Crystal Dragon by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee

he dropped his hands.

    "You see what I am brought to—a slave who clings to his prison, and treasures his jailor above himself."

    The lady laughed, high and sweet.

    "Yes, all very well," the gentleman murmured, and tipped his head, considering her out of earnest blue eyes.

    "We will diminish," he said. "At best, and with everything proceeding as we wish."

    The lady swayed a half-bow, scarcely more than a ripple of her gray robe. "Indeed, we will diminish. Is the price too high?"

    The gentleman closed his eyes, and extended a delicate hand. The lady caught between her tiny palms.

    "I am ...a poor creature, set against what I once was," he whispered. "We choose, not only for us, here, as we are and have become, but for those others, for whom we have no right to choose."

    "Ah." She pressed his hand gently. "And yet, if we do not choose for them, we are parties to their destruction—and to the destruction of all, even those who never understood that a choice existed. Is this not so?"

    He sighed, mouth twisting into a smile as he opened his eyes. "It is. Don't heed me—a passing horror of being trapped by that which is malleable. And yet, if one certain outcome is necessary..."

    "Yes," the lady murmured. "The luck must not be disturbed, now that it has gathered."

    "The luck swirls as it will," the gentleman said, slipped his hand from between her palms. "Well, then. If we are both reduced to hope, then let us hope that the agents of luck proceed down the path we have set them on. The one is bound by honor; the other—"

    "Hush," the lady murmured. "The lines are laid."

    "Yet free will exists," the gentleman insisted—and smiled into her frown. "No, you are correct. We have done what we might. And once they pass the nexus, the lines themselves conspire against deviation..."

    The lady inclined her head. "Our case is similar. We may not deviate, lest we unmake what we have wrought, and destroy hope for once and ever. If—"

    She checked, head cocked as if she detected a sound—

    "Yes," said the gentleman, and his smile this time was neither pleasant nor urbane. "Shelter against me, love. It begins."

    The lady put her back against his chest. He placed his hands upon her shoulders, fingers gripping lightly.

    "Stay," he murmured. "We cannot risk being missed."

    Scarcely breathing, they waited, listening to sounds only they could hear, watching shadows only they could see.

    "Now," breathed the lady.

    And they were gone.

Two
Spiral Dance
Transition

    "Landomist, is it?" Cantra spun the pilot's chair thirty degrees and glared down-board at her copilot.

    Jela spared her a black, ungiving glance, in no way discommoded by the glare.

    "I gave my word," he said mildly.

    She sighed, hanging on to her temper with both hands, so to speak, pitched her voice for reasonable, and let the glare ease back somewhat.

    "Right. You gave your word. Now ask yourself what you gave you word to , exactly, where they-or-it are now, and with what harrying at their heels."

    Jela gave his screens one more leisurely look-over, like there was anything to see except transition-sand; released the chair's webbing and stood, stretching tall—or as tall as he could, which wasn't very.

    "You could probably do with a stretch yourself," he said, giving her wide, concerned eyes. "All that tricky flying's soured your temper."

    In spite of herself, she laughed, then released the webbing with a snap, and came to her feet, stretching considerably taller than him—and Deeps but didn't it feel good just to let the long muscles move.

    Jela rolled his broad shoulders and grinned at her.

    "Feel better?"

    She gave him the grin back, and relaxed out of the stretch.

    "Much," she said cordially, there being no reason not to. "And now that I'm returned to sweet and reasonable, maybe you could apply yourself to being sensible. Did you or did you not hear the lady say it was a sheriekas lord's fancy we'd caught?"

    "I heard her," Jela answered calmly.