or educational."

He made a stiff, awkward little bow. "Thank you."

"But you pushed me so hard, you demanded somuch." She shook her head sharply. "But we can't undo the past. It's foolish to speak of what might have been or what should have been. No matter what happens now, I'll never be what I was before you came here. We have our friendship, for good or ill. I don't want to abandon it. Truly I don't, even if I can't ever completely understand you. And I don't want to give up learning about the worlds beyond Ice. I just want there to be some compromise between us. Is that impossible?"

He tried to shrug, but the motion was nearly invisi-ble. "What would you suggest?"