Richard sighed. "I guess I get your point."

"I travel in a way that is different from your way of traveling. This place, here, even though it is halfway across the Midlands for you, was the closest place for me. I had to get you out into your world again so that you could breathe.

"You no longer had what was needed to travel. Your lungs were filled with me. For those without the gift, breathing me is poison. It will kill them. But for you, since you were in me and breathing me already, there was a brief period when you were going through a transition, so having me in you was not instantly fatal. You would have died soon, but there was a brief time before that would happen. I knew that the time you had before you would die was not very long at all. I thought to do my best to save you, to get you to a place where you could be back in your world and hopefully recover.

"I brought you here, broke the seal, and placed you out in your world again. You were hurt, but I knew that the essence of me still within you would help sustain your life for a short time."

"If I could no longer travel, because I don't have the required gift, then what made you think that?"

"I was made to have properties to assist in emergencies. Those properties are within me — and thereby they were within you. They help to start the process of recovering. It is only intended for a crisis and even then I was warned that it could not be certain that it would work because there are variables that cannot be controlled.

"While you slept between worlds, and my magic that you still had within you was working to extract what had now become poison to you, I finished taking the others to the Keep. When I returned, I waited with you until you were recovered enough to be ready to breathe again, then I helped to remind you what you must to do to live.

"For a time I did not know if it would work. I have never had to do such a thing before. It was terrible to have to wait while I watched you lying there, not knowing if you would ever again breathe. I feared that I had failed you, and that I would be the cause of your death."

Richard stared at the silver face for a long moment. Finally he offered her a smile. "Thank you, sliph. You saved my life. You did the right things. You did good."

"You are my master. I would do anything for you."

"Your master. A master who can't travel."

"It is as puzzling to me as it is to you."

Richard tried to think it through, tried to make sense of it, but with the pain of breathing after nearly drowning in the sliph still feeling like it was pressing heavily on his chest, he was having trouble making his mind focus on thinking.

Richard rested his forearms across his knees. "I don't suppose there is any way for you to take me back to the Keep?"

"Yes, Master. If you wish to travel, I can take you."

Richard sat up straighter. "You can? How?"

"You must simply acquire the required magic, and then I can take you again. Then we will travel. You will be pleased."

Acquire the required magic. He didn't even know how to use the magic he had — or used to have. He couldn't imagine what had happened to his gift, and he had absolutely no idea how to get it back. There had been any number of times he'd wanted to be rid if it, but now that it had actually happened all he could think about was getting it back.

When his gift had failed, the beast had apparently lost him in the sliph. As consolation to losing his gift, it seemed the beast would be one less problem he had to face at the moment — his gift, after all, had been the mechanism by which the beast was keyed to him, the way in which it hunted him. There was supposed to be balance in magic; perhaps that was the balance to losing it.

Richard raked his fingers back through his hair. "At least Nicci and Cara made it through and are safe." He looked up at the sliph. "You're sure that they're all right?"

"Yes, Master. They are safe. I took them to the Keep, where they had wished to travel. They had what was required to travel."

"And you told them where I was. You told them what had happened."

She looked surprised by what had sounded more like a mandate than a question. "No, Master. I would never reveal what I do with another."

"Oh, great," he muttered. He worked to keep his exasperation in check. "But you've told me about others."

"You are my master. I do things with you that I would not do with anyone else."

"Sliph, they are my friends. They're probably frantic with worry for me. You must tell them what they need to know."

The silver head tilted toward him. "Master, I cannot betray you. I would not."

"It's not a betrayal. I'm telling you that it's all right to tell them what happened."

The sliph looked like she thought this was just about the strangest request she had ever had. "Master, you wish me to tell others about us, about what we do when we are together?"

"Sliph, try to understand. You are no longer a whore."

"But people use me for their pleasure."

"It's not the same thing." Richard raked his fingers back through his hair, trying not to sound angry. "Listen, wizards in ancient times changed you from who you were, from what you were."

The sliph nodded solemnly. "I know, Master. I remember. I was the one it happened to, after all."

"You're different now. It's not the same. You can't equate the two things. They're different."

"I have been given a duty to serve others in this capacity. My nature is still within me."

"But there are some of us who use you who greatly value your help."

"I have always been valued for what I do."

"This is different from what you did before." Richard didn't want to be having this argument. He had more important matters to worry about. "Sliph, when you travel with us you are often helping to save lives. When you traveled with us to the People's Palace, you were helping me to end the war. You are doing a good thing."

"If you say so. Master. But you must understand that those who created me made me the way I am. They used what I once was to create me as I am now. I can be no way other than the way I am. I cannot wish myself to be different, any more than you can travel now simply by wishing it."

Richard sighed. "I suppose not."

With one hand he snapped dry twigs in half as he thought it over. He shared a long look with the beautiful face watching him, hanging on his every word. Finally, he spoke softly.

"There are times when there is no other way, and you must trust others. This is one of those times."

Something about his words clearly struck home. The beautiful, liquid face came a little closer.

"You are the one," the sliph whispered.

"The one? Which one?"

"The one Baraccus told me would come."

The hair on the back of Richard's neck stood on end.

"You knew Baraccus?"

"He was once my master, like you are, now."

"Of course," Richard whispered to himself. "He was First Wizard."

"He is the one who insisted that I possess the emergency elements I told you about. He also directed that there be this emergency portal. Had he not done those things, you would have died. He was very wise."

"Very wise," Richard agreed as he stared wide-eyed at the sliph. "You said that Baraccus told you something about one who would come?"

The sliph nodded. "He was kind to me. His wife hated me, but Baraccus was kind to me."

"You knew his wife, too?"

"Magda."

"Why would she hate you?"

"Because Baraccus was kind to me. And because I took him away from her."

"You mean, you took him away when he wished to travel."

"Of course. When I would tell him that he would be pleased, she would fold her arms and glare at me."

Richard smiled a little. "She was jealous."

"She loved him and did not want him to leave her. When I would return with him after we traveled, she would often be there, waiting for him. He would always smile when he saw her, and she would smile in turn."