'So you went swimming without me!' Cherie said severely. 'Here I stay home tending your colt while you gad about-'
Chester scowled. 'I gad about because you spend all your time with the colt!'
'Uh, there's no need-' Bink interposed.
'Stay out of this,' she murmured to him with a wink. Then, to Chester, she flared: 'Because he is just like you! I can't keep you from risking your fool tail on stupid, dangerous adventures, you big dumb oaf, but at least I have him to remind me of-'
'If you paid more attention to me, I'd stay home more!' he retorted.
'Well, I'll pay more attention to you now, horse-head,' she said, kissing him as the arena dissolved and a more cozy room formed about them. 'I need you.'
'You do?' he asked, gratified. 'What for?'
'For making another foal, you ass! One that looks just like me, that you can take out for runs-'
'Yeah,' he agreed with sudden illumination. 'How about getting started right now!' Then he looked about, remembering where he was, and actually blushed. The golem smirked. 'Uh, in due course.'
'And you can run some with Chet, too,' she continued. 'So you can help him find his talent.' There was no hint of the discomfort she must have suffered getting the word out.
Chester stared at her. 'His-you mean you-'
'Oh, come on, Chester,' she snapped. 'You're wrong ten times a day. Can't I be wrong once in my life? I can't say I like it, but since magic seems to be part of the centaur's heritage, I'll simply have to live with it. Magic does have its uses; after all, it brought you back.' She paused, glancing at him sidelong. 'In fact, I might even be amenable to a little flute music,'
Startled, Chester looked at her, then at Bink, realizing that someone had blabbed. 'Perhaps that can be arranged-in decent privacy. After all, we are centaurs.'
'You're such a beast,' she said, flicking her tail at him. Bink covered a smile. When Cherie learned a lesson, she learned it well!
'Which seems to cover that situation sufficiently, tedious as it has been,' the Demon said. 'Now if you are all quite ready to depart, never to return-'
Yet Bink was not quite satisfied. He did not trust this sudden generosity on the part of the Demon. 'You're really satisfied to be forever walled off from our society?'
'You can not wall me off,' the Demon pointed out. 'I am the source of magic. You will only wall you off. I will watch and participate anytime I choose-which will probably be never, as your society is of little interest to me. Once you depart, I forget you.'
'You ought at least to thank Bink for freeing you,' Cherie said.
'I thank him by sparing his ridiculous life,' X(A/N)th said, and if Bink hadn't known better he might have thought the Demon was nettled.
'He earned his life!' she retorted. 'You owe him more than that!'
Bink tried to caution her. 'Don't aggravate him,' he murmured. 'He can blink us all into nothingness-'
'Without even blinking,' the Demon agreed. One eyelid twitched as if about to blink.
'Well, Bink could have left you to rot for another thousand years, without blinking himself,' she cried heedlessly. 'But he didn't Because he has what you will never understand: humanity!'
'Filly, you intrigue me,' X(A/N)th murmured. 'It is true I am omnipotent, not omniscient-but I believe I could comprehend human motive if I concentrated on it.'
'I dare you!' she cried.
Even Chester grew nervous at this. 'What are you trying to do, Cherie?' he asked her. 'Do you want us all extinguished?'
The Demon glanced at Grundy. 'Half-thing, is there substance to her challenge?'
'What's in it for me?' the golem demanded.
The Demon lifted one finger. Light coalesced about Grundy. 'That.'
The light seemed to draw into the golem-and lo, Grundy was no longer a thing of clay and string. He stood on living legs, and had a living face. He was now an elf.
'I-I'm real!' he cried. Then, seeing the Demon's gaze upon him, he remembered the question. 'Yes, there is substance! It's part of being a feeling creature. You have to laugh, to cry, to experience sorrow and gratitude and-and it's the most wonderful thing-'
'Then I shall cogitate on it,' the Demon said. 'In a century or so, when I have worked out my revised nomenclature.' He returned to Cherie. 'Would one gift satisfy you, feeling filly?'
'I don't need anything,' she said. 'I already have Chester. Bink is the one.'
'Then I grant Bink one wish.'
'No, that's not it! You have to show you understand by giving him something nice that he would not have thought of himself.'
'Ah, another challenge,' the Demon said. He pondered. Then he reached out and lifted Cherie in one hand. Bink and Chester jumped with alarm, but it was not a hostile move. 'Would this suffice?' The Demon put her to his mouth. Again Bink and Chester jumped, but the Demon was only whispering, his mouth so large that
