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The spiky monster had appeared and vanished so quickly that he'd not had time to react. He hadn't even been able to get a good enough look at it to be afraid. "And what is this place? Hell?"

She snorted. "Hell? That isn't a place, Man. There's no such thing as hell or heaven. In any case, if there was a hell, you wouldn't get there alive. In fact, nobody has, before, which is why I said you were a survivor."

"How did I get here, then? I don't remember coming here."

"I found you." The demon hesitated. "I was hoping someone like you would come. I've been waiting a long time."

He thought about that a while. "So where are we?"

"This is just...a different place. Different from the one you know. And," she added casually, "the first thing you have to do is find your way out of here. This isn't a place for a man."

"How do I get out of here?" Now that he had got his footing, the strangeness of the place had begun seeping into him, filling him with increasing uneasiness. "Which way do I go?"

"It's not which way, Man," the demon said. "It's how." She walked a few paces away and swung back towards him. "You do remember that you agreed to something in return for my saving you?"

He nodded. "An endless quest, filled with blood and suffering." Somehow, now that the pain was fading, it seemed sharply more real, like something with claws hiding in the darkness, half-seen. "I remember."

"It starts now," she said. "Getting out of here won't be easy, though, Man. I can guide you, but I can't help you. You'll have to do it yourself."

He nodded. "I don't want to linger here a moment longer than necessary. But how do I get out of here?"

She touched him on the arm, surprisingly delicately for her talon-tipped fingers. "Follow me."

For a long time he followed her across the rocky plain. The green glow on the horizon still flickered, coming no closer. Here and there, too far away to be seen clearly, bizarre humps and angular extrusions rose from the rock, shapes so strange that he was glad they didn't pass anywhere near one of them.

At length, though, it became clear that they were heading for one of the shapes. It was still far away, but clearly huge, its spiky towers and turrets silhouetted against the glow.

And it was cold. The closer they got to it, the colder it got, as if it were radiating coldness out into the air. The rock underfoot grew slippery with frost.

"What is it?" He had not spoken for a long time, and his voice sounded strange, as though the words froze as they left his mouth and fell out of the air. "What is that place?"

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "If it had a name," she said softly, "it's long forgotten. Just as nobody knows where it came from. But if you want to find a way out, it's through there."

He shivered, and it was not from the cold. They were now close enough for him to see that the structure more resembled the skeleton of some gigantic creature than a building, though it was clearly not natural. Through spaces in the walls, the green glow shone through like malevolent eyes.

There were stone steps leading up to an entrance that looked like a mouth studded with jagged teeth. The demon turned to face him at the foot of the steps.

"Before we go in, Man," she said, "listen carefully. Once we're inside there, I can't help you directly in any way. I can't fight at your side, I can't heal your wounds, I can't even pull you back out here if you're badly hurt. All I can do is offer advice, which may or may not be helpful - but you can be assured that I'll be giving it with complete sincerity. Are you ready?"

"Fight at my side?" he repeated. "You mean I will have to fight? But I don't even have weapons."

"There are different kinds of fighting you'll have to do," the demon replied. "Some fights are the sort where you may need weapons. The others are - maybe, different, where the weapons are in your mind. But remember this: nothing inside there will be as it seems. Remember that always. It's vital."

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