Faun and Games (47 page)

"Yes.
 
But you still look doubtful."

41t, s just that, if you don't mind-"

.
 
"Yes?"

"If you would put your clothing back on."

"Oh." It must have been her turn to blush, because she did so to the

waist before reforming her outer apparel.

After that they walked more comfortably on toward the center of the

triangle.
 
But the blue landscape darkened.
 
Night was coming.
 
That

probably meant that Xanth was darkening, and with it Ptero, and with it,

Pyramid.
 
It had nothing to do with the spin of this world.
 
So they

looked for a suitable place to spend the night.

The darkness wasn't complete.
 
This was awkward, because the blue

landscape remained somewhat strange to their eyes, and made relaxation

for sleep difficult.

"That looks like a nightshade tree," lmbri said.
 
"That should help."

Sure enough, under the blue tree there was a pool of darkness.
 
It was

midnight blue-black, the same as Imbri's hide, and impenetrable.
 
Beside

it was a sweetgum tree.
 
So they picked a number of the leaves and

twigs, which were made of sweet gum with a slightly woody flavor.
 
This

was enough to satisfy their incidental hunger. Their renewed thirst was

satisfied by several small local ponds which turned out to be teas:

serendipi, sereni, punctuali, joviali, and naugh. They were especially

tempted by the last one, but after the experiences of the seas,

concluded that discretion was best.
 
Farther along they spied calami,

adversi, frail, and pomposi, which were worse, so they gave up on their

search for anything better.
 
They drank the sereni-tea and soon relaxed

into sleep in the pleasant darkness of the nightshade.
 
Imbri remained

in her mare form, needing no blanket, while the girls lay close together

and were warm.
 
That left Forrest alone, thinking thoughts that made him

feel guilty.
 
It had been bad enough when Imbri was in girl form; now

there were two genuine girls.

Next morning they took turns bathing in the pool with punctualitea, then

promptly got on their way.
 
This was just as well, because the terrain

became much rougher.
 
They were no longer walking tilted, relative to

the larger landscape, which suggested that they were approaching the

center of the blue triangle, and Eve's testing of the ground verified

this.
 
But this levelness of the underlying land seemed to encourage the

surface features to splurge, and the landscape was like tumbled blue

blocks left by a giant.
 
They had to scramble over and under and around,

and squeeze through reluctant crevices, so that it took them most of a

day to travel what might otherwise have been a two-hour walk.

Then, as they finally cleared the blue blocks, they came to a jungle

inhabited by cat people.
 
Fortunately Forrest had remembered to reinvoke

the blanket of obscurity, so the cats didn't notice them.
 
That was just

as well, because when they changed from cat to people form, and various

combinations of the two, they probably wouldn't like being spied on.

"But maybe I can approach one separately, and get her advice on the

local situation," Dawn said brightly.
 
"Because there must be something

to send out the blue lines, and we had better know what we are looking

for before we blunder into it."

The others agreed.
 
But when Dawn located an isolated blue cat woman,

and approached her, she had a problem.
 
"Please, miss-can you tell me

about this region?"

The woman ignored her, and went about her business of scratching out

blue catnip.

"I just want to know what is ahead," Dawn said, trying again.
 
"Is there

any special danger?"

The cat walked away.

"It's the blanket of obscurity," Forrest said, catching on.
 
"It makes

you unnoticeable."

Dawn sighed.
 
"That's right.
 
And I'm sure it has protected us from much

mischief.
 
But how can I talk with this feline?"

"Just touch her and learn all about her, dummy," Eve said.

A dim bulb flickered over Dawn's head.
 
She touched the cat woman's arm.

"She is Catrina," she announced.
 
"Of the category of Feline Folk who

cater to the catacombs.
 
She had a whole collection of cat combs she has

made for the ones who live in maze-like tunnels. On occasion she brings

some combs to the Blue Wizard's castle.
 
It's very forbidding, and no

one can get in who isn't invited.
 
It's guarded by all manner of

monsters."

"You can tell all that from one touch of the cat woman?" Forrest asked.

"Yes.
 
It's part of everything about her.
 
But I can't get beyond her

personal experience.
 
She's never actually been inside the castle, and

knows nothing about its content.
 
But she's afraid of the Wizard, who

has given so much away that he has become enormous."

Forrest took a moment to work that out, remembering that on this world

creatures gained size and power by being generous.
 
"But how can he give

so much away?" he asked.
 
"I mean, where does he get anything to give

away?
 
It must come from somewhere."

"From Ptero," Imbri said in a dreamlet.

"That's right!" Eve agreed.
 
"See if he gives away any talents."

Dawn checked.
 
"Yes, he has given away many talents-and I recognize some

from people I know on Ptero.
 
One cat woman got the talent of changing

things to strawberry jam, for all that it comes out blue.
 
Another got

the talent of Charisma, which becomes purrsuasion; now she is queen of

the cat people.
 
Another got the talent of spell-checking."

"Hey, isn't that Com Pewter's talent?" Imbri asked.

"No, his talent is changing local reality to suit himself," Forrest

said.
 
"But checking spells-that's a strong one.
 
If that belonged to

one of the folk captured by the margins, it is becoming clear where all

the magic is going.
 
The Blue Wizard is getting it and giving it away to

add to his power."

"Another got the talent of changing the color of the sky," Dawn

continued, checking the cat woman.
 
"So she can make it any shade of

blue.
 
Another got the talent of throwing his voice with his hand, so he

can make it go anywhere."

"So the Wizard is stealing talents from Ptero to give away hers," Imbri

said indignantly.
 
"How can he get away with that?"

"Apparently Pyramid's rules don't take account of the outside realm,"

Eve said thoughtfully.
 
"So he has a dandy way to become all-powerful."

"And there must be other Wizards on the other faces of Pyramid," Forrest

said.
 
"Doing the same thing."

"And we have to stop them," Dawn said, letting the cat woman go on her

way.
 
"Does anyone have any idea how?"

There was a silence that bobbled around from one to another.
 
None of

them knew what to do.

Which meant it was up to Forrest.
 
"I suppose we should approach the

Blue Wizard's castle and see what we can do," he suggested feebly.

"Now I am just a na:fve girl," Eve said.
 
"With barely a notion of the

Adult Conspiracy, and no experience." Her sister smirked at that. "But

even I know that we'd probably get hauled in and executed without

trial."

"I couldn't have said it better, even if you did usurp my turn," Dawn

said.

"It wasn't your turn.
 
You spoke last before me."

"But this is a new subject.
 
I always comment first on new things."

"Girls, girls," Forrest said, finding himself shoved into a role their

mother had played on Ptero.

Both turned to him, their motions so well coordinated that he knew he

had been had.
 
Imbri faced away, letting him handle it in his own

fashion.
 
"And what are you going to do about it?" Dawn inquired. "Spank

us?"

"Shall we hoist our skirts for it?" Eve continued.
 
"So you can smack

our pan-"

"Girls!" he cried in boldface.
 
Then, more quietly: "After this mission

is done, and your friends have been saved, and we are no longer in

danger of being executed, then you may tease me as much as you want, and

maybe even make me blush again.
 
You are both extremely attractive young

women, and I am a faun, and I would love to play games with you in my

natural fashion.
 
But at present we are in danger, and any mistake we

make could cost us not only our lives, but imperil the fate of all the

human folk remaining on Ptero.
 
So though you may regard me as

unqualified, and perhaps laughable, I hope you will allow me to do the

best I can in the role that the Good Magician requires of me.
 
That is

to guide you to success in saving yoL,r land from marginalization."

The two exchanged a glance.
 
Then they turned together to look at

Forrest.
 
All four of their eyes were bright.
 
"We apologize most

abjectly," Dawn said.
 
"We were indeed forgetting our mission." She

wiped a tear from her right eye.

"But we ask you to understand that we do take the mission seriously,"

Eve continued.
 
"We tend to joke around when we are under tension,

because it is better than crying." She wiped a tear from her left eye.

Forrest was chagrined.
 
"I didn't realize.
 
I apologize for-"