passage.
Finally the mare spent her wind and slowed to a gentle walk. Listening between the hoof clops, Kestrel could hear no sound of the wizards or men-at-arms. He dropped to the ground and grabbed at the reins as they passed, pulling the horse to a stop.
Kestrel gave himself the luxury of a long deep breath. He was getting too old for such theatrics. And now he probably would have to move on to the next kingdom to practice his skills. He could not count on the shame of the masters in being outsmarted to keep his presence secret. Soon every wizard within the flight of doves would know to watch for a woodcutter and his wagon. He would have to change his tale altogether and probably target another of the five arts as well.
And what of Phoebe? She might not think that snatching her from the other wizards was much of a rescue. Of course, in her present state, she might not think much of anything. Kestrel looked up into the wagon. What was he going to do now?
Suddenly there was a movement from within the awning. A figure stirred. Kestrel dropped his jaw in surprise.
'Why did you turn back?' the demon Astron called down from where Phoebe still slumped. 'Even more than the location of the lair of the gold djinns, that is the part I most want to understand. Why did you return to fetch the woman?'
Kestrel recovered his senses and shot back. 'What are you doing here? How did you follow where no one else could?'
'I climbed in the back of this-this conveyance while you were pulling the female wizard in through the front,' Astron said.
'But why?' Kestrel slowly inched back from the wagon. He looked quickly up and down the tree-darkened road. He and the demon were alone. Astron looked no more menacing than he had when he had first appeared in Phoebe's cabin with his almost human face and muted scales, but the apprehension Kestrel had felt then returned swiftly to his thoughts. And now there was no lure of gain to distract him from the risks of dealing with demonkind.
'I doubt control of my will would be that interesting,' he said quickly. He brushed off some of the road dust from his arms and straightened his tunic and rucksack, trying to look as imposing as he possibly could. 'Probably it would be better for you now to find some convenient fire and vanish back to whence you came,' he said.
'The law of dominance or submission applies only when one of my kind transits between the realms,' Astron said as he vaulted from the wagonbed to the ground. 'Once I am across, there is no need to wrestle any further. I will do you no harm. Besides, there is the matter of the contract. I have yet to meet with the archimage. You have sworn on your honor to provide the means.'
'That was merely half of it,' Kestrel snapped back quickly. 'I was to have received something to line my purse in exchange for my efforts. Thanks to you, I have nothing to show. The contract is balanced on both sides. We each entered the agreement with nothing and now neither is any the better because of it.'
'That is not quite so.' Astron stepped forward and opened his fist. 'In the confusion that followed the bursting sack, none of the wizards seemed to mind that a demon was scurrying over the ground with them. This is perhaps not what you fully anticipated, but it is far from the nothing of which you speak.'
Kestrel looked down at the offered palm. There arrayed in a neat row were more than two dozen brandels, glinting with the light that filtered through the canopy of trees shading the road. A dozen brandels-less than he had hoped but as much as he had expected from convincing Phoebe to buy his wagonload of wood in the first place.
He reached out to grab the coins as Astron slowly tipped his hand. 'This is compensation for the errors you made by speaking out, is it not?' he asked. 'A settlement and then we can be on our separate ways?'
'This is payment in full,' Astron said. 'I have honored my part of the bargain; now you must honor yours.'
Kestrel shook his head in disbelief. The devil was indeed serious!
Or so he professed to be. The doubt immediately followed in Kestrel's thoughts. Honor, contracts, and trust- such things were mere abstractions. They did not really exist-not for him anyway, not since he had trusted too much and paid the price. Could it really be any different for the demon? Kestrel stared at Astron's unblinking expression, trying to fathom the true motives that lay behind it.
Astron did not speak. Kestrel looked away, noticing almost absently the foam standing on his mare's withers. He reached into the wagon for a coarse rag and began to wipe the moisture away, his mind churning with what he should say next.
Kestrel finished rubbing down one side of his mare and then started on the other. 'Do you not understand?' The words burst forth at last with more bitterness than he would have liked. 'Understand what it means to bargain with one such as me. I am no hero from the sagas, performing great deeds for kings and masters of the five arts.
'No, my satisfaction comes from motives much less lofty. I prey upon these so-called heroes; the masters most highly regarded give me the greatest thrill. I tempt them where they are the weakest and appeal to the baseness in their characters that is easily as great as mine.
'Was Phoebe truly interested in the properties of anvilwood or the fact that the price I seemed to offer in innocence was merely a tenth of what it would fetch from Procolon to the north? Did the wizards care about the effect of gold nuggets common as pebblestones on all those about them or merely wonder which one would end with the greater share?
'Honor, heroes, the masters-each time that I succeed, each time that they reveal the rotten core beneath their masks of righteousness, it piles proof upon proof. There are no such things as heroes, only men, and not one any better than I.'
Kestrel stopped and slumped his shoulders. Why had he said so much? His values and how he acted were his business alone, certainly not the concern of a being from somewhere beyond the flame. It was best to end things quickly so he could be on his way. He stared silently at Astron, waiting to see how the devil would react to what he had said.
'You speak with great passion,' Astron replied after a moment. 'A passion that I never before have observed.' He reached into the wagon and grabbed a second cloth. Eyeing Kestrel's work critically, he dabbed at an apparent wetness on the mare's hindquarters that had been missed. The horse whinnied and backed away, but Kestrel patted her neck and calmed her back down.
'I wish that I had the time to pause and understand it more fully,' Astron continued, 'but for now we must continue. Tell me, what is your plan for gaining the attention of the archimage?'
'Didn't you just hear what I said?' Kestrel flung his rag to the ground. 'The merging of our paths was an accident, an alignment of the random factors, as the alchemists would say. Now that the business at Phoebe's cabin is done, there is nothing more to bind us together. Here, keep the brandels. But look elsewhere for a hero with honor, if one you must have.'
'I do not know as much as I must of the realm of men,' Astron said. 'For that, I must rely on you. But of sprites and wizards my knowledge is perhaps the deeper. For the foreseeable future that will be your greatest need.'
'What do you mean?'
'Wizards are most proud. Their wills are not easily diverted, once they have set upon a goal.' Astron stepped around the mare, thrusting his face into Kestrel's, his eyes glowing with intensity. 'Do you really think that every master who visited the woman's cabin will forget what has happened and let you continue unimpeded on your way?
'Or will they call forth from my realm the most powerful devils that they dare and send them searching- searching until you have been found and cast in some dim dungeon as punishment for your deed?'
Kestrel felt a chill race up his spine. Maybe Astron was right. Simply disappearing and starting over might not be so easy. And years in a dark cell he could well do without.
'We are cleanly away,' Kestrel said. 'Once we reach the juncture, the road will be one well travelled. Demon- aided or not, I will be able to fade successfully from sight.'
'It will take time.' Astron shook his head. 'But eventually you will be found. At first they will dispatch hundreds of small imps or perhaps even thousands if their ire is truly great. Tirelessly, these will dart throughout every corner of your world, examining the features and actions of you humans as closely as they dare. Those who match the descriptions given them will become the subject of a more intense investigation by devils with greater capacity
