Faun and Games (18 page)

around it, If-"

"If we could do you some service in exchange," he finished.

"Exactly.
 
But as it is, I see no cause for further association.
 
So if

you will excuse me, I shall take off." She spread her wings.

"Walt!" Imbri cried.
 
"There must be something!"

Cathryn paused.
 
"I would be pleased if there were, for you seem like

interesting folk, and il-n sure your need must be extreme, for you to

make the (,reat effort to coi-timehere.
 
But it would be unkind to

pretend there is anything feasible."

"Every creature has some secret deep desire," Imbri said.
 
"I am in a

position to know."

The centaur seemed genuinely curious.
 
"How could you be in such a

position?"

"I was a night mare for a hundred and seventy years, punishing folk for

their darkest desires, and a day mare for thirty years, rewarding their

brightest desires.
 
I have never encountered anyone who was wholly

satisfied with his lot.
 
Some don't know their deepest desires, but all

have them."

"And maybe some demons prey on that," Forrest said, thinking of D. Sire.

"Then I think I must be the exception," Cathryn said, "becituse I am

satisfied, as satisfied as it is possible for a might-be to be."

They seemed to be getting nowhere.
 
But Forrest remembered something.

"The Good Magician's list," he said.
 
"Maybe that has the answer." He

dug into his knapsack and brought it out.

Now he thought he could almost read the first two words of the Good

Magician's illegible scribble.
 
"Dear Horn," he said, squinting. "Does

that make any sense?"

"Oh!" Cathryn said, putting a hand to her ample breast.

"You have found your secret desire," Imbri said.

"I suppose I have," the centaur confessed.
 
"I never realized it

before."

Forrest put the paper away.
 
"What is the dear horn?"

"It is a special horn that when blown will locate a person's True Love.

I have no True Love; I did not realize until you spoke that I missed

him."

"Then we must find this horn for you," Imbri said.

"That may be no easy thing.
 
I have no idea where it may be.
 
I

understand it tends to get left wherever last used, forgotten.
 
So

though you have indeed discovered a service you might render me, I fear

it is an impossible service."

Forrest found himself becoming canny.
 
"Suppose we agreed to help you

find that horn.
 
Would that be a sufficient service so that we could

talk freely while we were doing it""

"Why yes, I suppose it would be.
 
But you may still be wasting your

time, because it may not be possible to find it, and in that case I will

not be able to guide you toward the region of the fauns."

Forrest shrugged.
 
"We'll take that chance.
 
Are we agreed?"

"Yes," Cathryn said, smiling.

"Then let's proceed.
 
I'm not much, but Mare Imbri can tune in on

dreams, and that may help, as the dear horn is surely an instrument for

the fulfillment of dreams."

Both mares looked at him.
 
"You're not as empty headed as the average

faun," the centaur remarked.

"It's a luxury I can't afford at the moment.
 
I must save that tree, and

return to my own tree." Forrest turned to Imbri.
 
"Can you orient on

some person wtio knows where the dear horn is?"

"I'm not sure.
 
But I suppose the Good Magician wouldn't have asked me

to guide you, if he didn't think I had some way to do it. Let me

concentrate." She closed her eyes.
 
She looked much like a nymph that

way, except that she was clothed.
 
"Yes-I am getting a faint glimmering.

It's like the colors of the directions, only it's more like I'ght from a

distant flickering candle.
 
I think I will be able to find it.
 
But we

will have to go straight to it, because it's very faint, and I may lose

it if we delay or deviate."

"Then let's go!" Forrest said, gratified.

They set off to the north, and slightly to the east.
 
There were

numerous tracks, all hoofmarks.
 
That reminded him of the conjecture

they had made about regions.
 
They had encountered only equine folk in

this region: a unicorn, a centaur, and a winged centaur.
 
That could be

coincidence, but he doubted it, because in regular Xanth he had seldom

seen such creatures.
 
"Is this equine country?" he inquired.

"Yes," Cathryn answered.
 
"Creatures of a kind tend to congregate, being

more comfortable with similar types.
 
There's no rule; it just happens."

"So elsewhere there will be regions of dragons, or of elves, or of human

folk'?"

"Or of fauns," she agreed.
 
"Actually there may be several regions of

each type, because of the time."

, 'Time?"

"Time is geography, so there are limits."

"I don't understand.
 
Will I have to exchange a service in order to find

out what that means'?"

She laughed.
 
"No.
 
We are in the process of exchanging our services

now.
 
It is to my interest to facilitate your search for the dear horn,

and you can surely do that better if you understand our system. I had

forgotten for the moment that you are from Outside.
 
Have you noticed

something about me?"

He glanced at her.
 
"Only that you somehow seem younger than I took you

for.
 
I was probably distracted by your-there are aspects of you that

resemble a generously endowed nymph, and-"

She laughed again, making those aspects shake.
 
"I think I- night even

guess which aspects you mean.
 
But you are not imagining it.
 
I am

growing younger.
 
I was foaled only twenty years before we met, so even

a small distance to the east makes me noticeably younger."

"How can that be?
 
Is there youth elixir in the airs"

"No.
 
It's the direction.
 
When we travel into the From, we become

younger.
 
If the dear horn is very far in this direction, not only will

we be in ogre territory, I will be too young to take you there.
 
I would

regret that, because then we could not complete our agreement "But how

can that be?
 
East is a direction, not a time."

"Perhaps that is true where you come from.
 
Here east is From, or what

you might call the Past.
 
It's all the same to us, of course, but I

suppose it might seem odd to outsiders."

"Are you saying that if we go one direction, we get younger, and if we

go the other direction, we get older?"

"That is exactly what I am saying.
 
So I am able to go twenty years

east, from where we meet, and seventy years west.
 
For reasons of vanity

I prefer to remain mostly in the early maturity section.
 
Neither

extreme youth nor extreme age appeal to me particularly."

He was amazed.
 
"Does this apply to us too?"

"I should certainly think so.
 
Do you feel yourself getting younger.

"No.
 
But I wouldn't notice five or ten years, and neither would Imbri.

We're both two hundred years old."

"You are that age where?"

He was nonplumed.
 
"Why, here, of course."

"But you must be five or six years younger than you were.
 
See, I am

becoming a teen, and younger."

He looked at her again.
 
Indeed, now her breasts were smaller, her

flanks were less solid, and she had acne on her face.
 
Her mane, which

had been loose, was now bound into a pony tail.

He checked himself.
 
"No, I remain much the same faun as ever. But I

would be only a hundred and ninety or so, instead of two hundred.
 
I

would have to go a long way back to get really young."

"So I gather.
 
How far can you go in To?"

"Into what?"

"The future."

"Why, I don't know.
 
It depends on how long my tree lives.
 
Perhaps four

hundred years."

"You are a long-lived species!"

"Well, we draw our vitality from our trees.
 
If my tree should be

chopped down, I would fade out right then."

"I see.
 
So you should have a wide range of geography, here on Ptero.

That is surely an advantage, in case your faun is long removed."

Forrest suffered a revelation.
 
"The Good Magician must have known!

That's why Imbri and I are the same age, and both long lived. So we can

search farther, together."

"That does seem to make sense.
 
Every person's territory is limited by

her life span.
 
That is not usually a problem, but I confess that at

times I do wonder at what must be beyond my territory." She was now

smaller, with no chest development, and her mane was in pigtails.
 
"I

hope it isn't much farther."

Imbri, who had been walking with a removed expression, looked at her.

"Not far now, I think.
 
The glow is stronger.
 
But it is still

flickering.
 
I don't want to pause, lest something happen to it."

" But we may have to pause," Cathryn said.
 
"We are approaching the edge