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Chapter 9

“It’s done,” said Kiharn with satisfaction, dropping into a chair beside the Scoobies at breakfast a few days later and waving at Tirr to bring him a mug of ale. “The contracts have been signed and Pyar has agreed to allow you access to the Gate.”

While Willow and Tara exclaimed and Anya ducked her head to toy with a slice of melon on her plate, Buffy looked over to where Spike was leaning against the balustrade of the terrace a few yards away. Their gazes met tensely. They both knew that this was the beginning of the end.

“Thank you so much for all you’ve done, Kiharn,” she said, forcing enthusiasm into her voice. Secretly and without really admitting it to herself, she had hoped that the negotiations would run a lot longer. “We are very grateful.”

“Stud contracts are common and straightforward. The business about the Gate was a negligible addendum to the standard contract. If it had been a joining of pride lords, it would have been a far more complicated and protracted process.” Kiharn winced at the thought.

“What’s the difference?” asked Willow curiously.

“There are three kinds of matings, yes? Mating-for-pleasure across species lines within the Quenya result in no children, therefore no contracts are needed. Mating-for-children between the prides only need a guarantee in the stud contract that the sire is permitted access to his cubs should he want it, since the cubs stay with and are raised by the mother’s pride. Mating-for-heirs between pride lords is vastly more complicated.” Kiharn shuddered. “Which pride takes precedence. What the status of the heirs will be. Political affiliations. A ritual three-month abstinence from sex by the female for the sake of establishing paternity. A twenty-day retreat for both partners for the mental adjustment necessary for congress with a member of another pride without death and mayhem...”

“Death?” Everyone was shocked.

“Deaths have occurred,” nodded Kiharn. “Unintentionally. Matings can be very fierce, especially between pride lords where pride ascendancy can become a factor.”

“Whoa,” said Willow.

“Those negotiations can take months and are rare. It is easier to just seize the other pride.” He shrugged, then looked around at all of them benevolently. “Will you be ready to leave in two days?”

“So soon?” blurted Buffy, then bit her lip. Spike gave her the flicker of a wry, but sweet smile.

“Isayel tells me your companion has recovered from his fever and is capable of travel.”

Xander was. The fever had broken two days ago and, though he was still weak, he was getting better fast and would certainly be able to travel lying down in the wagon within a couple of days. The girls had all been spending time with him now that he was no longer contagious, mostly to distract him from the Quenya. The drafts Isayel and the healers had given him had luckily had the side effect of putting him to sleep during the time that he was ill; but now that he was no longer taking them, he was aware of the Quenya moving about him and he didn’t like it one bit. Invalids being normally querulous and irritable, everyone was terrified that he might in some way offend the Quenya. The only good thing about the speed of this journey, Buffy thought, was that it would get him away from them sooner.

If only...

“It’ll take a few days to get to this Dihurnin place,” muttered Spike in Buffy’s ear. “At least we’ll have that.”

“But not much privacy,” she murmured back and he laughed ruefully.

“No.” He looked down at her, his eyes very dark and still. “Glad you regret it, pet. Glad you’re sorry it’s gonna be over.”

She looked away. She did regret it, but there was no other option.

‘Not gonna let you out of bed for the next two days,” he muttered.

They did spend those days mostly in bed, making love desperately. She could see the sadness and the resignation in those eyes watching her so intensely. She was melancholy too. Because of it, every touch, every caress, became lingering, layered with meaning and significance, painful and acutely sensitive. No one else had ever made her feel like this, had ever driven her to these heights; no one else ever would.

From a remark Xander irritably made about Anya also suddenly going missing, it became apparent to those in the know that Anya and Rihar were similarly occupied.

“She’s, uh, busy,” muttered Willow, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Xander was her friend, but she did sympathize with Anya. She didn’t want to lie, but she was in an invidious position and hated being stuck in the middle like this. “She’s made friends around here. I suppose she’s saying goodbye.”

Which wasn’t exactly a lie, she thought wryly and glanced at Tara who shrugged ruefully.

“Demons,” growled Xander under his breath and Tara frowned at him.

“They’ve been very good to you, Xander,” she said, not stammering at all in her earnestness. “You should be grateful. You’d still be sick if it wasn’t for them.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have been sick at all if it wasn’t for them,” retorted Xander stubbornly.

“Tirr didn’t mean to.”

“Tirr the leopard?”

“Tirr the person who is my friend,” said Tara coldly and Xander looked away.

“And where’s Buffy? Is she busy too?”

“Yes,” said Willow flatly. What with the way Buffy and Spike looked at each other when they thought nobody was watching, the penny had dropped for her some time ago. She didn’t know exactly how she felt about Buffy being involved with Spike, but the thought didn’t horrify her the way it would have previously. “We’ll all be back in Sunnydale in a few days. Just let things go, Xander.”

“Things? What things?” yelped Xander.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Willow flung up her hands in exasperation and walked out of Xander’s room.

“Hey, wait!” he yelled after her, then caught at Tara as she began to follow Willow. “What’s been going on while I was sick?”

“Nothing that matters,” said Tara, pulling free. She shut his door behind her, then caught up with Willow as she headed down to the great hall. “That’s the way Giles is going to be, isn’t it?”

“You know it.”

“Spike...Spike really loves her, Willow. It’s going to break him when we get back to Sunnydale and...”

“Yeah.” Willow gave her a helpless look. “She’s the Slayer. There’s nothing anyone can do.”

Tara sighed.

All too soon, their things were back on the wagon, their goodbyes to the Quenya were all said and they were ready to roll. Isayel was coming with them to ensure that the Pyarren kept their promise to allow them to enter Dihurnin.

“Are you going all alone?” Buffy asked Rihar as he dropped a heavy knapsack into the back of the wagon. “I thought you would have a retinue or something.”

“It is not the custom. That is only for the lords.” He held out a hand to help Anya, then Willow and Tara into the wagon.

“Ahn!” Xander, who was lying on a bed that had been made of him in the wagon, reached out for her. “Where have you been?”

She smiled at him stiffly. “Around.”

“You still mad at me?”

Anya frowned a little and took a seat at the other end of the wagon. “We’ll discuss it when we’re back in Sunnydale.”

“Guess you are,” muttered Xander, then flinched as Serrai strolled around the side of the wagon to grin at Spike in the driver’s seat.

“You should stay, White-hair. There is a place for warriors such as you in the pride. And you would have many bedmates.”

Spike grinned back. “It’s tempting. Can I take a raincheck?”

“That means ‘maybe later,’ yes?” She grinned at Buffy climbing up onto the wagon seat to take her usual shotgun position. “You are still scent-marked, White-hair. Come back when you are free.”

“Never free, Serrai,” Spike said simply. “Scent or not.”

“Ah, well, devotion to the pride lord is always a virtue.” She tilted a meaningful brow at Buffy.

Buffy shook her head at her, smiling crookedly. “Doesn’t work that way in our dimension.”

“But it should, pride lord.”

“What?” said Xander, frowning, but Serrai was already walking off.

Rihar was coming back to the wagon after having said goodbye to his mother. Tirr waved at him from the terrace and he flung up a hand, then looked at Kiharn coming towards him. They smiled at each other, then Kiharn removed the collar from Rihar’s neck, the medallion from his own, and handed them both to him.

“For your own son. And may he be a lesson to you.” They both laughed. “Send me word when you have taken Arrhan.”

“I will take him, Father.”

“I have every confidence.” They hugged, then Kiharn slapped him on the shoulder and stepped back. “Go then. And good fortune, Outlanders. I hope you find your way to your own home.”

“Thank you for all you’ve done, my lord,” Buffy called as Spike slapped the reins on the backs of the horses and the wagon started to roll forward.

Rihar shifted into the black panther and ran ahead, past the horses. Isayel had them under tight control and they showed no signs of even being aware of him.

“I wish he wouldn’t do that!” muttered Xander.

“Take the straight track,” Isayel called to Rihar and the panther turned north-east. Isayel touched a medallion at her breast.

Blue light suddenly sprang up around them. The horses’ hooves struck sparks from the road and the land about them blurred, sweeping past them at speed and wavering in their sight as if through a heat haze.

Everyone gasped.

“What’s happening?” Buffy exclaimed.

“I do not have the time to spend several days traveling on this wagon,” said Isayel. “So we move quickly. We will be at our destination by nightfall.”

“Damn,” muttered Spike under his breath. He and Buffy shared a rueful look.

“But how?” asked Willow, awed, as the landscape rushed past beyond the curtain of blue fire that surrounded them.

“We use the ley lines. Lines of power crossing the earth.” Isayel held up the medallion hung around her neck. “This sigil accesses them.”

“No wonder negotiations were so fast, even with a pride far distant from your own,” Buffy exclaimed in realization as things connected. “The messengers could go back and forth quickly. Is the Diarchy capable of this?”

“I think not,” said Isayel. “But they have other abilities that we do not. Their mages, I believe, can transpose themselves wherever they wish. We like this better, since the sigil allows nonmages also to access the lines.”

Beyond the curtain of blue fire, wolves were running beside them now, playing and leaping over each other, their tongues lolling out of open, laughing jaws. Then they were gone and later a bear reared up to watch them pass, then later yet a massive tiger sauntered along, casting an indifferent glance at them and yawning elaborately.

“Are all shifters predators?” Willow asked, looking at the tiger.

“Why would anyone wish to shift into prey?” answered Isayel simply.

The landscape flowed past swiftly and steadily. Above their head, the sun reached its zenith, then started to descend. Neither the horses nor Rihar seemed tired. They appeared to be just pacing casually along, though each stride covered several yards. Towards sunset, Rihar turned suddenly off the road.

“Follow him,” said Isayel and Spike turned the horses in that direction.

The blue light faded. The wagon was now traveling the same kind of dirt track they had been on when originally entering the Querid. Rihar was standing in human form beside a stream in a wide expanse of grassy meadow. He raised an arm and Spike angled the wagon off the road and towards him.

“And why do we stop?” Isayel asked Rihar when they drew up beside him. “If we continue up the road, we will reach Pyarren land before nightfall.”

“We will sleep here tonight and continue on in the morning.”

“So we have to camp out tonight just because he wants to make a good impression tomorrow?” Xander muttered grouchily and Anya gave him a cool look.

“I wouldn’t have thought you’d be in such a hurry to get back into the company of more demons.”

“Got three here already, haven’t we?” he retorted and Willow jabbed an elbow into his ribs.

“Offend the powerful mage, why don’t you?” she snapped under her breath and Xander subsided abruptly.

Both Isayel and Rihar ignored him.

“I have my reasons,” Rihar said and went to dig a firepit while Spike and Tara unhitched and rubbed down the horses and the rest of them got out the bedrolls and began putting a meal together.

Two jackals arrived at the tree line and sat down with their tails curled around their front paws. Rihar went to meet them. They shimmered into small, very pretty human females, flirted with him for a while, then laughed, shifted again and ran off.

“There are gaiour in the forest,” Rihar said, coming back. “Those two sisters don’t mind us taking them because they’re too large to be prey for the girls. But they like the taste of the meat, so I said we’ll leave them as much as we could after we have fed.”

Isayel nodded. “There will be a lot left even after the two of us are done.”

“We’ll need more than one.”

“Oh?” Then Isayel looked around as blue light flared.

Ten leopards ran out of the blue fire, then shifted into human form as they came over the grass. Three were male, the rest female; they were all around Rihar’s age; and at their head was Tirr, wearing a medallion with the ley-line sigil.

“I...see,” said Isayel. “Your generation. Do you take him as lord?” she asked the newcomers.

“Yes,” said all ten.

“Arrhan. But why now?” she asked Rihar. “Why not two months from now as was the plan?”

“Because I wish it so,” shrugged Rihar and swept his new followers off to the tree line to talk.

“What’s happening?” asked Willow anxiously.

“Challenge. Rihar intends to challenge Arrhan tomorrow for lordship of that pride.”

“What?” said Anya sharply. “But he could get killed!”

“It is the Way.” Isayel sighed. “It is his right.”

“But what about the contract with the Pyarren?” Buffy asked.

“The contract will be met.”

“But if Rihar dies...”

“Those three males are his cousins. They carry the bloodline the Pyarren want. The Pyarren will accept them as substitutes if necessary.”

Rihar was coming back to them. “I and my people will set out for Arrhan’s manse at first light. Isayel goes with us as witness. We will return for you when we are done.”

“What if you don’t come back?” asked Willow under her breath.

“Isayel will come. As witness, she is sacrosanct and no one will harm her.”

His gaze lingered on Anya’s worried face for a moment, then he turned away.

“Can we help?” Spike asked and Rihar grinned at him.

“Friends are always welcome. The difficulty is that a human form’s only defense against a cat’s attack is to kill it and that is precisely what must not happen. If I win, his people will be my people. They may be damaged, but not slain. Tirr and the others are with me solely to break through the defenses and get me to a point where Arrhan will hear me cry challenge. He must then meet me and the combat will thereupon be between the two of us.”

“Only break through, huh?” Buffy was looking thoughtful. “And there I was regretting we’d left those boar spears behind. Staves, Spike?”

“Not a bad idea, Slayer. I’ll go cut two. Extra thick, long ones, I’m guessing, right?”

“You got it.” They grinned at each other.

“This isn’t our fight, Buffy!” Xander said vehemently once Rihar had gone off again to confer with his new guard.

“I’m going,” said Spike shortly, heading off with an axe towards the trees. “Slayer can come or not as she likes.”

“She could get killed. Needlessly! This isn’t Slayer business!”

“Rihar’s my friend, Xand,” said Buffy simply. “And anyway I’m dying to see how this challenge thing plays out. Tara, do you have anything in that bag of yours that might help?”

“I have no idea what might be useful,” Tara confessed. “Do you mean spells?”

“No spells,” said Isayel, overhearing. “We mages do not interfere with challenges.”

Tara pushed her bag over to Buffy. “Here. You look.”

“What are you looking for? Mace or tasers?”asked Xander sarcastically. “She won’t have anything like that. Buffy, don’t do this!”

“Oh, do be quiet, Xander!” snapped Anya irritably. “If you don’t want to help, then just stay out of the way!”

Xander stared at her. “What’s with you all of a sudden, Ahn?”

“Nothing! I don’t like any of this!” She sat down close to the fire, hugging herself as if she felt cold. Tara moved to sit beside her, an arm around her shoulders.

“I know it’s not Slayer business, but I don’t care,” said Buffy, digging around in Tara’s bag, as Xander opened his mouth to protest again. “Discussion’s over, Xander.”

Rihar and the other Quenya went off to hunt. The humans cooked, ate, then rolled themselves up into blankets to sleep. The Quenya came back after feeding to sleep around the fire too, not needing blankets in their animal forms. Which freaked Xander totally, seeing eleven big cats and one white wolf scattered on the grass all around him, but there was nothing he could do about it.

At first light, Rihar came and touched Buffy and Spike. They both woke instantly and rose at once to follow him, leaving the Scoobies still sleeping. Only Rihar and Isayel were in their human forms. Tirr and the others moved smoothly and silently beside them in cat shape.

“I want you to go with Isayel,” Rihar said quietly. “You will not have the speed to stay with us on the breakthrough and I do not wish you to be harmed. She will keep you safe.”

“Until you need us,” said Buffy firmly.

He smiled down at her. “Until then. But I hope there will not be need.”

“Come,” said Isayel. “Hold onto my robe.”

Buffy and Spike each took a corner. The world suddenly blurred around them. Then they were standing under some trees on the side of a grassy verge fronting a manor house only slightly smaller than Kiharn’s. A couple of leopards strolled across the terrace and both Buffy and Spike flinched.

“They will not sense us,” said Isayel. “Neither see nor hear nor smell. We are phased.”

“Where are Rihar and the others?” Buffy asked.

“Crossing the boundary at the moment. It will be some time before you see them arrive. It is best of course if they are so stealthy that no one sees them come until they are here. But that is unlikely. Those guards look proficient.”

They waited. Buffy kept looking back towards the forest and the grassy plain that separated it from the manor house. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees and dipped the long grass in waves like a sea, but other than that there was no sign of movement.

“Has something gone wrong?” she asked worriedly at last. “Where are they?”

“In the grass.”

Buffy stared at the grass, but could see nothing moving there but the wind. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. They have done well so far.”

There was a snarl, then the two leopards that had been on the terrace shot past them. Spike leaped forward, but ran up against an invisible barrier.

“What the hell?”

“You are not needed yet,” said Isayel calmly. “Also it would not be fair dealing to let you at their backs.”

More leopards were racing around the sides of the house and down the terrace. The grassy plain had exploded into chaos, cats rolling and snarling and fighting. But there was method to the madness, Buffy could see it now—Tirr and the others running interference for Rihar who was driving a straight line through to the terrace, the manor’s guards trying to hold them back.

The conflict swept past where the three of them were standing, reached the grassy verge in front of the terrace.

“Isayel!” Spike yelled.

Isayel shook her head, unmoved. “There is no need. They have it under control. And Rihar does not wish you harmed.”

“No, look!” Buffy exclaimed.

Rihar had almost reached the steps to the terrace. Three guards flung themselves on him, dragging him down. Tirr threw herself on one and they rolled, slashing and kicking at each other with their powerful hind legs. Rihar broke free, striking out at the two that still clung to him. But more guards were racing around the side of the house.

“Isayel! Release us!”

The barrier dropped before Spike’s yell faded and Spike was off in one great fifteen foot leap that landed him between Rihar and the newcomers. The staff in his hands swung, knocking a cat right off its feet. Another cat leapt and he caught it just below the breastbone with the blunt point of the staff, heaving it right up off the ground and throwing it to one side. Buffy landed beside him, having used her staff to pole vault over Tirr and her opponent. Her arm whipped and she flung the entire contents of the perfume bottle she had taken from Tara’s bag last night into the faces of the oncoming cats.

They recoiled, coughing and sneezing, and in that moment Rihar shot through the opening, reached the foot of the terrace steps and roared.

Everything stilled. The snarling, worrying noises stopped; the struggling combatants froze in place. Into the silence, Rihar roared again, then shimmered into human form.

“Challenge!” he yelled at the house. “Challenge, Arrhan! Come out and fight!”

There was a pause, then a man stepped out of the terrace doors of the house. He was only a little older than Kiharn and he had the same gold-brown hair, but he was taller and more massive. From the way Kiharn had talked about him, Buffy had thought that he would be past it. That was clearly not so. This man was in his prime and in the flower of his strength.

“This is so not good,” she muttered to Spike. “Think somebody made a mistake somewhere.”

“Rihar’s outweighed too,” he muttered back. “Where the hell did Kiharn get his information from? Git doesn’t seem to have lost any sodding edge.”

“Kiharn’s cub,” Arrhan said, looking Rihar over with disdain. “Overambitious and prideful, as is the bloodline. Come back in a year or two, boy. Perhaps then it will actually be a challenge.”

“You are challenged now,” said Rihar flatly. “Or do you wish to default and simply surrender the pride?”

A fang flashed. “You do need a lesson. Perhaps that is why Kiharn sent you. Come then.”

He moved forward slowly, changing into leopard as he flowed down the terrace steps. Rihar had already shifted into the panther.

Isayel drew Buffy and Spike to one side. “It is between them now. There is nothing more we can do.”

Tirr came to stand beside them in her human form, biting her lip. “Father taught him well,” she was muttering under her breath. “Father taught him well...Oh!”

Halfway down the steps, Arrhan had leaped straight at Rihar, claws out. But Rihar was not there. He had flashed to one side and his claws raked Arrhan’s flank.

“Rihar’s faster,” muttered Spike. “But that’s the only plus. He’s got to keep moving, mustn’t let the blighter clinch. That git’s too powerful and those jaws can crush bone.”

Rihar knew that. He avoided every effort Arrhan made to grapple, flashed in, slashed, then slid away again.

“He’s young,” Spike said under his breath. “He can outlast the bugger.”

But Buffy couldn’t help thinking that this was Rihar’s first and only challenge, while Arrhan must have won many such over his years to still be lord of this domain.

The gold and black forms wove over the grass, a rippling flow of sinewy, powerful muscle. They were both bleeding now from cuts and gashes. Fangs flashed white in the sun, then the panther slammed into the leopard’s shoulder, knocking him right off his feet. Rihar’s jaws almost closed on Arrhan’s throat, but with a desperate effort the leopard twisted away.

“That was a wolf move,” exclaimed Spike. “Have you been teaching him, Isayel?”

“Yes.”

“Not playing by the rule book?”

“One must always be open to new ideas.”

“Arrhan’s not. Think I see what Kiharn meant about him losing his edge. Still got the muscle, but not in top form. Been taking it easy maybe the last few years.”

Buffy nodded. “And Rihar has some moves he’s not used to. Rihar almost got him there.”

“Almost’s not good enough.”

There was a flurry, then a snarling, clawing ball rolled over and over, the two cats entwined, kicking and tearing with their hind legs.

“Mistake!” snapped Spike. “Rihar let him get too close!”

“Sun got in his eyes,” gasped Tirr. “Oh, break loose, Rihar!”

Rihar did, but he was limping now, a great gash down his left hind leg.

“Oh, no!” Tirr’s claws broke out of her fingertips.

Isayel gripped her shoulder warningly to keep her from flinging herself forward. “No outside interference at this point, child! You know that.”

“He won’t be able to move fast enough now! He’s lost his advantage! Arrhan will kill him!”

Arrhan knew it too. He swelled in triumph and leaped at Rihar. Rihar shifted.

“What?” yelped Tirr. “No! Not as human! Not as human! Rihar, shift back!”

Rihar stayed human. He ducked under Arrhan’s leap, slid around him and then was on Arrhan’s back, arms under Arrhan’s armpits, hands locked behind Arrhan’s neck. Full-nelson.

Spike gave a shout of laughter. “Open to new ideas, oh, yeah!”

There was a moment of desperate struggle while Arrhan, kicking and squalling and shocked to the core, strained against Rihar’s grip and Rihar put all his strength into shoving his neck downwards. Then there was a resounding crack. Arrhan went limp. Rihar staggered to his feet, bleeding heavily, but victorious.

***

“Can we go home now?” Xander growled when Buffy and Isayel turned up beside the wagon. He had volunteered to stay and look after the horses when Anya, Willow and Tara all wanted to go see Rihar’s newly won domain. As far as he was concerned, when you’d seen one manor full of Quenya, you’d seen them all and he couldn’t understand how buddy-buddy the girls were being with them.

Anya even seemed worried about that Rihar guy who was so full of himself. He was another one just like Spike, all arrogance and attitude, strutting around all cock of the walk, showing off his pecs and looking at Xander with barely concealed disdain. And he was a demon, which probably explained why Anya was so much at ease with him. When they got back to Sunnydale and things were thankfully back to normal, he’d have to make a point of warning Anya that being friendly with demons was unacceptable, not something a human would do. Anya never understood the right way to behave as a human, even after all the time he spent trying to point it out to her.

“We’ll be going home soon,” Buffy said, not sounding as pleased about that as he had hoped. Except for him, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves in this horrible dimension and didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave it.

“When’s soon? Don’t tell me we have to stick around until this Rihar jer...guy gets himself dug in as bigshot around here?” Xander’s eyes widened in horror. “That contract with those Pyar people still stands, doesn’t it? It hasn’t fallen through just because he’s made himself a pride lord now?”

“Yeah, it has, but...”

“Buffy!”

“They have to renegotiate that contract. Xander, calm down!” Buffy soothed as Xander swelled up on the verge of an explosion. “It’s not going to affect us. The Pyarren have already sent an emissary and she agrees that Rihar’s change in status shouldn’t be allowed to impact on ours. They’re willing to let us pass through the Gate tonight as a gesture of goodwill towards the new negotiations with Rihar.”

“Well, thank God! Let’s hope he doesn’t start throwing his weight around till then. You know how suddenly becoming King Shit can give some assholes a swelled head.”

Buffy gave him a long, cool look. “Well, this asshole was kind enough to make our having access to that Gate the very first matter of business when the emissary turned up. And that was when he was in pain from the wounds he took in battle and busy trying to get things settled with his new pride. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he had simply forgotten all about us and shoved us onto a back burner until things calmed down. Rihar and Kiharn and all the Quenya have been very good to us.”

“Never said they haven’t,” muttered Xander, backing off hurriedly under her stern gaze.

“Just try to be polite until nightfall. That’s not that long, is it?”

“When am I not polite?” growled Xander and pulled a half-wry, half-offended face when Buffy rolled her eyes.

The rest of the day went if not quickly, at least peacefully for him. Isayel took Buffy back to the manse and brought Willow and Tara back to the wagon, Anya and Spike having for some reason chosen to copy Buffy and stay with Rihar. Willow and Tara were all excited about Rihar’s new position and couldn’t stop talking about that and the smoothness with which the new regime was slotting itself into place. Xander had no interest in either Rihar or weird power transitions, so blocked out their chattering voices by rolling himself up in his blankets and falling asleep in the wagon. He still felt weak from that fever, and it was the only way to get through a long and boring day.

Towards sunset, Isayel brought Buffy, Spike and Anya back. To Xander’s dismay, Rihar was with them, accompanied by Tirr and a small contingent of guards. Rihar was bandaged up, but already carrying himself with the authority of his new position. Pride lord at twenty and, boy, was he making the most of it, thought Xander resentfully. Strutting peacock.

His sister, Tirr, was giving smooth, quiet orders to the new guards, throwing her weight around as well. Willow had said that she was the captain of Rihar’s guard now. Nepotism, clearly, since at her age she certainly could not be considered qualified for the job and had presumably usurped the role of a far more experienced person. He looked at the guards she was ordering around. He hadn’t seen any of them before. They probably belonged to this pride and they were all older. But they all acted as if everything was completely normal and showed no resentment of either Rihar’s murderous land grab or Tirr’s self-promotion. All in a day’s work.

No loyalty, thought Xander, shaking his head. If Rihar got killed off tomorrow by some other greedy upstart just like himself, they’d go along with that one too quite happily. It would serve Rihar right, Xander thought, and found himself hoping that it would happen.

He tried to talk to Anya, but she was still giving him the cold shoulder and took a seat as far away from him in the wagon as she could. Xander was starting to get angry about that. She was acting as if he had done something wrong and he honestly couldn’t figure out what. If anything, she was the one who had acted badly, neglecting him like that when he was sick, then giving him such a hard time while making up to all these demon Quenya instead. When they got back to Sunnydale, they really would have to have a talk about the proper way for an ex-demon to behave if she wanted to be thought human.

They were all ready to go now. Isayel was standing on the wagon bed, one hand lightly on Spike’s shoulder as he picked up the reins. Xander saw with irritation that Rihar was climbing up to ride shotgun beside Spike, taking the spot Buffy usually sat, and Buffy was climbing over to sit in the wagon right behind the jerk. It seemed that Rihar had decided to come to the Pyarren holding to make sure that the Pyarren kept their word. In one sense, Xander was relieved about that, but he still would have preferred to see the last of Rihar right here.

All the girls, including Buffy, leaned down to hug Tirr goodbye. She laughed and waved, then shifted into that unsettling leopard form with the other guards and slid off into the forest. Xander hated seeing how comfortable the girls were with the Quenya, especially Buffy, who as a Slayer should have been cutting their heads off, not chatting so happily with Rihar as the wagon moved forward. Isayel touched the medallion on her breast and that weird blue fire started up again. Xander swallowed hard.

“Thank you for taking the time to come with us,” Buffy was saying to Rihar. “I know how much work you’ve got in front of you to get everything set up your way with the new pride.”

“Best to take things slow and let them get adjusted to me,” said Rihar. “Tonight they will hold the rites for Arrhan. By custom, the new pride lord does not attend. Tirr and my cousins will be there as the torch is passed. It suits me to be away.” He grinned at her. “This is far more entertaining.”

“If you had died instead, would there have been rites for you?” Buffy asked curiously.

“Unlikely. Arrhan had little courtesy and a dislike of my father. He would not have returned my corpse to Kiharn. My body would have been thrown in a ditch somewhere for the scavengers to feast upon.”

“And your followers? Tirr and the others?”

“Arrhan would not have harmed them. Custom demands that they be allowed to go where they please.” He looked at her curiously. “Does it trouble you, our Way?”

“It is different, but I’m learning to adapt.”

“A prerequisite of growth,” remarked Isayel and Buffy saw Spike turn his head to cock a sardonic eyebrow at her.

“Oh, shut up,” she said crossly and he laughed.

The Pyarren were waiting for them at the border. Isayel courteously let the ley lines deactivate and they went on at only the regular pace of the wagon, the Pyarren guard flowing along beside them in cat form.

Pyar met them on the terrace of her manor house, a lean, lithe, sinewy woman with a tough, intelligent face. She was old enough to be Buffy’s mother, but warrior through and through. Buffy could see how she held her position.

Rihar drank from the guest-cup she held out, then passed it to Buffy to signify that she too was to be considered a pride lord. Buffy drank, then handed the cup back to Pyar, who looked her over thoughtfully.

“Curious times,” said Pyar. “I never thought to see folk as strange to us as we are to the Diarchy.”

“The world is more than we know,” said Isayel. “And these outlanders only wish to return to their own. Will you allow them access to the Gate at Dihurnin, pride lord?”

“For a consideration.” Pyar gave Rihar a sardonic smile and he grinned back.

“Your emissary has seen my blood-relations. Is three for one acceptable compensation for the discourtesy of not fulfilling my contract before offering challenge to Arrhan?”

“My emissary speaks well of your people, pride lord. It is a generous apology and will be accepted when we rewrite the contract. And how are the Riharren adjusting?”

Arrhan’s pride would of course now be called that, but it was the first time they had been named so and it took Rihar himself a moment to adjust.

“It goes well so far,” he said with a sweet and faintly shy smile. Pyar smiled back and exchanged a thoughtful glance with Isayel.

“We approve the change. It has possibilities. Though the consensus seems to be that we may have lost something by it.”

“Definitely,” murmured the female behind Pyar, the captain of her guard, with a half-lidded look at Rihar.

Rihar laughed, but color showed for a moment across his cheekbones under that frank appraisal.

“Decorum, Sallah,” said Pyar sternly, but her lips twitched. “Something my pride is not notable for. No offense meant, pride lord.”

“None taken. And it is my loss too.”

“You are courteous.” She looked at Buffy. “How soon would you wish to access Dihurnin?”

“If it’s not too much trouble, as soon as possible. We have been away too long and I don’t know how conditions may be back home.”

“Yes, I understand the responsibilities,” Pyar nodded, then glanced over her shoulder at her captain. “Sallah, show them the way.”

“I will accompany them,” said Rihar firmly and came with them as Sallah led the way back to the wagon.

Dihurnin turned out to be a massive and imposing stone temple at the heart of the Pyarren domain. The Gate was buried deep within its bowels and Buffy knew that they would never have been able to either force or sneak their way in there. Only the agreement that Kiharn had achieved and Rihar had upheld allowed them to reach it.

“The end of the road,” said Spike softly at her back. “Are you sorry?”

“Yes,” she said.

He put out a hand and drew her behind a massive stone column where they would be hidden from sight. She glanced warily back at the others around the column. Isayel was setting up braziers and putting out ingredients for the portal-opening spell that she was going to cast, and Willow and Tara were helping her. Sallah had automatically formed up an honor guard around Rihar as a visiting pride lord who had to be kept safe, and Anya was studiously ignoring Xander who kept glowering at her. No one was paying them any attention.

“I wish...” Then she bit her lip and shook her head.

“What?” he asked.

“Too many things. All impossible.”

He bent and kissed her softly. “They don’t have to be.”

“They are.” She couldn’t help reaching up to stroke his face. “Once we’re back in Sunnydale, this between us can’t happen. We’re better off far away from each other.”

“You might be. I’m not.”

“No way out.”

“I love you, Buffy.”

“Spike!”

He smiled twistedly at her. “Just wanted to say it once.”

“You can’t...You mustn’t...”

“I do.”

He pulled her hard against him and she held him as fiercely, knowing that this was the last time. They kissed and kissed again, arms tight around each other.

“Buffy?” Willow was calling. “Where’d she go?”

“I’ll go look for her,” Xander said.

Buffy pulled away from Spike. He let her go and leaned back against the stone column. She pressed her hand against his cheek for a moment, then stepped away.

“I’m here.”

“We’re almost ready,” Willow said. “Isayel’s going to start the spell in a few minutes.”

“I want to go too,” said Rihar suddenly. “I want to see what their world is like.”

Isayel frowned.

“You wouldn’t like it, Rihar,” Tara said softly.

“I am curious. Can it be made possible, Isayel?”

“Going is not difficult,” said Isayel. “You step through the Gate with these others. Coming back however becomes a little more intricate.”

“It’s not safe for him,” Buffy objected.

“Can keep an eye on him if you like,” said Spike, arriving quietly beside them. He and Rihar smiled at each other.

Isayel had taken a sigil out of her robes. She passed her hand over it until it melted into another shape, then bound it upon Rihar’s left wrist.

“Time values between our worlds may be out of joint, so it is better that I do not choose a time for your return. When you are ready to come home, go back to the arrival point and press this sigil. It will tell me to open the Gate again.”

“Simple enough,” said Spike approvingly. “That’s what I like about you Quenya. You never complicate matters. You find out what has to be done and then you just do it.”

Isayel smiled. “How else? Now.” She held out a hand to Buffy. “Think of where you wish to be. I will do the rest.”

Buffy concentrated. A few moments later, the Gate opened—a black seam in the air, rapidly widening.

“Oh, thank God!” exclaimed Xander and jumped through, dragging Anya with him.

The rest of them followed, through a storm of whirling black and golden sparks, found themselves standing in the living room of 1630 Revello Drive, with the Gate snapping closed behind them.

Giles and Angel were standing staring at them, their mouths agape, Joyce was running out of the kitchen and Dawn was flinging herself down the stairs.

“Buffy, you’re back!”

“Where have all of you been?”

“What happened?”

Buffy laughed. “One at a time, please!”

There was a scramble of hugging and kissing. Xander collapsed onto the couch and let out a huge sigh of relief. Rihar was looking around in wonder and Spike had leaned a shoulder against the living room doorjamb and was watching them all sardonically.

“But where were all of you?” Giles demanded.

“In another dimension.” Buffy looked in surprise at Angel. “What are you doing here, Angel?”

“Giles needed help finding out where you had all gone.”

“It was this guy, Doc,” she explained. “He was trying to get rid of us so that Glory would win. How long have we been away?”

“A week! A whole week!” exclaimed Joyce. “Oh, honey, we were so worried!”

“Only a week!” Buffy shook her head. “It was a lot longer for us.”

“Who is Doc?” asked Giles, focusing on the threat.

“A demon,” said Spike. “Has plenty of mojo and Slayer was in his way.”

“And he sent you with her?” Angel growled.

“Spike’s been a real help to us,” said Buffy quickly.

“Spike has?”

Rihar had stopped looking with fascination at the lamps and was now standing beside Spike. There was a dangerous red light in his eyes as he looked at Angel and he was scowling. Clearly he was considering taking up arms on Spike’s behalf. Spike laid a hand on his shoulder, holding him back, since the last thing they needed right now was another vamp-cat fight starting right here in Buffy’s living room.

“Look, it’s a long story,” Buffy said hurriedly. “We’ll explain it to you once we’ve all had a bath and something to eat.”

“Oh, you must be hungry!” said Joyce and dived back into the kitchen.

“Who’s that?” asked Giles, frowning at Rihar.

“Tourist,” said Spike dryly. “Gonna show him the town.” He glanced out of the window. “Already dark. Come on, Rihar. You’re gonna love the nightlife. The bunch of you can take him around in the daylight tomorrow.”

“We’d be glad to do that,” Tara said quickly and they both smiled at her.

Then Spike looked back at Buffy. “Right then. We’re off. See you around, Slayer.”

Their gazes met. His eyes were very dark and still. They looked at each other for a long moment, then he ducked his head in a bow, turned on his heel and walked out, taking Rihar with him.

“Finally,” muttered Xander as the door closed behind the two of them.

But Tara, Willow and Anya were all looking worriedly at Buffy.

“That’s the way it has to be,” she said determinedly, not meeting their eyes, and turned away.


TBC