Shadow-spawn stepped out of the shadows as soon as he was certain the
One was finished with her painful magics, drawn by the movement of
something parting the stalks of the fleshy gray ground cover that held
the place of grass here. Something that was heading for the One and the
High Youma. He crossed to it using the short 'blink' of power that had
earned him his name and nosed the gray grass aside and peered down
curiously.

	A mass of roots writhed slowly forwards, intent on finishing their
meal. Shadow-spawn put an end to their hunger with a disdainful snort
and one firm stomp, then cautiously advanced to the One. His tongue
flicked against her cheek a few times, then he gave her shoulder a
gentle shove with his nose, trying to rouse her. Her body moved limply
against his urging. He lifted his head and gave a great sigh of
frustration as he resigned himself to wait a little longer.


	The cold and her body's shudders brought Aurora back to consciousness.
She was laying funny in an uncomfortable position and her ribs hurt. She
gave a little groan as she opened her eyes and forced them to focus, her
mind slow to place the thing in front of her. A horses hoof? She pushed
herself up with her hands, still not registering who she was laying over
as her eyes followed the leg up to the big black chest. A horse? It
lowered it's head to regard her. She stared into the white on white fire
of it's eyes

	*A horse?*

	Her mind tried to will it into a normal horse. Then it's forked tongue
flicked out to touch her on the forehead. She threw herself backward
with a shriek and scrabbled to get her feet under her so she could run.
Then she saw him.

	"Nephlyte?" She whispered as the sight of his face brought back all of
the evenings events in a rush. *Oh, god! Nephlyte?*

	The big horse youma was lowering it's head to sniff at him. Her retreat
went to attack.

	"Get away from him!" She yelled as she threw herself back across him,
slapping the youma's muzzle away as she did.

	The youma jerked it's head up and took a few dancing steps back. She
glared at it and it took a few more steps back, then lowered it's head.
She could swear it was a gesture of submission. She prayed it was. She
had no hope of protecting either of them if it decided to attack. It
kept it's head lowered and regarded her steadily. She stared back hard a
few more seconds, willing it to go away.

	"Go on! Get out of here!" She yelled, looking around for something in
reach to throw at it.

	There wasn't anything so she just yelled again. "GO!"

	Nephlyte heard her through the gnawing pain and terrible weakness that
burned and blurred his senses. She was in trouble. He tried to move, to
summon his power. All he managed was a barely audible whisper.

	"Aurora?"

	She kept one part of her attention on the youma as she pushed herself
back across him to settle on her heels. She breathed out a little sound
of horror as she looked at him. The roots that had punched the hole
through his chest where gone but had left a gaping hole and the rest of
his torso was covered in burns, gashes and blood. She took his hand into
both of hers, afraid to touch him anywhere else.

	"It's O.K. I'm here," she soothed in a calm voice.

	She brought the back of his hand to the side of her face and rubbed her
cheek against it. It was strange that he could feel the satin texture of
her skin around the hammering agony of his body.

	"Hold on, I'll get you to some help," she promised, afraid he was
beyond help.

	Her gaze darted around the disturbing landscape. Her panic grew as she
realized that she recognized nothing. Not the plants, the colors, the
sounds, the sky.

	*A powerful youma from another dimension,* Sailor Moon's soprano
blended with Nephlyte's bass rumble in her mind.

	That's where they had to be. Or in hell. She'd always thought that hell
would be cold. His fingers tightened slightly against her own, then went
loose as he lost his battle to keep hold of consciousness. For a moment
her heart froze as she thought he had died. It began to beat again with
his next shallow breath. She didn't understand how he could still be
alive! That wound through his chest should have killed him already. But
he was and she intended to do everything in her power to keep him that
way. That gave her a focus, something to keep the panic at bay.

	First thing was to get a bandage over that hole. It didn't seem to be
bleeding at the moment, but she was sure it would when she had to move
him. How was she going to move him? The panic threatened again, but she
pushed it away with determination. First things first. She pulled her
nightgown over her head and winced as the movement hurt her bruised
ribs. It was the only thing she had to use and wasn't providing much
protection from the frigid air anyway. She tore the skirt from the
bodice then put the scanty remains of the top back on, more from modesty
than for any protection it could provide and set to work tearing the
fabric into squares and strips.

	She finished binding her crude bandage into place and took a moment to
blow into her cupped palms, trying to warm her fingers. She narrowed her
eyes at the youma, who still hadn't moved. Maybe it belonged to
Nephlyte, drawn here to come and help it's master? If it was, it would
solve her next problem. She held out her hand towards it and called to
it in a coaxing voice.

	"Come here, youma. That's it! Come on!" She kept up her words of
encouragement as it closed the distance with slow, cautious steps.

	Finally it's head was close enough for her to touch. She moved her hand
slowly, not wanting to scare it off now and stroked the surprisingly
soft hot velvet of it's long muzzle.

	"That's it, youma," she kept her voice soothing and low pitched.

	She had no idea as to how smart it was, but she decided to talk to it
with the hope it could understand. "Are you Nephlyte's? You are, aren't
you. Well, he needs your help. You need to take us to some help. Can you
do that?"

	Shadow-spawn turned his head away from the One and studied the wounded
High Youma. He understood that this High Youma was somehow now bound to
his One. If she wished it, he would submit to carrying his weight.

	The youma seemed to nod at her after it had looked at Nephlyte and
flicked out his tongue to touch her cheek. She shuddered and wrinkled
her nose in disgust but didn't flinch away. The youma went to it's
knees, then tucked it's haunches and lowered itself to the ground so she
could mount with her burden. She sighed in relief as the youma settled.
She crawled around so she could lift Nephlyte's head and shoulders onto
her knees.

	"Nephlyte? I'm going to move you now. It's just a little ways, then you
can rest again, O.K.?" She didn't know if he could hear her or not, but
she knew that moving him was going to hurt and she wanted him to know
that she was there.

	She slid her arms under his and around his chest from behind, then
straightened her knees and drug him the few feet to the youma. He gave a
soft murmuring protest full of pain as she wrestled him up and over the
youma's shoulders and got him settled astride the youma's back, his head
and chest resting against the strong arch of the youma's neck. She slid
quickly behind him and steadied his weight with her arms as she tangled
her hands into the youma's mane in a hard grip.

	"O.K. youma. Go!" Aurora yelled.

	Shadow-spawn heaved himself to his feet and stepped sideways to
counteract the listing sway of his precious burden, then ran free,
leaving the small territory he'd been guarding for the first time in a
thousand years.



	Aurora wouldn't have known that they where moving except for the cold,
stinging wind that brought tears to her eyes and the dizzying
perspective of the ground  moving beneath them as the youma ran. She
pressed herself into Nephlyte's back and wished she could get more of
herself against the warmth of the horse-youma's body. She kept her head
down against the wind, her arms one big ache from shoulders to wrists
from keeping him steady. She just hoped that where ever the youma was
taking them was warm. She started envisioning warm things. Her favorite
winter sweater, hot chocolate with marshmallows, the steam of the
bathroom on a cold winter's morning. She didn't realize when she fell
into the dozing trance.

	The lack of wind brought her fully back to the here-and-now. The youma
had slowed to a gliding trot as he wound his way through towering rock
spires, etched by the wind into tortured shapes toward a cliff face. As
they came closer she could see the huge door cut into the rock. She
struggled to sit up straight as the youma stopped before it and stuck it
with one front hoof. The door opened almost immediately and a tall,
thin, gray colored youma stepped from the shadow of the threshold and
out to meet them.

	"No need to dent the door, Shadow-spawn. I saw you coming miles off,"
he flashed them all a fanged smile. "So, now you bring your victims to
me instead of making them crawl here? Why, I wonder?"

	He levitated into the air beside them, much to Aurora's stunned
surprise, and lifted Nephlyte's head by the back of his hair. He let it
drop back against the youma's neck before she managed to get her numb
fingers untangled from the youma's mane to stop him.

	"Don't!" She growled as she pushed this new youma away from them.

	He settled to the ground with a sly grin. "Well, well. Nephlyte's not
as dead as the Great Queen believes. But by the look of him, he soon
will be. And Shadow-spawn brings him to me accompanied by a Daughter of
Man."

	He narrowed his slate colored eye's at her. "Quite a change in the
normal order of things. But then again, it is a time for great changes,
is it not?"

	Aurora didn't know if he wanted an answer or not and found herself very
unsettled by this youma. Yet Shadow-spawn, as he had named the youma she
rode, had brought them here at her request for help.

	"We need help. Can you help him?" She pleaded.

	"Of course you do. Everyone who comes here needs help," the youma said
kindly. "Yes, I can help him, and you. But first we must settle on the
payment for my services."

	She looked at him, stunned. *Payment?* "I don't have anything."

	"Nothing at all?" He asked in a wheedling tone. "No beautiful thing you
can trade for his life? I love beautiful things."

	She shook her head at him as her tired mind tried to come up with
anything that would get this creature to help her.

	"Ah well. Then I can't help you," the youma shrugged as he turned and
headed back for the door.

	"Wait!" Aurora called as her mind formed one desperate idea.

	The youma halted, his back still toward them.

	"I can dance for you."

	The youma turned back to her with a dark grin and a heartless laugh.
"Dance for me?"

	Then he narrowed his eyes and she shuddered with more than the cold as
she felt as if he looked into her very soul.

	"Dance for me. Yeesss."

	Then the sensation was gone.

	"That's new and novel. I will accept that as terms of payment for my
services. Come, come!" he gestured at the huge door.

	Aurora didn't even have to duck as Shadow-spawn stepped through. The
grey youma whistled an eerily cheerful tune that kept time with the ring
of Shadow-spawns hooves as he guided them down a wide hall. The greenish
flickering light that lit their way came from huge pillars of rock that
rose up with uneven spacing showing only shadowy glimpses of the fall
walls. He headed off at an angle toward one of the walls and pushed open
a door. Both she and Shadow-spawn had to duck to get through this one.
The chamber inside was empty, lit only by the phosphorescent glow from
the person sized pool against one wall. She stared at it uneasily and
wondered what made it give off that unhealthy looking green-tinged white
glow.

	"Off we come," the youma pulled Nephlyte from her and into his arms
before she could stop him.

	He knelt down and laid him on the floor with an easy strength that
belied his spindly frame. Shadow-spawn went to one knee to allow her to
slide off him easily, then rose back up. Aurora kept a suspicious eye on
the youma as he produced a pair of scissors from a pocket and started
cutting the remains of Nephlyte's shirt off him. She leaned back against
Shadow-spawns wide chest, wanting the warmth he radiated. It was as cold
in here as it had been outside.

	"What's your name?" She asked as the youma 'tsk'-ed at her bandage,
then cut it off.

	"Don't you know better than to ask a youma it's name? Only the High
One's will give them willingly. My, that's a big hole."

	Aurora fought down a wave of nausea as the youma collected some of the
blood from the rim of the wound onto his long fingers and tasted it.

	"With an energy drain too! Going to take a long time for this youma to
heal. Should be nothing but dust by now."

	He gave the woman a calculating look as he finished undressing his
patient. It took powerful magic to keep death at bay like this. Aurora
turned her head away from them with a blush and focused on the lava flow
like patterns on the wall as the youma stripped Nephlyte down.

	"Well, what should I call you, then?"

	"Well, they call me many things, especially those who are conscious
when they are brought here. You may call me Mender."

	She realized that his voice had moved. She turned her head back to see
Mender lower Nephlyte into the pool.

	"Hey! Wait! What are you doing?"

	She ran across the uneven floor, intent on stopping him, but it was too
late. Mender held Nephlyte under for a few seconds, then withdrew his
hands. Nephlyte remained a foot under the still surface. She stared down
into it in horror as his body stiffened, his face a mask of pain as most
of the bright glow concentrated on the wound through his chest. The rest
of it flowed to cover the other damage. She threw herself to her knees,
planning to haul him back out. Mender's hands closed on her upper arms
and kept her from moving.

	"Wouldn't advise it, Daughter of Man. The Healing here is for the
Youma, not fragile things like you."

	Not to mention that if she pulled him out, their contract was broken.
And he didn't intend to let this beautiful butterfly slip though his
fingers so easily.

	"But he's in pain! Let me go!" She snapped back and began to struggle
against his grip.

	Mender gave her a shake. A gentle one for a youma. She heard
Shadow-spawn hiss as the dark spots danced in front of her eyes.

	"I'm not going to hurt her," Mender snarled back at him. "Just try to
get her attention. Do I have it?" He turned her around to face him.

	*Why should Shadow-spawn care if I harm her or not?* That thought
started a little nagging itch in his mind. But he couldn't scratch it
now, he had to deal with this human.

	She nodded, her anger mixing with a little fear. This youma could hurt
her very easily.

	"Good. Now, listen, you silly child. If you want him to heal, then
there he must stay," he explained, his voice sharp with annoyance.

	"But he's in pain!" Her voice trembled with suppressed anger and fear.

	*But for herself or the High Youma?* Mender wondered.

	He made himself give a patient sounding sigh before he answered.

	"Of course he's in pain. I said he would heal and healing hurts. The
pain is good, it lets him know he's alive. He'll remember this pain next
time and fight more viciously to keep it away."

	Aurora narrowed her eyes at him, that logic so alien to her own way of
thinking that she had a hard time grasping it. It was insane. She wanted
Nephlyte out of there, now. 

	He could see the stubborn will in her face, her determination to take
him out. He tried a different track.

	"If you take him out, then our agreement is null and void and he will
die," he put all of his emphasis and assurance on those last three
words.

	In his own mind, he wasn't sure if the High Youma would. He suspected
what this Daughter of Man had done. But her power seemed distant somehow
now, as if she had shut it away from herself. She was exhausted and
confused and could be swayed by his words. He let go of her and crossed
his arms across his chest.

	"It is  your choice, of course. In or out?"

	Aurora looked over her shoulder at Nephlyte's pain-racked body in the
pool and sagged a little in defeat. She was in his world now and at
Mender's mercy. If Mender said this was the only way, then what could
she do but accept it.

	"In," she whispered.

	"Good," Mender uncrossed his arms with a smile. "So, Daughter of Man,
what should I call you?"

	"Aurora," she answered as she forced her gaze away from the pool.

	"Aurora. What a lovely name!" He gave her his best smile, full of
points and sharp edges. "Now, Aurora, come with me. It is time for you
to dance."

	"Dance?" She whispered.

	She couldn't. Not now. She was so tired.

	Mender's face darkened with disappointment and anger. "You wish to
break the agreement?"

	She shook her head quickly.

	"No. I'll dance for you," she answered with weary resignation.

	She just wanted to get it over and done with, then she could rest. He
put his hand under her elbow and guided her out. Shadow-spawn hoofs rang
behind them as he started to follow. Aurora looked back over her
shoulder at the big youma.

	"Stay here with Nephlyte."

	Shadow-spawn ignored her and continued to follow them across the
cavernous hall. She sighed and shrugged, too tired to deal with him now.

	"He seems to have taken quite a liking to you. Tell me, how did you
manage to get him to let you ride?"

	That question had been running around in his mind with the others,
making the itch worse. Made him feel like there was some important
significance to Shadow-spawn's strange behavior that he was missing.

	"He belongs to Nephlyte, doesn't he?" Aurora answered, startled.

	Mender made a harsh guttural sound that she realized was a laugh.

	"No. Shadow-spawn doesn't belong to Nephlyte. Doesn't belong to anyone.
In fact, he's sent many youma to my house with injuries acquired from
trying to ride him. So, tell me, how did you do it?"

	"I don't know. He just let us," she looked back at the youma following
her docilely like some big dog.

	"He just let you. I wonder why?"

	His smile was full of malicious joy as he looked possessively down at
the top of her lowered head. A puzzle! He loved puzzles and would figure
this one out as soon as he exacted payment for services rendered. He led
her to another door and into a large room full of light and beautiful
things. Aurora didn't even glance at the treasure trove displayed around
her but headed straight for the fire burning in the hearth against the
far wall, Shadow-spawn her dark shadow. She sank down on the warm stones
and held her hands out to the fires heat.

	Mender let her rest as he went to examine his collection of crystals
arrayed on their stands. He chose the one he wanted and placed it into a
pocket with a pat and a smile. Then he collected two graceful goblets
shaped like lilies and poured a dark amber wine into them from a gold
and jewel encrusted dragon shaped bottle. He took them to Aurora and
folded his long legs to settle beside her.

	"Here, Aurora. Drink this, then dance for me."

	She looked at the glass and the amber fluid suspiciously. "What is it?"

	"Just wine, Aurora. I thought you might like a drink. Aren't you
thirsty?" He offered it to her, then took a sip of his own.

	She took it, just realizing how dry her throat was. She sniffed at it.
The sharp scent reminded her of the smell of dirt and grass just after a
summer rain. She took a tentative sip as Mender watched her cautious
acceptance of his gift with amusement. The taste of flowers and honey
filled her mouth. It was wonderful! She drank it down in four thirsty
gulps, then held the glass out to him.

	"More," she demanded as the aftertaste tingled on her tongue and the
wine started a warm glow in her middle.

	He took the glass from her with a chuckle, shook his head no.

	"After you dance for me, Aurora. Now come."