Dead of Night

Jinx spoke little as they headed back to his place. The first thing to do was to get Vernon to change Elanor around so she could leave the Astral plane at will. Jinx cringed every time he thought of how he'd trapped her there, and left her to fight off whatever incomprehensible horrors the place had. He'd thought it was just some sort of spy-thing, a place where you could fly around looking through walls and listening to people without their noticing. It would have been bad enough if he'd banished Elanor to a gray, empty place over and over, but it was far worse to realize that he'd forced her into a horrible, dangerous place with mysterious, frightening things living in it, a place that drove humans insane. As if that wasn't enough, while she was in this horrible place he'd been making remarks about how he didn't particularly want to let her out. It was incredible that she still loved him after such behavior. He certainly didn't love him after such behavior.

"Jinx? What are you thinking about?" asked Elanor.

"Nothing," said Jinx. The next thing to do after getting Vernon to change Elanor was getting Vernon to change him, and the thought terrified him. It wasn't just the thought of being altered by magic, either. He was determined to go into the Lonely Place with Elanor, even if it killed him. He was pretty sure he wasn't human enough to be hurt by it, but he couldn't be certain. All those years he'd tried to be human...

"Jinx, why aren't you talking to me? Are you mad at me, because of the way I ate?"

"No, I'm not mad at you."

"Then what's bothering you?"

Jinx sighed, realizing he'd have to tell her sooner or later. "I'm going with you to the lonely place, Elanor, and I'm scared. That's all."

"You are? Peter and Julia said not to. I thought you changed your mind."

"I have to. It's only fair. Besides, I might learn something about Nameless-King."

"Oh." said Elanor. "Okay, then, you can come."

"You don't sound very worried!"

"Why wouldn't you be able to come along? You're a cat like me."

"You said there were horrible things there."

"We chased them away, and now it's empty. Well, sort of. It can't really be empty, because it's too big. It's hard to explain. I'll have to show you, and then you'll understand, but I promise there won't be any things chasing you. Does that help?"

"I guess so."

"I call it the Lonely Place, don't I? If the things were still there, I wouldn't be calling it the Lonely Place. I'd be calling it the Scary Place, like we used to call it."

When they reached Jinx's place, they went straight into Vernon's cave and confronted the startled dragon, who'd been taking a nap.

"What is it? Do you have an appointment? No pets allowed on the premises."

"Are you talking about Elanor?" snapped Jinx, offended.

"No, I've decided that you're both my pets, and the humans as well. Unfortunately, I've rather outsmarted myself, because my lease doesn't allow pets. It's most distressing."

"What lease?" said Jinx. "You rent this cave from King-Thomas?"

"Certainly not. I found this cave myself, and so I had to make the lease myself as well. I got a tremendous bargain, I might add: the rent is so low that I actually owe myself money! I'm being very lenient, of course. Considering the situation, I suppose I wouldn't mind if I let you in here, every now and then, but promise you won't tear up the carpet."

"There isn't a carpet, there's only rock."

"Well, promise you wouldn't tear up the carpet if there was one."

Jinx rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Vernon, this is serious."

"Serious? That's extra."

"Extra what?"

"Hmmm... I'm not sure. Never mind, do please continue."

"I need you to do some magic. First, can you make it so Elanor can go in and out of the lonely place whenever she wants?"

"I should think so, and I thoroughly approve. I should have thought of that long ago. Consider it done, no charge, and you need buy only six regular club selections over the next two years. Did you have a second request?"

"I need to go there, too."

The dragon turned his vast, scaly head and stared at Jinx for a moment.

"Have you told anyone else of this, Jinx?"

"Peter and Julia don't want me to go. They say that if people go there, they go crazy. Is that true?"

"I'll try and explain." said the dragon. "I'm not sure how much you'll understand, though. The Astral plane isn't just a place, it's a plane of thought on a tremendously high level. Things live there, and sometimes manifest themselves in Rainmoor proper, but they're not truly independent entities, more like distorted echoes of the overall consciousness. Elanor and the other astral guards can go into the Astral Plane because they're not sufficiently complex to be affected by the place..."

"Can you explain better? I didn't understand any of that. Echoes of what?"

"Hmmm. If you had, I'd know straight away that you shouldn't risk it. I've looked at your mind, Jinx, and it's extremely ambiguous. I couldn't tell you whether it's safe or not. I imagine that Peter and Julia were being rather sentimental if they were shocked at the idea of you going Astral, because I suspect they think of you as a regular human, only with a different appearance. Humans tend to do that. They assume that, if they like an entity, that entity is therefore similar to them. They do this with me as well, and I must admit sometimes I fall into the same irrational trap. However, I am certain that your mind is not a human mind, and yet it's not an animal mind either. As I said, ambiguous."

"Does that mean I can go with Elanor?"

"It means I'm not sure, Jinx. Why do you want to? Guilt? Curiosity? A desire to defend Elanor? If that's the reason, I'd point out that she's evidently done quite well on her own. There are almost no reports of hauntings or malicious spirits these days. Elanor, do you know why that is?"

"Yes." said Elanor. "We chased all the things away~."

"We?" inquired the dragon.

"Us animals. The things were too scary, so we stuck together and went after them until they all started to go down, or up, or whatever, and we didn't stop until they went far away and left us alone."

"Ah, that explains it. Good work, Elanor. Jinx, Elanor and her friends presumably thought they were chasing creatures of some sort away. What I imagine actually happened was that they overpowered the entities by the force of their emotion and loyalty to one another, and being animals weren't susceptible to the dissolving effect of the Astral Plane. Animals tend to have a strong, instinctive sense of self, and will go into a defensive posture when subjected to the Astral Plane, refusing to perceive anything that violates their world-view. For instance, Elanor, what would you say if I told you that all the things you chased away are still there, in fact are everywhere in the Astral Plane at once?"

"They are not! We chased them so far away that they'll never come back!"

"You see, Jinx? Elanor can't understand the Astral Plane, and this protects her from it."

"I don't understand what you said either, Vernon. Did you go there?"

"Good lord, no!" exclaimed the dragon. "I wouldn't last a moment! I'm far too intelligent to risk it. There are other ways to learn about the Astral Plane, you know, such as windows and beacons. They're awfully tedious, but I've had centuries to play with them. So you understood nothing of what I said?"

"Nothing." said Jinx, suppressing a feeling of unease.

"In that case, I suppose I could give you a little taste of the Astral Plane, to see how well you handle it. I'll fix Elanor up first, and then I'll project you into Astral for, oh, ten seconds. I think that's a safe time limit. Humans can stand from five to ten seconds of it before they go mad, so I imagine ten would be safe for you. When the time is up, I'll pull you back in."

The dragon fell silent, working on Elanor's mind and giving her the ability to go in and out of the lonely place at will. Jinx waited, getting more and more alarmed at what was about to happen to him. He hoped Vernon would let him get ready for it, rather than just throwing him in.

Finally, Vernon lifted his head from Elanor, who'd frozen immediately as if wanting to test the new ability out. The dragon looked at Jinx, and his eyes bored into Jinx's, inexorably.

The first thing Jinx noticed was that the walls of Vernon's cave were growing gray and misty. In fact, everything was getting gray and misty. Jinx felt something brush his leg, and looked down in alarm, expecting to see some nameless horror.

He saw a misty gray Elanor, looking up at him with ears perked up: however, her eyes were just holes in the cloudy form. Worse, he couldn't see his leg, and as soon as he noticed that, he couldn't feel it, either. With a shock, he realized that his body was gone entirely, and he was nothing but a disembodied mind in a transparent gray image of Rainmoor.

Transparent? He looked off into the distance, and that was a terrible mistake. He didn't see very far, but his mind reached out in the direction he was looking, and he knew then that Rainmoor was infinite. His perception raced uncontrollably in that direction, and he felt the reality of endless caves and tunnels forcing itself on his brain, making him dwindle into a tiny, lost speck in the horrible expanse...

Jinx shut his eyes, refusing to see any more, and that cut off the feeling of infinity, for a moment. Then he sensed things of some sort, off in the distance. He held his eyes tightly shut, even though there was no 'eyes' and no 'him' anymore. That didn't matter as much as not letting the things get him.

The things squirmed and flickered in his mind, his perception of them doing impossible things: one instant a thing would be infinitely far away, and then it was already breathing down his neck, latching onto a piece of his mind and vanishing into incalculable distance with it. But, strangely, his mind was not diminished by this: it existed in both places, where he was, and where the thing had gone. He seemed to become them, or perhaps they became him. Again and again, the things reached across the gray abyss and grabbed pieces of him, and this was okay, because he was everywhere...

All at once, with that thought, his mind swelled, as if the gray misty cave he'd been in was dwindling to a speck. He expanded through the infinite caves, and he was imagining all of them, and he was them, for he was Rainmoor. And he smiled.

And as the pinpricks of caves, in their fantastic, minute complexity, grew so tiny he could not see them, though he still felt every one, a strange thing happened. The image of a single cave, larger than all of Rainmoor, faded into existence. He was greatly confused at this, for the new thing wasn't him, and that didn't make sense at all. It kept getting clearer, and he suddenly realized he had legs and arms and a tail, which were unusual things for an infinite being to have. He was lying on hard rock, on his back, and something was licking his face, and it was Elanor, and he was Jinx.

"Say something, Jinx! Please!" Vernon was pleading.

"What? Say something... What do you want me to say? Elanor, stop that!"

The dragon heaved a suitably gigantic sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, you're all right."

"I am?" said Jinx, not at all convinced.

"You must be, Jinx, you're talking. Nobody who went mad in the Astral Plane ever talked when they were brought back."

Elanor, lying on his chest, hugged him awkwardly with her front legs, saying "Oh, tiger, I was so scared! Promise you'll never disappear again!"

"Uh, okay." said Jinx. He didn't quite understand what she meant, but somewhere in the back of his mind was a part of him that did understand, and trembled.

"He's going to be okay, Elanor, and I will not allow him to risk it again. He had a close call. You'd better stay close to him for a while, body contact will help him stay in touch with reality."

Jinx, still trying to get within shouting distance of reality, asked "How'd you know the other people were mad, if they didn't talk?"

"Some could only laugh," said the dragon, "and some just stared. Some wouldn't stop crying. They never lasted long, because they wouldn't eat. One who'd been crying suddenly attacked everyone around him, and wouldn't stop trying to kill everybody even after he'd been tied up so he couldn't move. One started laughing, wouldn't stop, and then sprang up and beat his head against the rock of the cave wall, still laughing as he died of a shattered skull. What would you call it?"

Jinx started shaking, feeling once more the terrible way that reality had overwhelmed the infinite being he'd almost become, trapping him within this ridiculous body, this pathetically small and limited mind. It seemed horribly unfair and absurd. While he was in the Astral Plane, he had nearly become an all-powerful, limitless being, laughing with delight in his omnipotence, and it had turned out to be only a dream, just a terrifying, seductive fantasy. Or was that reality, and this the nightmare? His head spun, and when it stopped spinning the cave was reality, the Astral Plane was the nightmare, and Elanor was licking his face again. He stared at the ceiling, and let her, for the foolishness of it was comfortingly real.

She turned and looked reproachfully at the dragon. "Don't you dare say anything to upset my mate again! You hold your tongue!"

"I won't say anything else, Elanor." rumbled the dragon apologetically. "I didn't mean to upset him. I think you'd better handle this. When he feels better, can I question him about what he experienced?"

She glared at him. "Maybe. I'm taking Jinx to bed now."

"That might work. Unless he's too shaken to respond the way you want."

"What? Vernon, I'm not going to get him to make love to me! I'm going to cuddle him, like he did for me when I first met you. Don't you see that Jinx needs some peace and quiet? Haven't you ever had a mate?"

"No, Elanor, I have not. Dragons aren't prolific, you know."

"Then you couldn't possibly understand. It's a mate thing. Jinx, are you going to come with me, or shall I drag you by the scruff of the neck?"

Jinx got up hastily, swaying a bit, and followed Elanor out of the dragon's cave.

They lay down on the cushions, and he held Elanor tightly, feeling her reassuring warmth. She was purring, and he could feel her purr as well as hear it, her body pressed firmly against his.

"Don't listen to him." said Elanor. "All that matters is that you came back."

"Uh-huh."

"If you want to make love to me, I'll be happy to. I was just scratching Vernon's nose about that."

"No, not now." said Jinx. "I want to sleep."

"Actually, so do I. What a day we've had, tiger! Just exhausting!"

"You said it."

Before long, Elanor was fast asleep. She purred in her sleep, which Jinx thought was much more endearing than snoring. Jinx was having problems. When he started to drift off, he'd panic, as if he was drifting away in the Astral Plane again. He'd come awake again with a start, jostling Elanor, who'd grumble crankily without actually waking. That would reassure him, and he'd drift off to sleep again, only to be jolted awake by his nebulous fears again.

After a few hours of this, Jinx had to get out. Even with Elanor pressed against him, he couldn't stand the frustration of lying there and not quite sleeping. He managed to extricate himself from the affectionate, furry tangle he and Elanor were in, without waking her, and prowled off in search of something that felt real.

He looked in the dining room for a snack of some sort, and ate some half-moon bread things, but his efforts to find reassuringly normal food just made matters worse. The thin, brown liquid that hissed and sputtered, the small forked pieces of meat in clear jelly stuff, the cheese soup with toast: none of it was even slightly reasonable, and when the horrible red insect-thing appeared again, Jinx gave up.

He quietly slipped out into the passages of Rainmoor, closing the door gently to not wake Elanor, and started roaming. One good thing about his experience with the Astral Plane, he thought, was that he now felt like he could find his way around, for that terribly clear sense of all the interlinking caves surrounding him had burned the map of the local area into his brain. That was the only good thing about having been in the Astral Plane, but Jinx had to admit it was helpful.

He passed Gerald's place, now Charles's. Light showed under the door, but Jinx didn't want to see Charles. Jinx wondered if he was happy with getting his lifelong dream, now that he had it. Perhaps he was, but apparently he still couldn't sleep at night. Jinx could understand that, since he wasn't able to sleep himself. The events of the day were too disturbing to just shake off, not counting the Astral Plane, which Jinx could feel surrounding him, a dim echo of nightmare giving every cave he went through an uneasy sense of familiarity.

There was somebody ahead approaching him, two people talking to each other. Jinx considered avoiding them, but then decided that wandering Rainmoor alone would only make him feel worse. Perhaps they'd be willing to talk to him, and through companionship dispel the eerie dread he felt. They came into view, and Jinx saw it was James talking to someone he didn't recognize.

They stopped short, seeing Jinx, and James said "Speak of the devil."

"Jinx would rather not, thank you," said Jinx. "Jinx would rather speak of things that aren't frightening."

James seemed alarmed and disgusted at the same time. The man with him said, "Now, James, you need not be so shocked. Rainmoor often has people's paths cross when it wishes to fix these matters. Why don't we all go back to my place and have a friendly discussion? Perhaps we can solve both your problem and mine at one stroke."

A friendly discussion sounded fine to Jinx, but James drew himself up haughtily. "I shall take leave of you now, sir. Forgive my reluctance, but I shall not willingly associate with this... with him, even for the best of reasons. Good day."

James left, brushing past Jinx with a strange combination of irritation and bravado. Jinx was tempted to swipe at him as he passed, for his arrogant manner and contemptuous ways, but held back because James was wearing a sword, and Jinx had left his at home. Jinx felt foolish at the urge, for the desire to lash out like that came from his tiger side, and sometimes he'd forget at such a moment that he had fingers instead of claws. It was fine if he had a sword in his hand, but barehanded he was at a disadvantage, his instincts trying to call upon natural weapons he didn't have.

The other man remained, examining Jinx with a wary, searching look in his eyes. Jinx wondered if he was frightening the man, and in an attempt at reassurance, said "You wanted to have conversation?", for he'd found that people got used to him faster if he made a point of talking to them.

"Why, certainly." replied the man. "I should be delighted to entertain you, Lord Jinx, do please come this way. How does becoming a First Lord suit you? What brings you out here so late at night? Follow me, we'll go back to my place and I'll get you a drink."

They proceeded along a twisting path that wove down into areas Jinx hadn't been to, and Jinx tried to answer the man's incessant, curious questions, which never let up. The man watched Jinx closely as he answered, and gave such an impression of shrewdness that Jinx found himself asking questions of his own.

"You don't say! You survived the Astral Plane? I am impressed. What did you learn there?"

"Not much, just how to not get lost. Vernon wanted to ask questions about it, too. Why is that?"

"We know so little about it, Lord Jinx! It's natural that any good mage would be fascinated with any intelligent being that went to the Astral Plane and returned with its sanity. What we have for information is dreadfully technical, you know. We lack a subjective impression of what the place is like, and such an impression could be of great help in focusing our efforts. Would you be willing to describe your experience, Lord Jinx?"

"No. Not yet, anyway."

"Perfectly understandable. I'm not in the least surprised that it's left you shaken. However, you must understand that the impressions of the Astral Plane will be more useful if they're fresh. It's possible that, when you recover fully from your experience, your mind will contain nothing of value about it. Since you're not willing to describe it, might I enter your mind and examine the..."

"No!"

"Lord Jinx, I apologize. Is there some reason why this notion upsets you? It would seem the obvious thing to do, if you cannot describe what happened."

"Jinx is not going to let you wander around in his mind!"

"I regret your decision, Lord Jinx. Do you normally refrain from use of your title?"

"I'd rather use my real name. And who are you?"

"By all means. Why is it that you prefer not to use your title, if you don't mind my asking? I've found that First Lords are less likely to use their title in conversation, that is, to wish it to be used. Second Lords, on the other hand, when talking to someone of lesser rank, will often be offended if the title is omitted. Why do you suppose that is, Jinx?"

"Maybe they want everybody to know who they are. Why didn't you answer when I asked who you are?"

"Now, Jinx, are you suspecting me? I'm not the Nameless Pretender, you know. I'm just an ordinary noble, trying to get by in these dangerous times. It's distressing, the signs and omens are greatly troubling. Did you mention Vernon? Vernon and I often end up working on the same problems, and I felt him contact Robert as Robert merged with Rainmoor. Did he learn anything useful?"

"Only that Robert got killed by Nameless. Oh, also that I'm supposed to kill Nameless, either that or I'm going to kill the King instead. That doesn't make sense, the King is a nice human and I have no intentions of killing him. If you were there, did you find out anything that would explain it?"

They'd arrived at a door that seemed to be made of iron, and the man paused while he fumbled at locks of some sort. The door opened silently, and they went into a large, low-ceilinged cave, that was filled with books and magical implements: crucibles, scrying glasses, scrolls, everything a powerful mage would want. Jinx found this disconcerting, for it reminded him of his father's workshop. He was beginning to think he'd made a mistake in accepting the man's invitation.

The man replied, slowly, "Yes, I did. If what you're telling me is true, then it confirms my own perceptions. What Vernon did not notice was a shade of meaning, relating to duration or time, which is perhaps understandable because his species is so long-lived that time means little to him. Can I get you a drink?"

"No, thank you. What does this shade of meaning say?"

"I expressed myself poorly there. It's only partly related to time and is more to do with the succession, as it works in Rainmoor. Vernon does understand succession, but it's not important to him."

"What does it say? And who are you? What are you doing?" asked Jinx in some alarm, for the man was doing things on one of his workbenches with his back turned, making Jinx very nervous.

"You're not destined to kill King Thomas, you're destined to kill his successor." said the man. "Currently, his successor is Lord Ivan. And that will never do, for Lord Ivan is me."

Jinx turned and made for the door, which still hung open, but stopped in his tracks, as a powerful force clamped down onto his mind. He struggled futilely, unable to move, his mind reeling under the hostile magic trying to destroy it.

"Honestly, I'm not the Nameless Pretender." said Lord Ivan. "In fact, when I become King, I shall destroy the Nameless Pretender as soon as I can determine who he is. Until then, I will bide my time, and wait for him to kill King Thomas. I'm well protected in my home, since I've drawn almost all of my powers into this one small area, so Nameless is bound to kill the King first. Then I will kill him. However, I'd rather you didn't kill him, at least not until he gets King Thomas. More importantly, I can't leave you running around loose, ready to kill me when I succeed to the throne..."

Jinx fought desperately against the magic, so hard that he stopped breathing, unable to do anything but strain against the force crushing his mind. His vision ran red as he savagely battled Ivan's magic, holding it off somehow by sheer ferocity and determination.

"My, your mind is a fierce one, Jinx. I'm lucky I did pull all my power into this one room. I'm tempted to apologize, for I meant to kill you quickly, not this way. It must be terribly uncomfortable for you. I'm dismayed at that, for I'm not a cruel man and I honestly didn't mean to torture you like this. I'd better stop chatting with you and focus the spell myself. Before I do, I must say that I wish I could have met you in other circumstances, Jinx. Your mind is awe-inspiring in its resistance to hostile magic. It's rather touchingly futile, for I notice you're not breathing and will soon die of asphyxiation, anyway. I am sorry for the agony you're being put through. That spell is supposed to kill instantly and painlessly. I'd better help it now."

Lord Ivan fell silent, and Jinx's mind writhed as the pressure doubled, tripled. Jinx became nothing but a center of white-hot rage, holding back the hostile magic with vicious fury. He would not allow himself to be killed by magic, no matter what, even if that meant fighting until his body failed and died. Not by magic. Not that way...

Suddenly the pressure slackened, went back to its original amount, and Jinx could see again, though he was still unable to move. What he saw was baffling: Lord Ivan was reeling around, striking at nothing with his hands, as something invisible tore at his clothing. It would stop for a moment, and Lord Ivan would look around in a panic, and then the invisible thing would attack again, knocking him back. Jinx saw blood coming from the man's throat, and his tunic was torn.

Finally, Lord Ivan fell back onto the table he'd been working at, his hands around the invisible thing and trying to push it away from his throat. He rolled around, knocking vials and flasks in every direction, and suddenly Jinx was free again, able to move. He nearly fell over when that happened, for he'd been straining so hard that all his muscles were stiff. The door was still open, and Jinx bolted for it and ran for his life, hardly caring where he went as long as he was going away from the wizard's lair.

When he stopped, he looked around and realized he'd instinctively taken an alternate path back to his place. He was within five minutes' walk of it, and he knew which way to go. He also realized he'd been running full tilt on all fours, and his hands hurt because they really weren't much good for that. Jinx stood up, massaging his hands and nervously looking and listening for any indication that Ivan was pursuing him.

Before he could start walking, however, he felt something brush his leg, and nearly jumped out of his skin, his heart pounding. He froze, and looked down, and saw nothing. The invisible thing had followed him. Then, as it rubbed affectionately against his leg, he realized who the invisible thing was. Elanor was trapped in his place, unable to open the door, but still she'd managed to come with him, in Astral form.

He reached down to pet her, but she was gone before he could touch her, and all he felt was a brief sensation of cold, as if his hand had passed through a chill breeze. He headed home.

When he opened the door, Elanor was waiting right behind it, and she reared up on her hind legs and threw herself into his arms, trembling.

"Don't you ever, ever, do that again, Jinx! I woke up and you were gone, and when I found you in the lonely place, that horrible man was trying to kill you!" she wailed, and burst into tears.

"Well, you got him, anyway. Did you kill him? You were at his throat when I left."

"No, no, I couldn't! When I noticed you were gone, I started to fade, and I couldn't bite him anymore! I tried, but I just went right through him because I wanted to find you so badly that killing him didn't matter as much. I gave up, and went to find you, but the man was still alive! I'm going to go there right now, and rip his throat out!"

"No, Elanor! You mustn't! If you go there yourself, he'll kill you, just like he almost killed me."

"Is he the bad man everyone keeps talking about?"

"I don't know. He acts like it, but he said he wasn't. Why would he lie to somebody he was about to kill?"

"In case you got away, which you did?"

"Maybe. I should talk to Vernon about it. He did say one thing that was interesting. He said that I'm not going to kill King-Thomas, instead I'm going to kill him because he's the next King."

"Good. Kill him. Can I help?"

"Well, it's dangerous."

"So? I want to eat part of him. It'd serve him right. It was frustrating trying to bite his throat from the lonely place, because I couldn't taste it."

Jinx was shocked. "Elanor, do you usually eat people? You can't do that!"

"Oh, no. I never have, even before I came here. Little monkeys are what I usually ate. Sometimes a deer or something, but I wasn't really old enough to get deer whenever I wanted. I stopped being hungry when I was brought here, and I haven't been hungry for a very long time. I just want to make an exception for this one. Can you blame me? He was attacking you!"

"You shouldn't. Killing him is all right, but you can't eat him. He's a human."

"So?"

"Vernon told me that it's impolite to eat something that can talk to you."

"Who cares? Where do you get all these funny ideas, anyway?"

"Elanor," said Jinx, "I've been living like humans for a very long time. As a personal favor to me, will you promise not to eat any humans you kill, even if they were attacking me?"

"Not even a little bit? Just as a snack?"

"Not even a little bit."

"What difference would it make? Dead things are dead."

"Elanor, no! How would you feel if something was trying to eat me?"

"You're not dead! Don't talk like that, Jinx!"

"I'm just trying to explain. Think of how you'd feel if that happened."

"I will not! Why are you saying such horrible things?"

"Elanor, I'm trying to show you why eating humans is wrong. You shouldn't even be saying things like that. Not even about Lord-Ivan!"

"Oh, all right. I don't see why it's such a big deal to you, but if it makes you feel better, I promise not to eat any humans. It's not like I'm hungry, anyway, so it shouldn't matter much."

Jinx decided he'd never let that not-having-to-eat spell be taken off Elanor. It was disconcerting to realize that under the ability to talk, under her passionate devotion to him, was a predator that liked to tear her victims' throats out and eat them. He had still been trying to fool himself into thinking that she was like people, and once more he was reminded that Elanor was still the jungle cat she looked like.

He wondered whether that was what he loved in her, whether his own dual nature was stirred by her innocent shamelessness, her predatory fierceness. His tiger side had been suppressed, so he could live among humans, and he realized that he was ashamed of it. Every time he'd panicked and dropped to all fours, every time he'd lashed out with his hand, forgetting he didn't have claws, even every time he'd turned around without looking and knocked something over with his tail, his shame had grown.

He tried to put it out of his mind, and was shameless with Elanor for a while, although he had to admit she was far more shameless than he, and then they slept, and Jinx was untroubled by nightmares.

Elanor had trouble getting to sleep, and when she did, her dreams were a far cry from her usual dreams of prowling the jungles, hunting and mating and stalking prey. She dreamed that Jinx was fleeing from a tiger twice his size, while she was stuck in the lonely place and couldn't touch anything. She jumped around him hysterically, for the other tiger was bounding after him, yet Jinx refused to drop to all fours and run properly. Horrified, she watched it seize him, and heard his agonized squall. The beast threw Jinx down onto the ground, holding him down with one huge paw, and Elanor went for its throat, but her teeth went right through it like she didn't exist. It began to eat him. She tried frantically and futilely to bite it, tormented unendurably, because it hadn't bothered to kill him first. It simply held him down, its claws stabbing deep into him, lazily sinking its teeth into Jinx's helplessly struggling body and ripping him apart before her eyes. Elanor, maddened, desperately tried to drive away the happily feeding beast, but she still couldn't touch it, and as it finished eating Jinx's middle and sank its teeth into his chest, he gave one last despairing thrash and yowl and died, and Elanor woke with a start, shaking, her heart pounding wildly.

She had to look to see if Jinx was okay, terrified that she'd find herself lying next to an eviscerated, dead body. He was sleeping peacefully, and there wasn't the faintest sign of the grisly mayhem she'd seen happen. When she settled back against him, he stirred and mumbled something unintelligible without opening his eyes. Elanor pressed against him, shivering, and lay awake for a long time, not understanding.

Eventually she fell asleep again, exhausted, and dreamed of jungles.