When they arrived at Jinx’s place, Sean spotted Elanor, still in her frozen pose, lying on her side with paws and claws outstretched. “Is that the consort people have been gossiping about, Jinx? What’s she making like a statue for?”

“I froze her. She attacked a Kings-page.”

“Huh.” said Sean. “Are you going to unfreeze her?”

“I’d rather not.” said Jinx, thinking she might attack Sean next. He would have to explain to her that attacking people wasn’t a suitable thing to do. Now wasn’t the time to do that, though.

“Why not?”

“She’s embarrassing. I don’t feel like dealing with her right now.” Jinx wondered if she could hear him. She probably could, and since she could speak now she probably understood as well. Jinx hoped she was paying attention and learning not to attack people. She really was good to have around, except for that, and the sooner she learned to behave the better.

“Suit yourself.” said Sean. “This must be the dining room, eh?”

They went into the room, and Jinx started going through the foods, trying to find foods that weren’t ‘yuck’. Sean found the process amusing: his mouth twisted up at one corner in spite of his grief and headache every time Jinx banished a unsuitable food with a determined ‘yuck’.

“Did you do that cantrip, Jinx?”

“No. King-Thomas set it up that way, so I wouldn’t have to say magic words.”

“Fair enough. What’s that then? Looks like porridge.”

Jinx tasted it. It looked only slightly like porridge, glistened, and tasted bland and disgustingly gelatinous. “Yuck!”

Eventually, Jinx found egg things in the shape of oval lumps that were wonderfully light and puffy, sausage things that didn’t have any skins and were a flattened, round shape, and toast that seemed to have been soaked in something, then fried. He’d have skipped that last one because of its looks, but it smelled wonderful. There were also the bread-moon things that were mostly air, and Sean ate some of those first before he felt ready to tackle more solid food.

Jinx, working on the drink section, remarked “King-Thomas got rid of that hammer stuff, but if you want I could try to find it again…”

Sean choked on the piece of toast he was eating, swallowed, and said “Don’t even mention that cursed stuff to me, Jinx! If it wasn’t for that drink, I’d have woken up when… when…” and broke off, unable to continue.

“No offense,” said Jinx, distressed at having caused him such pain. When Sean had settled down a bit, Jinx asked “Would you like me to find something else?”

“Anything but that, lad. I’ll never touch that hellish stuff again. Why don’t you find me some lager of some sort, not too stout? Or bitter, if you could.”

Jinx shrugged and continued looking. He’d stick to the apple cider, himself: however, he quickly found not only a fine nutty bitter, but also a decent red wine.

“Found it for you, Sean. There’s also wine. I’m going to leave them there for company.”

“Cheers, Jinx. I’ll leave the wine to the toadies.”

When they were finished with their breakfast, and had gone back into the living room, Jinx had an idea. “Sean, have you met Vernon? He’s a dragon, who lives behind that door.”

“No, honestly? I’ve heard about him. Friend of Peter’s, right? He used to wander around Rainmoor in the Nexuses, then King Thomas gave him a plane of his own, or so he said. He’s here?”

Jinx answered by opening the door to the dragon’s cave, and there he was.

“Why, Jinx, you’ve brought a new friend to visit. Your name, sir?”

“Ah, Sean, Your Dragonship.” replied Sean, following Jinx into the cave.

“Pleased to meet you, Sean.” said the dragon. “I’ve heard so much about you. I beg to differ with your other name: you are certainly not my dragon ship. You may float, but I assure you that being a ship requires much, much more than just that! And even if you do float, I suspect that if I tried to board you you’d soon sink.”

Sean boggled at this, never having encountered Vernon before. “I say, Jinx,” he whispered, “before I tell him he’s talking rubbish, does he eat people?”

“No, he eats wheels of hansom-cabs.” said Jinx randomly. “Or was that limed twigs?”

“Very good!” said the dragon to Jinx, who was trying to remember just what the dragon had said he ate. “But you forget the grassy knolls! One must have a certain amount of grassy knolls in one’s diet, for that so-necessary dietary fiber. The dirt is optional, but I would point out that it contains vital nutrients such as iron, copper, tin and chickens.”

“Chickens?” said Sean, too startled to be cautious. “What do you mean, chickens? How do you get chickens mixed in with your dirt?”

“With tremendous patience, and a shovel. I can’t tell you how tiresome it is! But you must have the chickens, you know.”

“Why?”

“They eat the worms, so you don’t have to.”

“Oh, God!” wailed Sean. “I’ve just had breakfast, you know! Can we stop talking about this, please?”

“What would you like to talk about?” said Vernon, clearly ready to invent more nonsense.

“Anything that isn’t about chickens and worms!”

“Well, there are many things that aren’t about chickens and worms. Do you mean things that aren’t about chickens, or things that aren’t about worms?”

Sean was beginning to get an idea of what he was dealing with. “I’d have to say things that aren’t about worms, mate. Chickens don’t bother me so much.”

“In that case, would you like to talk about things that are about chickens, or things that aren’t about chickens? I would suggest that we talk about things that aren’t about chickens.”

“Why?”

“Things tend to be not about chickens.”

Sean considered that, and actually did smile. “Aye, that’s true.”

“I just told some people I was going to kill them,” interrupted Jinx, “and they believed it. Why is that?”

The dragon considered this. “That’s certainly not about chickens, Jinx, so I shall answer: Why wouldn’t they believe it? May I ask why you said that?”

“They were making Sean unhappy. But didn’t they realize I wasn’t serious? I don’t want to be imprisoned.”

“Oh!” said Sean. “What he isn’t telling you, Vernon, is that he was just made Lord of the First Rank. That ought to explain some things, eh?”

“You don’t say!” commented the dragon. “Jinx, may I ask exactly what is is you said to these people?”

Jinx considered. “It wasn’t people, exactly, just Lord-James. I told him to leave, and then told him if he didn’t leave I’d kill him myself. He was being awful.”

“In that case,” said the dragon, “he believed you because you could have done just that…”

“Without getting imprisoned.” finished Sean.

Jinx looked back and forth between them. “That doesn’t make sense. I thought that in this place, when you kill people, you get imprisoned. Or killed, or something.”

“Ah, but you outranked Lord James, Jinx.” explained the dragon. “More importantly, you commanded him to leave. It’s true that even a First Lord can’t just go about killing people. However, since you commanded him, if he had refused you could have killed him without fear of punishment.”

“Just like that? What if I told him to grow a tail? Would I get to kill him if he didn’t?”

“Oh, no, no, it’s far more complicated than that! In refusing, he’d have to be acting dishonorably in some way. He’d have to be acting in a manner unfitting for a Lord of Rainmoor, and there would have to be witnesses. Was that the situation?”

“Oh aye.” said Sean, bitterly.

“You seem upset, Sean.” said the dragon. “Is there something going on that I don’t know about?”

“Robert’s dead. The King laid him in Rainmoor not an hour ago.”

“Really?” said Vernon curiously. “That’s too bad. I’d been expecting it, though, so I can’t say I’m terribly surprised…”

“You must not have liked him,” said Sean bitterly. “You’re not a bit sorry.”

The dragon looked at Sean for a long moment.

“I’m ten thousand years old, Sean. Can you expect me to mourn every human that dies? Every human I know is going to die. The grandchildren of the humans I know will age and die before I’m another thousand years old. There will be other humans to know. And I did indeed like Robert, Sean, but now he’s gone and there’s no point in my… Did you say they laid him in Rainmoor?”

“Aye.”

“Oh, well in that case he’s not exactly gone. I am pleased, it’s been a long time since there was a new human in Rainmoor to talk to…”

“What?” said Sean, startled. “To talk to? Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“Quite. Mind you, you can’t talk to him yourself. I can communicate after a fashion with the magic of Rainmoor when a new human has become part of it. Eventually the human mind dissolves into the larger consciousness, but for a while I can make the link. I don’t get the chance often, you know! I’m terribly pleased you mentioned it.”

“Talk to him, please!” begged Sean, and Jinx added, “I know just what to ask.”

The dragon’s eyes unfocused, and he stared dreamily off into the distance.

“Ah, there he is. All right… Sean, he wants me to tell you that you’re a bloody fool and he loves you for it. Oh, and not to get yourself killed on his behalf.”

“Who killed him?” asked Sean urgently. “Ask him if he knows!”

“He’s not sure, as himself. He says that suddenly his favorite mug was beating him about the head, and that was it, really. He says Rainmoor knows, but he’s not supposed to tell because everything is going as planned. I asked him what that meant, but he’s not sure.”

“Who is Nameless?” asked Jinx.

“He says, Nameless is the one who beat him about the head with a mug you bloody fool. He’s surprised you hadn’t figured that out yet. He says, if it’s any consolation Nameless isn’t going to get either of you, so don’t worry… I’m losing contact. Good thing you didn’t wait to tell me, he’s drifting off already.”

“Why did the room stop wobbling when King-Thomas made me a Lord?” asked Jinx.

“He says, nosy, aren’t you. He’s gone now.”

Sean bowed his head. Jinx asked, “Why wouldn’t he answer my question?”

“Oh, he did, I just hadn’t told you yet. He said that he was the one who did it, and he did it because he likes you, but also you’re going to kill Nameless and the rest of the magic liked that. I must say, Jinx, I’ve never seen anyone take on importance so fast.”

Sean’s head snapped up. “Jinx is going to kill Nameless?”

“Either that, or Jinx is going to kill the King. Possibly both. It’s dreadfully confusing, even to me, and I’m a dragon. I may have been mistaken, you know.”

“Why would I want to kill King-Thomas?” said Jinx, dismayed. “He’s a nice man! Elanor likes him, anyway…”

“I’m not sure, Jinx. I think it’s more likely that you’ll kill Nameless. That was fairly clear. Can you think of a reason why you’d kill King Thomas?”

Jinx thought of King-Thomas’s interest in Elanor, and looked at Sean. “Yes, but Jinx doesn’t want to say with Sean listening.”

Vernon looked at Sean. “Lord Sean, could Jinx and I speak privately?”

“Oh aye. I’ll be on my way…” said Sean, rather overwhelmed by the events of the morning.

“I ask,” added the dragon, “that you not reveal what you have learned here, Lord Sean. If Nameless were to learn that Jinx is fated to kill him…”

“You mean it’s not certain?”

“Nothing is certain, Lord Sean.” stated the dragon. “It was a pleasure meeting you, sir: I hope I have eased your mind about Lord Robert.”

“Oh aye. It was lovely to hear from him one last time. I thought he’d have blamed me, you know. Should have known better. A pleasure meeting you, Your Dragonship.”

“Certainly.” said the dragon, not bothering to make whimsical remarks. Sean left, and as soon as the door shut behind him Vernon was questioning Jinx.

“Was Sean serving Robert right up to the end?”

“Yes, he was.” said Jinx, startled. “Peter took me to visit him just last night, and Sean was there.”

“When you left them, was Robert still alive?”

“Yes, just extremely drunk. He tried to stand up, and fainted, and didn’t wake up, even when me and Sean carried him into his room.”

“But Sean was awake?”

“I want to know what you’re thinking, Vernon.”

“Jinx, I am forced to consider that Sean may be the Nameless Pretender. He had the opportunity to kill Robert, and all his grieving may be a sham. Did you notice how quickly he looked up when I said that you were going to kill Nameless?”

“No, Vernon! Not Sean! That’s horrible!”

“It’s possible, Jinx. And you are now in danger from him as well. He must be insanely jealous of you. I thought his tone seemed a little odd, when he said you’d been made First Rank. You must understand that if my line of reasoning is correct, he secretly hates you, and now has reason to fear you…”

“Vernon, stop! That’s not possible!”

“No, listen, Jinx! I don’t want to lose you so soon, you’re the most interesting person I’ve met in centuries, so listen! Lord Sean is Second Rank, and the Nameless One wants to be King. In order to succeed to the throne, Nameless would have to be First Rank, or kill all the Second Rank nobles and everybody else. Now, if Sean is the Nameless One, he would hate you because you got jumped over his head to First Rank, in a situation where he might have scored a vitally important victory by being promoted himself. He will seek to befriend you, and lull you into a sense of false security…”

“But, Vernon, King-Thomas offered it to him first!”

The dragon stopped, thunderstruck. “What’s that?”

“King-Thomas tried to make him a First-Rank, but Sean didn’t want to.”

Vernon slumped. “Oh. It wouldn’t be him, then.”

“I thought it was ridiculous even to pretend it was him.”

“But then,” said the dragon, perking up with a new idea, “what about Peter? You yourself said that Peter was with you when you went to see Robert last night. Oh, it’s not a happy thought, but we both know that Lord Peter is clever enough to…”

“He’s not Lord-Peter anymore, Vernon. He quit.”

Vernon glared at Jinx. “I see. That rules him out, then. Are there any other revelations you’re not telling me about, Jinx? Every time I come up with a decent theory, you instantly destroy it. I suspect you’re doing it on purpose.”

“The only other person who visited Robert that night was me. Do you think that I’m the Nameless One?”

“You’re the only one who definitely isn’t! I looked in your mind, when I was modifying that cantrip for talking to Elanor. You remember. You nearly shredded my brain for it.”

“Oh, okay. I was just checking. You looked in Peter’s mind too. Did you not look very hard?”

“Come to think of it, that’s true.” said the dragon. “I’d forgotten that part. You can’t blame me for that, though, since I wasn’t looking in Peter’s mind so much as simply putting in a cantrip. Now that I think of it, I saw enough of his mind doing that to be sure he’s not Nameless.”

“Next you’ll be thinking it’s Elanor, or King-Thomas.”

“Don’t be sarcastic, Jinx! I’m only drawing perfectly valid, logical conclusions that happen to be totally incorrect. Would you deprive me of the chance to amuse myself this way?”

“No.” said Jinx. “What did you do to Elanor? She’s been behaving badly. I had to freeze her before she killed a Kings-page.”

“Well, I’m sure you noticed that she can talk now. I also gave her the facial expressions and other expressive outlets that humans have: all that is tied up intricately with human speech. I haven’t altered or added to her mind, but in order to give her speech I had to give her mind a far greater capacity to expand and grow. I’m terribly interested to see what happens. Elanor will become far more complex mentally, but as a natural outgrowth of her personality. It may already be happening, and I daresay you’ll have a significant effect on her development. By the way, when I did that I snapped the thread on the cantrip you had for mind-to-mind contact: it’s gone now. I remembered that you didn’t like having spells in your head, so I took the liberty of removing it. You may remember, some time after you left with Peter, feeling quite blank and disconnected?”

Jinx remembered standing in the Nexus, watching the huge cubes roar off into the distance with the ground shaking under his feet, and the strange feeling of unreality about it. He nodded.

“That was when I snapped the thread. I numbed you slightly so nothing would go wrong. I hope this didn’t bother you, Jinx. I didn’t think to warn you until after you’d left.”

“Actually, the timing was good.” said Jinx.

“Oh? Well, that was fortunate. Anyway, I did nothing else to Elanor, apart from teaching her to walk, and that was her idea. As I said, she may already be showing more complexity, but such complexity could only be an outgrowth of her existing personality. If she’s been misbehaving, I assure you it’s not my fault. I certainly didn’t give her any unpleasant tendencies, and I find it hard to believe she attacked a page as you said, for she’s wonderfully sweet-natured, if rather untamed. You may be mistaking her natural excitability for misbehaving. Did she attack this page, or simply jump on him playfully?”

“No, she told him she wanted to see what his throat tasted like. I don’t dare let her loose.”

“I suppose you could call that misbehaving, yes. Jinx, I don’t know what to tell you: when I gave her the ability to talk, it took the same space as the cantrip for mind-linking, so I haven’t been able to speak with her and have no idea why she did that. My guess is that she thought this page was attacking you in some way, and was trying to defend you. I can see that it disconcerted you, but try to remember that Elanor doesn’t know the ways of humans. Don’t treat her like a vicious beast. You’ll hurt her feelings terribly if you do. She’d never attack you, and she does talk now, so I suggest you talk with her. You might ask her to apologize, to get across the idea that she did something wrong: I really couldn’t tell you whether she’ll be able to learn not to attack people, particularly if she thinks they’re threatening you. She’s totally wrapped up in you, and she’s got the instincts of a jungle cat. That’s a very touchy combination…”

“I’ll try.”

“Oh, by the way, what was that reason you mentioned? A reason you might want to kill King Thomas?”

“He wants Elanor, too.”

“Hm! Can’t say as I’m surprised, Jinx: Tom’s a lonely man, and she was always his favorite astral guard. I promise you, however, that you don’t have to kill him for it. You’re forgetting Elanor’s feelings, you know. She’s hopelessly in love with you, not Tom.”

“Jinx didn’t ask you to talk nonsense again.”

“What?” said the dragon. “I’m not, Jinx. What makes you think I’m talking nonsense?”

Jinx sighed, and decided to be honest with the dragon, though it humiliated him. “I was only fooling when I said Elanor was a person. I know she really is an animal, but I didn’t want to admit I was sleeping with one. I guess that will have to stop. And animals can’t be in love with anybody. ‘In heat’ might be a better way of putting it.”

“Oh, really? What does love mean to you, Jinx? What I meant was the usual human sort.”

Jinx was feeling more and more defensive as the dragon argued with him. “Jinx has made love before, but he usually ended up getting chased out of town. Jinx gave all that up years ago, because it was too much trouble. I don’t think humans mean the same thing when they talk about it. Are you saying that Elanor is like a human, and I’m not? How can Elanor be more like humans than I am?”

“Perhaps she hasn’t been hurt as much,” said the dragon acidly, “but I suspect that will change.”

“Jinx would like you to explain that, please.”

“When I think I can explain it to you, I’ll let you know. Go. I don’t wish to talk any more.”

Jinx left, frustrated. He wasn’t sure why Vernon had kicked him out. Once more, he felt the old worthlessness creeping up on him, and he hated it. Everybody turned on him sooner or later. Even Elanor was making trouble for him. Now he understood why humans invented apologizing: he wanted her to say she was sorry, wanted to make her promise not to do it again. It would make him feel a little bit better, like he mattered to somebody, even if that somebody was only an animal like him.

He went and stood over her. “Elanor, thaw. Jinx isn’t going to speak to you until you say you’re sorry for what you did.”

She lost the stiff pose, and went limp, without trying to stretch or move. Her eyes stared straight ahead, as if not seeing him at all. She remained silent.

Jinx couldn’t believe it. He’d been so sure she was going to jump all over him, begging his forgiveness, and now this! She wasn’t even looking at him! He turned and stalked off, furious. Everybody, everybody turned against him, even Elanor. For some reason, that was the worst of all: he’d had some kind of idea that she cared about him, and now she wasn’t even willing to apologize. Wonderful.

Jinx wandered into the dining room, but everything looked like ‘yuck’. He wandered into the library, but there wasn’t anything he wanted to know about: what he wanted was to not know anything anymore, since everything he knew hurt. He stared at all the books, all of them written by humans. They would tell their stories to him, but only because another human had told them to with magic: without that, they were nothing but an infinity of worlds in which he was not welcome, to which he did not belong.

He went over to the blank wall, where he’d come in. At first he’d thought he was trapped by a wall of rock between this place and the outside world, but now he knew the outside world wasn’t behind it at all. Even if he could dig through solid rock, he would only end up in some other cave, no nearer his destination, and this seemed horribly unfair.

Jinx found himself thinking about what Elanor had done, what he wanted her to apologize for. She’d terrified a Kings-page, reared up and snarled right in his face, because she wanted him to go away and let Jinx sleep. Was that what Vernon had meant when he said she was ‘in love’? The humans Jinx had seen who were in love tended not to do things like that. They tended to get very sensitive, weep a lot, and go slightly insane, jumping to wild conclusions that anybody sensible could see were foolish. Jinx had wept when Sir-Irwin died, but ever since then he’d tried very hard to be sensible…

What was the sensible thing for him to do, now?

Jinx had to admit he felt horrible. Elanor was so mad she wasn’t speaking to him, and he couldn’t deal with it at all. He couldn’t blame her: she’d only been trying to help him, and he’d frozen her, dumped her on some cushions, and left her there the whole morning, just about. He’d even come home with a friend and continued to ignore her. It wasn’t surprising that she was mad at him. So what was he supposed to do?

Jinx couldn’t see any way around it: he was going to apologize. He hoped that would be enough, and that Elanor wouldn’t be so mad at him after he did. He felt like he was falling apart, like all his energy was draining away, and he knew that he needed Elanor to like him again.

Jinx left the library, and crouched next to Elanor, who was still silent. “El…” he said, leaning over her, and then he saw the tears running down her face, and the terrible, hurting look in her eyes. She did not look at him: she looked at nothing like a broken toy.

“I’m sorry that I did something wrong.” she said in a small voice, and sniffled. “And you don’t have to talk to me if you’d rather not.”

Jinx’s mind reeled. “Elanor?” he said, shakily.

“It’s okay if you hate me. I know I’m not a person really. I can go back to wandering the lonely place for King-Thomas, and you don’t ever have to see me again. I suppose I deserve that for thinking I could love a real person like you. I should have known better. You tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen.”

“I thought you were mad at me…”

“No, I’m grateful you showed me how you really felt about me before I bothered you worse,” said Elanor, and she sniffled again. “Please freeze me again now. I want to go back to the lonely place, and stay there.”

“No.” said Jinx, horrified at what he’d done to her with his unthinking cruelty. What could he possibly say to her at this point, to change everything he’d already said? He had driven her away in spite of herself, and he didn’t dare try to explain that he’d been trying to force her to be human because he needed her with him. Now, he knew why he felt that way, and it was too late. “No,” he said shakily, “I can’t let you stay in the lonely place.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot that you liked making love to me. That’s okay. You can do that, and then when you’re finished I can go somewhere you can’t see me. That should work.” said Elanor, and her voice was becoming flat and emotionless, as if she was going away even as she spoke. She seemed to be bracing herself, forcing herself to detach, so she could survive the horrible existence she was imagining.

Jinx felt like he was being torn apart. Tears were coming to his eyes even as hers became drier and calmer. He felt weak and broken and desperate. “Elanor, look at me.”

She met his eyes as if she was following orders, and suddenly her distant gaze showed a terrible strain and fear. Jinx faced her rigid stare, his eyes swimming, and spoke, feeling like he was cheating in the worst possible way… “Please stay with me, Elanor, I love you.”

She tried not to believe him, tried desperately. He could see it reflected in her eyes, as they filled with a mixture of hope and horrible pain, pain she couldn’t escape. She didn’t want to believe him. She wanted to go back to the lonely place and learn not to care. Then her eyes filled again with tears, and she let out a little whimper and buried her face in his shoulder, clinging to him, sobbing like she’d never stop.

“I love you, kitten,” he said, petting her trembling body tenderly.

“I don’t want to love you! You hurt!” sobbed Elanor.

“I’m sorry,” said Jinx, and felt like he’d been stabbed. He hugged her to him tightly, as if doing that might somehow make up for the way he’d treated her. Elanor trembled, and sobbed, and Jinx continued to hold her, overwhelmed by the force of his emotion. He stroked her soft fur, feeling the muscle beneath it, in sheer wonder at this incredible creature, so fierce, so fragile. He had assumed he owned her, and that was disturbingly true, but he had never realized how much she owned him. Now he knew, and it left him feeling exhausted and horribly defenseless. Before long she subsided into sniffles, and eventually she lifted her head, and looked at him.

“I love you, too.” she said, and her eyes were so vulnerable and helpless it frightened him.