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have been eliminated. You will either be gone, or completely under her control."
He raised one eyebrow. "It was my suggestion that there was another way to eliminate you as a threat
without exiling you. The laws against congress with such as I have been softened in the last several
years. While taking a demon as a lover no longer is punished by exile, there still must be a price. And
since your deities do not approve of such things, such intercourse does render one-hmm-sacramentally
unclean. I entered that service clause into the contract, and told the Queen that I might persuade you to
accept what I offered. I sought to save you from exile at least, Xylina, for you know that exile is simply
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a longer road to death."
Xylina finally saw the nature of the double trap she was in; she whispered, appalled, "But if I were to-
what you wish-to pay the debt, then I would be unclean, and no Mazonite who is unclean can take the
throne-"
Ware smiled, as if at a clever child. "Precisely. The Queen's onus against you would be forever abated."
"But my oath-" she protested. "I swore-"
"Oaths can be interpreted in many ways," he said smoothly. "I swore an oath not to tell you that the
Queen was your enemy. In just those words. And I did not. I gave you the information you needed to
infer Adria's name and rank; you came to the conclusion, I did not tell you. My oath was not violated,
and yet I also treated you with honor."
She shook her head, and her hair fell across her eyes like a curtain to cover her shame and
embarrassment. But she was learning the ways of the world only too quickly this afternoon, and she
knew that there was no curtain thick enough to hide her from what already was. And yet-there was one
thing that she did not understand, and that was Ware himself. He seemed to think kindly of her; he had
concocted this scheme to save her from exile, which as he pointed out, would have meant death. Yet
what he wished of her was impossible, and he must know that! She knew very little of demons; the few
stories she had heard painted them to be lust-driven monsters.
"Why are you telling me all this?" she asked, finally. "If you know anything about me, you must know
that I will die rather than yield to your lust!"
But rather than react with anger as a human would, Ware merely smiled. "I know you would do nearly
anything rather than 'yield to my lust,' as you put it," he said, "and I do not intend to put you in a
position where you would be forced to die to avoid something you consider utterly repugnant. I do not
desire your body alone, Xylina."
As she stared at him without comprehension, he sighed.
"Must I put it into simpler terms then?" he asked, and grimaced. "Very well then, although my nature
revolts at saying these things so baldly. These feelings of yours are a part of what makes you so
desirable, to me, at least. I know that you will never grant your body to me unless your heart and spirit
have already been given. Unless and until you come to love me, Xylina. It is that love, that so-human,
so-precious gift, that I truly desire."
She felt her chin dropping, and quickly snapped her mouth shut. For a moment, she thought she had
gone mad. Then she thought he surely must be joking-or trying to trick her.
But one look at his face, so human, and yet so unhuman, convinced her that he was utterly serious.
"You have only to say that you will take my option, and the debt will be canceled, Xylina," he persisted.
"I will not put pressure upon you to actually fulfill your promise. I have patience-" He paused to smile
and chuckle. "I have all the patience of my kind. I can wait as long as it will take. I can wait for fifty
years, if need be."
That complete absurdity, in the midst of all the rest of this, made her laugh a little hysterically. "Fifty
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years!" she exclaimed. "I'll be an ugly old woman by then!"
He merely smiled, as if he knew some kind of secret that she did not. The smile quelled her hysteria as
effectively as a dousing of cold water.
"Very well; you will not accept my offer. In that case, I am still patient, and I can wait until you come to
wish it of your own will." He shrugged, and she stared at him. "Until you come to care for me," he said
carefully, as if he wished to be sure that she understood him completely, "it is obviously in my interest
to help you to survive-and to keep your citizenship and reputation intact. Why should I wish you to be
judged unclean and suffer the scorn of your fellow citizens? No, Xylina, I shall even give you a gift of
my advice, now, with no conditions attached, because I believe that I can bring you to desire me as
ardently as I desire you."
She simply blinked, and licked lips gone dry and hot with tension and anxiety. Things were moving too
quickly for her. She was no longer in control of her own destiny. She could only hope to ride out this
storm and see the end of it.
"Since I have not pledged the Queen that I would not help you, I shall advise you how to extract yourself
from this situation," he said. "The Queen will not know what I have told you, if you do not yourself tell
her. This is what I advise, and remember that I have known Adria for as long as she has been Queen, and
that I watched her come to power."
She nodded. What did she have to lose? At the worst, his advice would be so poor it would be obvious.
"You must go to the Queen," he said, once again surprising her. "But you must not tell her that you
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