Faun And Games Part 22

Cathryn smiled. "I'll give him fair warning." Then she called to the stallion: "If you don't open your eyes and look at me, I'll intercept you and kiss you."

Contrary took another step. Cathryn took two steps. She could travel faster with her eyes open than he could do safely with his eyes closed.

The stallion heard her hoofbeats, which she was taking pains to make loud. His fine centaur mind processed that information, and he realized that he would have to compromise. "Very well. One look. Then I'm gone, and you can't intercept me."

"Agreed. But I will throw one blanket at you."

He laughed. "A blanket of silence? Do your worst, foal."

Forrest realized that the stallion had not gotten a good look at her Since the forest, and retained a mental picture of her as six or seven.

That was an understandable but foolish error.

Contrary faced Cathryn and opened his eyes. His jaw dropped slightly.

Forrest looked at the filly, to see what the stallion saw. She was now a lovely full-breasted, long-maned, white-winged centaur filly with a deep brown hide and flowing tail. She was panting slightly with her recent exertion. If she had been a nymph, she would have been stunningly attractive. She was surely similar for a centaur' Then she threw a blanket. Again, Forrest didn't see it directly, but the scintillation of the air indicated that there was something flying toward the stallion. It reached his head.

Contrary blinked. His eyes lost focus. "What's this?" he asked, confused.

"A blanket stare," Cathryn said.

"A blank stare? I don't understand."

"That is its effect. Why are you fleeing me?"

He looked at her again. "I'm drawing a blank on that. Is there some reason?"

"There may be. Why don't you blow this horn?" She stepped forward, offering it to him.

He looked puzzled. "What horn is this?"

It will show you by its sound where your True Love is."

He frowned. "Is that a challenge?"

"Is it?"

He took the horn and blew it hard. There was no sound-but then he stared at Cathryn in a new way. "You are the one," he said in wonder.

"You really are the one! I will sacrifice anything for you."

But now it was Cathryn who wasn't sure. "If only you could fly," she said regretfully.

"Who said I can't fly?" And suddenly from his body two ma.s.sive black wings unfolded. What they had taken for his body color was actually the hue of the flattened wings. "I never had use for them before, for they would only have taken me where I didn't want to go, but now I want to fly with you, you fantastic creature, forsaking my prior childishness."

Now it was Cathryn's jaw that dropped. "The dear horn did know," she breathed. "It really did!"

Contrary dropped the horn. "Come fly with me, my sudden love. We have more than geography to explore."

"Oh, yes! But first I must guide my friends to the territory of the fauns, or as close as I can get to it."

"We will do it together," he said graciously. "And to hurry it up, we had better give them a ride there."

"Yes," Cathryn agreed. Little hearts were forming around her head; she was falling in love.

Forrest picked up the dear horn and put it in his knapsack. Then he climbed onto Contrary, behind the huge wings, and Imbri mounted Cathryn.

"It's funny to ride an equine," she said. "I'm equine myself."

"The faun region is To," Cathryn said. "I don't know whether it's within my range, but I'll do my best to give you good directions if it isn't."

The two centaurs galloped west. Then they spread their wings and leaped into the air, surprising Forrest. This was indeed faster; he saw the ground pa.s.sing rapidly behind. But as they gained elevation, the ground became smaller and pa.s.sed behind more slowly, as if annoyed at being neglected. The mixed fields and forests gave way to mixed mountains and valleys, and then to mixed ponds and islands. The landscape seemed to be just as varied here as it was on Xanth.

After a time the two centaurs glided back to land. "We're getting a bit old for this," Contrary explained. Then Forrest saw that the creatures hide had become mottled with age. He was now nearing the old end of his life, and was slowing down. Forrest looked across at Cathryn and saw she had aged too. They had come a long way in a short time.

Then the centaurs stopped. "This appears to be my limit," Contrary said. "I don't want to become so feeble that I fall."

Forrest hastily dismounted, and so did Imbri. They were in rolling country, and ahead, oh dread, was a comic strip.

"The faun territory is farther away than I thought," Cathryn said with regret. "But I can tell you who can take you farther: the human princess twins, Dawn & Eve. Continue straight To until you come to Castle Roogna, and seek them out."

"But we are already in Castle Roogna," Imbri said. "Ptero is a moon circling Princess Ida's head."

"Perhaps in that larger frame. But it is here, too, and this is the one you need. We have set you due From it, so you can't miss it if you stay on course. And if you return this way, send a signal and we will come to pick you up again."

"Thank you," Forrest said. He realized that Cathryn really had been a big help; they had learned a whole lot about Ptero in her company.

"Oh-one more thing," she said. "You have been more than accommodating in our exchange of services, and I have not been able to complete my exchange service adequately, so I feel I should provide you with something extra. Here is one of my blankets that a pa.s.sing Magician obligingly canned for me." She held out a small tin can.

"But I thought you had to invoke your spells yourself, and that they fade after a while."

"True. But this canned spell is special, thanks to the preservative properties of the can. You may invoke it at any time simply by saying 'Invoke' while holding it before you. It is a blanket of obscurity."

"Obscurity?" Imbri asked. "What effect does that have?"

"It makes you unlikely to be noticed," the centaur explained. "It wears off after an hour, but you can invoke it again thereafter. It takes the same time to recharge: an hour. So don't try to invoke two blankets at once. I realize that this isn't much, but I have nothing better to give you. Please accept it with my thanks for your a.s.sistance to me."

"Of course," Forrest said, moved by her gesture. "I'm sure it will be useful if we have to pa.s.s by a monster. Thank you."

"You are most welcome." Cathryn's old eyes were bright. It seemed she had appreciated their a.s.sociation.

Then he and Imbri turned to the west for the next leg of their journey.

It was bound to be an adventure of its own.

To either side they could see nice solid land, but straight west was a bog. It was tempting to deviate, but then they might lose the line to Castle Roogna. So they went straight ahead, splashing into the shallow water. Forrest hoped that the puns would not be too bad this time.

Fortunately the land soon rose up, restoring their firm footing. But no sooner had they set foot and hoof on it when two odd birds marched up.

"Who are you?" the birds demanded in unison.

"We are visitors from afar, in search of Castle Roogna," Forrest answered. "We are named Forrest and Imbrium."

"We are a pair o' keets," the birds answered. "Peet and Deet. Welcome to Canary Island."

They didn't look much like canaries to Forrest, being more like small parrots, but he didn't comment on that. "Thank you. We hope just to cross it quickly and go on our way."

"Do that. We don't like landbound folk to stay long." With that the two birds marched on.

They came to a tree. It was huge and globular, with feathery leaves, and it was right in their way. The trouble was, it was also astride the only feasible path leading due west. To the south was a section of what looked a lot like slow sand, which would take forever to cross, and to the north was a similar patch of what looked like quicksand, which had risks of its own. "I wish we could just go right through this tree," Forrest said.

"Maybe we can climb over it," Imbri said.

Then the tree opened a huge round eye. That was followed by a second eye, and a beak just below it, that they had taken for a broken off limb. "Hooo!" it hooted.

"It's an owl!" Forrest exclaimed. "A huge owl!"

"An owl tree," Imbri agreed.

Then the owl spread its wings and took off. "Well, this is Canary Island," Forrest said, bemused. "We have to expect birds, even if they aren't all canaries."

Several white birds flew overhead. Their bodies were in the shape of the letter C. "C-gulls," Imbri said, identifying them.

A ball of blackness approached. Forrest paused, not sure whether it was dangerous, but then he saw it was in the shape of a bird of prey. "Oh, it's just a night hawk," he said. He stepped aside to let it pa.s.s, then stepped back onto the path when the light returned.

But another bird flew up. "What a weird set of characters," it said, eyeing them. "You are absolutely laughable. Haw haw haw!"

"And a mockingbird," Imbri said. "One of the more obnoxious avians, but harmless."

They ignored the mockingbird, and of course that discomfited it so that it flew away. But another bird flew in to perch before them. "What are you fools doing here?" it demanded harshly. "You don't belong here! Go away! Go away!"

"We are only crossing the island," Forrest explained.

"You are polluting it with your foul presence!" the bird raved.

"Get off our land! Go away! Go away!" The bird continued to shout at them, going on and on.

"Now I recognize it," Imbri said. "It's a rave-on."

Then a harpy appeared, dripping wet. She smelled terrible. "You're one of the canaries?" Forrest asked, surprised.

"I'm a waterfoul," she answered.

"I should have known," he said, hurrying by.

They pa.s.sed a large trunk. A bird was pecking a big hole in it. The moment it spied them, it flew to a branch above them and pecked a shower of sawdust and bits of bark, so that they were dirtied. "Hey, what are you doing?" Forrest demanded, annoyed.

For answer, a smelly bird dropping came down, just missing his head.

"That's a peccadillo," Imbri said. "A bad mannered p.e.c.k.e.r."

Then there was the melodious cry of a lady bird to the north, and the peccadillo flew off to have something to do with her. "They especially like the ladies," Imbri explained, with what might possibly have been the hint of a smirk.

At last they got off Canary Island, and the edge of the comic strip was there, so that they returned to regular land. "I can see why not many folk care to cross the boundaries," Forrest said. "Those puns don't really hurt you, but they're annoying as anything."

"I understand that some folk like them," Imbri said.

"Who would like anything like that? Mundanes?"

"Maybe. Mundania is a strange, repressed place."

"It must be, to have folk who like such junk."

The new region was hilly, and it was impossible to keep to a straight line west. But they oriented as well as they could, returning to the correct direction and compensating for their deviations, hoping they were close enough to find the castle.

They were rewarded: they crested a ridge, and there in a colorful valley below was a picturesque castle. "There it is," Forrest said, relieved.

Imbri wasn't so sure. "That doesn't look like Castle Roogna."

"Things are different, here on Ptero. Maybe the castles are different too."

"Maybe," she agreed doubtfully.

They trekked on down the slope and reached the bowl-shaped valley where the castle stood. The trees closed in around them, each a distinct color: brown, including the leaves; green, including the trunk; yellow, blue, or white. They were pretty, but so thick that the castle was now hidden, with no clear path.

Then Forrest noticed that one white tree had a brown trunk. It was comparatively normal. He went to that tree, and spied a blue tree with a brown trunk. Between them ran a straight brown path. "This must be the route," he said.

So they followed the path. It turned at right angles, then turned again, refusing to be rounded. But it stayed between the brown trunked trees. So they followed it, despite its constant square turns, and in due course it brought them to the bank of the square moat around the castle.

From this vantage, the castle was much larger than it had seemed from afar. It had ma.s.sive white stone walls, red roofs, and three squared towers rising above the second story. The drawbridge was up, and the moat was deep. There seemed to be no way in.

"This seems less like Castle Roogna," Forrest admitted. "The landscape is different, and there's no princess in blue jeans to greet us."

"It's the Good Magician's castle!" Imbri exclaimed. "It's always different, and always a Challenge to get into."

"Three Challenges," he agreed, remembering. "So we did go astray, and came to the wrong castle."

"I'm not surprised. The path across Canary Island was somewhat crooked, and there were distractions. Then we had to guess at the direction when we pa.s.sed the hills."

"I suppose we'll just have to retrace our steps and try to find the right direction."

They turned-but now the magic path was gone. The forest had closed in solidly behind them. Forrest had experience with trees, and could see immediately that these ones had no intention of allowing them to pa.s.s back through; brambles, thorns, stickers, nettles, and sharp pointed plants festooned the region between trees.

"It was a one way path," Imbri said. "I should have thought of that.

I'm not used to being solid."

"I should have thought of it too," Forrest said ruefully. "I'm supposed to relate well to trees."