Cube Route Part 12

"We'll have to call her," Melody decided.

"Yes," Harmony agreed.

"I'll do it," Rhythm said. She brought out her little drum and beat a brisk cadence.

The sound of the drum was surprisingly strong. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! It reverberated through the forest, and made two innocent clouds shake in the sky. In fact one of them was so shaken it wet on the forest below. Cube was reminded again: these children were not mere little girls, they were Sorceresses, with power of magic ordinary folk could only dream about.

In two and a half moments there was an answer from the sky. It sounded like the roar of a dragon. That made Cube nervous, because she was not on an enchanted path at the moment. But the little princesses did not seem alarmed.

Then the dragon appeared, flying swiftly toward them. It had bright green scales with purplish tinges. It looked dangerous.

"We had better get inside," Cube said apprehensively.

The three Princesses burst out laughing. Cube realized that she had made another mistake.

The dragon came to land before them. Then it changed form. It became a cute girl with blonde hair and brown eyes, about eighteen years old.

"Hi, Becka!" the three Princesses exclaimed together.

"Hi, Princesses," the young woman answered. "Who is your friend?"

"Cube," Melody answered.

"We're showing her around," Harmony added.

"And you're part of the sights," Rhythm concluded.

Becka laughed. "h.e.l.lo, Cube. I'm Becka Dragongirl, caretaker of the Princesses' castle."

The Princesses' castle? There continued to be details those naughty little girls didn't tell her.

"I'm glad you were able to come so quickly," Becka said to the Princesses. "I was on my way to fetch you, but turned back when I heard your drumbeat."

The Princesses were surprised. "You wanted us?" Melody asked.

"Yes. I fear only you can solve my problem."

"Problem?" Harmony asked.

"Brusque Bra.s.sy, my boyfriend, opened the forbidden door. He's gone, and I don't know what to do." The girl wiped away a tear of grief and frustration.

"But doesn't he know better?" Rhythm asked.

"Well, I certainly thought he did. He must have gotten confused. I asked him to fetch a broom from the closet so I could sweep out a speck of dust, and he went, and then I heard a horrible sound, the Forbidden Chamber Door being slammed shut, and I rushed there and he was gone. He must have opened it, and the Random Factor got him, and oh, I don't know what to do!" She wiped away another tear.

"This is suspicious," Melody said.

"Also a mystery," Rhythm agreed.

"What do you think, Cube?" Rhythm asked.

Cube was startled. "I don't know enough to have an opinion. I don't know who Brusque is, or what the Forbidden Chamber is, or anything about the Rancid Factoid."

The three Princesses and Becka laughed together, for half a moment. Then they reverted to serious. "Brusque Bra.s.sy is the grandson of Smash Ogre and Tandy Nymph. He's nineteen, and my boyfriend."

"He makes things hard and heavy," Melody said with a third of a t.i.tter. "Like himself."

"Or soft and light," Harmony added with another third of a t.i.tter. "Like Becka in maid form."

"We have no idea what they do when they get together," Rhythm concluded, with the last of the t.i.tter.

"You'd better not have any idea," Becka said severely. "The Adult Conspiracy forbids."

"Awwww," the three said together. It was clear that they were very curious about what was in the Adult Conspiracy to Keep Interesting Things from Children, and had some peripheral knowledge of it, but their naughtiness had not quite conquered it. That was surely just as well.

Becka faced Cube again. "The Forbidden Chamber was here when the Princesses made this castle. Inside it is the Random Factor, who does something weird to whoever opens the door. So we don't open it unless it's an emergency."

"But if they made the castle, didn't they make the--Random Factor too? In which case--"

"No, he existed on his own; they merely brought him in to stay here," Becka explained. "They don't understand all the aspects of their magic. Their folks are worried that they have more power than they can control, which could make for real trouble someday."

The three Princesses nodded in silent agreement.

Now Cube had a better basis to form an opinion. "Brusque must have gotten confused," she said. "So he thought he was opening the closet door. It was a mistake."

"But he's not a confused type," Becka said. "Not at all careless. He always knows what he's doing."

"Especially when he gets alone with Becka," Melody said with her share of a snicker.

"Oh, stop it!" Becka said severely, turning dragon for a good third of an instant. "This is serious."

The three Princesses looked abashed. "We're sorry," Harmony said, looking woeful.

"But not mortified," Rhythm concluded with a hint of a smirk.

"Maybe something happened to mislead him," Cube suggested. "Is there any way to check on that?"

"Sure," Melody said.

"We'll check the Tapestry," Harmony said.

"And here it is," Rhythm concluded with a beat on her drum.

The three turned to face the wall--and there was the big Magic Tapestry Cube had seen in Castle Roogna. Its picture was fuzzing and changing. Then it settled on Castle MaiDragon, in a cutaway view so that Becka and a handsome young man were visible.

Becka kissed him. "OooOooOoo!" the three Princesses Oooed together. Becka shot them a dark look and they stopped.

The Tapestry showed Becka say something to Brusque. He nodded and went through the halls, obviously to the broom closet. "It's on the other side of the courtyard," Becka said.

But when the man entered the courtyard, something shifted. He crossed it at an angle.

"He's going the wrong way," Becka said. "He's going toward the hall that leads to the Forbidden Chamber."

"We'd better check closer," Melody said. The picture on the Tapestry froze.

"There's illusion," Harmony added. The scene magnified, so that just the courtyard showed, with two halls leading from the court.

"The Forbidden Chamber hall looks like the broom closet hall," Rhythm concluded. Indeed, there was a picture of a broom marking it.

"That's why he took the wrong hall," Becka said. "He doesn't know this castle well enough to know that it's wrong."

"So someone tricked him," Cube said, glad that her hunch had proved correct. "He didn't do it on purpose."

"But this only deepens the mystery," Becka said. "Who used magic illusion to send him wrong? Who would want to do such a thing?"

The Princesses looked baffled. "n.o.body," Melody said. "He's nice. He always smiles at me."

"And gives me hard candy," Harmony agreed.

"And tickles me," Rhythm concluded.

Cube realized that this wasn't much help. "Maybe we had best focus first on how to get him back, then worry about who did this."

"Exactly," Becka agreed. "We must check the Forbidden Chamber."

"Is that safe?"

"No," Becka said. "But I must help Brusque. Who knows what kind of picklement he's in?"

The Princesses conjured the Magic Tapestry back to Castle Roogna. Then all five of them walked toward the Forbidden Chamber. "Just what does the Random Factor do that's weird?" Cube asked uneasily.

"Oh, anything," Becka said. "It's totally random. Once it switched souls between--"

"Nuh-uh," Princess Melody murmured.

Becka looked startled, but she made a smooth transition. "I forget whom. Another time it put the victim into a Comic Strip. Do you know what that is?"

"Comic Strips are fun," Harmony said.

Cube did not agree. "I think I encountered one at the Good Magician's Castle. One egregious pun after another."

"But discussing them is dull," Rhythm concluded. The three of them ran ahead, losing interest in the dialogue.

"That's it," Becka agreed. "The Comic Strips are mostly on Ptero, separating the regions of the different species. No wonder there's not much intermixing!"

"Ptero?" Cube asked.

Becka paused half a moment. She was evidently too polite to call a person ignorant. "I guess you're from the back woods."

"Very much so. The whole of Xanth is mostly new to me. I would never have traveled, if I hadn't wanted to be beautiful."

Becka paused the other half of the moment. She was also too polite to agree that a person was lacking that quality. "I see. So you went to the Good Magician, and he gave you a confusing Service."

"How did you know?"

"I've been there and done that. I can't say I liked all of it, but it did pay off in the end. I'm sure it will for you. But how did you connect with the Princesses?"

"They intercepted me as I approached the castle. I had been hoping to--to recruit some Companions for my mission, but that can wait until we rescue your friend."

"I do appreciate your help. But apart from that, you may not be wasting your time. The Princesses, like the Good Magician, have ways of coming through for a person. They set me up as caretaker of Castle MaiDragon, satisfying both my forms. I had no idea, until the very end of that adventure."

Cube doubted that she was making much progress in recruitment, but once they had rescued Brusque, maybe she could get on with it. The Princesses couldn't take her time forever. She hoped.

They came to the door to the Forbidden Chamber. It was unmarked; apparently the occupants of the castle normally knew its danger. Cube's toe brushed something on the floor, and she stooped to pick it up. It was a pen, the kind used to write letters. "Did someone lose this?" she asked.

"Maybe Brusque dropped it when he opened the door," Becka said. "Hang on to it for now."

Cube put it in her breast pocket. It had a convenient little clip to fasten it in place. Something bothered her about that, but she couldn't quite figure it out.

The Princesses were already addressing the problem. "He came here and opened the door," Melody said.

"And the Random Factor zapped him," Harmony added.

"And now he's gone," Rhythm concluded.

Cube could have figured out that much for herself, but kept her mouth shut.

"Maybe we should open the door," Melody said.

"Don't you dare!" Becka snapped.

"And find out what the Random Factor does with us," Harmony added.

"You don't want to know," Becka said.

"We've always wanted to have a really gross adventure, fraught with horror, terror, and revulsion," Rhythm concluded. "We're tired of being Miss Nice Girls."

Cube stepped on a smile. What ideas seven-year-old children had!

"If the Random Factor sent him to some strange world," Becka said, "could you three locate him and bring him back?"

"Sure," Melody said.

"We'll do a Find," Harmony agreed.

"I'll serve as pointer," Rhythm said.

The three put their heads together. Melody hummed, Harmony played her harmonica, and Rhythm beat on her drum. Cube felt magic focusing.