Faun And Games Part 8

"No. Only you."

"It's like seeing a ghost."

"Yes. It Just requires the right concentration."

"Now I will review my memories of the day." He thought of his beginning of the trip to the Gap Chasm, guided by the Demoness Sire. Then of the ride through the Gap, on the back of the dragon a.s.s. Then of the walk to the Good Magician's castle.

"You are right," Imbri said. "It's always morning. The first morning may have been the work of ComPa.s.sion, because she likes you. She just wanted to give you more time, after you were nice enough to kiss her mouse, so she reset your day. Otherwise it would have been afternoon then. The second morning started when you got off the dragon a.s.s.

That's a strange creature; I have no entry into its mind, or Chlorine's which is funny, because she used to be an ordinary girl, rather plain and ill tempered, actually, with dreams as foolish as anyone's. Now, suddenly, she is phenomenally lovely and intelligent and nice, and lives in the Nameless Castle with that dragon, and her- mind is completely opaque. It's as if she's a different person.

"You mean Chlorine really does live in that castle? I thought she was just pretending."

"She really does live there. The castle sits on a cloud that floats across Xanth, so no one can see that it supports the castle. She lives like a princess, and that dragon a.s.sumes the form of a prince, and what they do at night, on those air mattresses that the floating castle has, is beyond any dream I could bring."

"Do you mean, like fauns and nymphs?"

She made an equine snort. "Like fauns and nymphs in much the way Castle Roogna is like a wood cutter's hut. I'm surprised that there hasn't been a flight of storks so big as to darken the sky. They are surely in love. I wish I had been watching when they changed; I'm femalishly curious about what happened. They must have stumbled on fantastic magic. The oddest thing is that they don't make anything much of it.

That is, they just trundle around Xanth as a damsel and dragon, doing favors for folk, asking nothing in return. It is very strange."

"Yes. I thought so too. But how could they have made my afternoon become morning?"

"That would require good illusion, or very good magic. Maybe they have a sprig of thyme. At any rate, it does seem to have happened: they gave you more day to do your business. And more day again, when you left the Good Magician's castle. Because the Good Magician would hardly bother to waste such magic so irrelevantly."

"Well, whatever the reason, I appreciate it. It does help me save time, so that maybe I can return to my tree within the month."

By evening they were approaching Castle Roogna. Forrest paused to brush out his hair and make himself presentable. After all, this was the royal human castle, and it deserved some respect.

When he started walking toward it again, Imbri spoke. "This time I caught it! It's morning again."

Startled, Forrest looked around. She was right: the sun was at midmorning level. He also felt fresh and vigorous, as if he had had a good night's rest. "This is nice magic."

"This is very strong magic," Imbri said. "The rest of Xanth doesn't seem to be changing. Just us. We just seem to have more time, without losing what we have done. It is as if we weren't supposed to notice the favor."

"Well, if it's from the damsel and dragon, I will thank them when I see them again. But now I need to find Ptero."

"I will guide you there. Go in and ask to see Princess Ida."

Forrest approached the castle. The moat monster reared up threateningly.

"This one I can take care of," Imbri said. "Souffle, it's all right.

This is Forrest Faun, and he is with me."

The monster nodded, and sank back under the water.

"I thought you said no one else could see you."

"Only those I know well, and show myself to. Souffle has been around a long time. He baby-sits the royal triplets."

"A moat monster takes care of children?"

"There is no other place like Castle Roogna."

So it seemed. They walked on into the castle.

Two girls, about six years old, ran up to them, colliding before they managed to stop. They wore matching little crowns. "Oh, goody!" the red haired one cried. "Visitors from afar! A faun from north of the Gap!

"And a day mare," the dark one added.

"Meet the children of Prince Dolph and Princess Electra," Imbri said.

"Princess Dawn, who can tell anything about any living thing, so she knows about you, and Princess Eve, who can tell anything about any inanimate things, so she knows about me."

"But you're alive!" Forrest protested.

"No she isn't," Eve said. "She's a spirit. She has half a soul, but no body. She lost that in the Void in 1067."

"They really do know," Forrest said, amazed. "I've never seen such magic."

"That's because no Magicians or Sorceresses ever came to your sandalwood tree," Dawn said.

A woman in blue jeans hurried up. "Girls! Behave!" she exclaimed. The two little princesses immediately stood back and looked angelic. "I'm sorry," the woman said. "They're irrepressible. I'm Princess Electra, their mother."

"He's Forrest Faun, here to see Princess Ida, Dawn said. "And she's Mare Imbri, who has to guide him through Ptero."

"Oh, you are here on business," Electra said. "Girls, tell the Princess she has a visitor."

The two children dashed off. "Uh, thank you," Forrest said. "I didn't mean to make a commotion. I don't know Princess Ida. I'm supposed to go to the land of Ptero."

Electra looked blank. "Go to the land of what?"

"Ptero. Where all the might-be folk stay."

"But Ptero is-" The Princess paused. "Well, I'm not sure exactly what it is. But it's not a place you can go to."

"But we have to go there. Because that's where I'll find my faun."

Electra still looked remarkably doubtful. "I think I'll just have to let Ida explain it."

"I hope someone does. Imbri hasn't."

The Princess nodded. "I can appreciate why. Come this way." She turned and led them down the hall.

The twins came dashing back, their red and black pigtails flying.

"Auntie Ida says to go to the Tapestry!" Dawn cried brightly.

"And she'll meet them there," Eve finished, darkly. "She says this could get com-com-"

"Complicated," Electra finished. "I'm sure." She changed course slightly, and led them upstairs. Forrest was much impressed, because this was only the second time he had used stairs, and these were much broader than the ones at the Good Magician's castle.

Soon they arrived at a pleasant chamber with a nice view of the outside moat and orchard. A woman rose to greet them. She was another princess, because she wore a crown. She looked to be about twenty eight, but it was never possible to be quite certain, with women. There was something odd about her head.

"Princess Ida, this is Forrest Faun," Electra said. "Mare Imbri is with him, as his guide and companion."

"Any friend of Imbri is a friend of mine," Ida said graciously. "Please have a seat and tell me your concern."

Forrest took the indicated chair. "I need to find a faun to a.s.sociate with the neighboring clog tree. The Good Magician told me to look in Ptero. Mare Imbri has been there, so can show me the way."

"Imbri?" the Princess said. It wasn't exactly a question; she was addressing the day mare. Her eyes went halfway blank and she seemed to be listening. After a moment she smiled. Imbri must have given her an explanatory daydream. "Ah, I see; that's interesting."

"So if you can just tell me where-"

Ida raised a hand in gentle negation. "I will, but there are things you must first understand. Consider the Tapestry."

He looked where she indicated and saw a large Tapestry hanging on the wall. It was filled with intricately sewn pictures of Xanthly scenes.

They were so realistic that they almost seemed to be moving. In fact they were moving! "This is magic," he said.

" It shows all the scenes of Xanth," she explained. "In all times or Xanth, up to the present. Here is your glade."

The scenes changed, and one part expanded to fill the whole Tapestry.

It was a picture of his own neighborhood! There was his sadalwood tree, and the nearby clog tree across the glade. He even saw the little disk set in his tree. "This is as it is right now!" he said, amazed.

"Here is yesterday," she said. The Tapestry became blank. She looked surprised. "Now that's odd; it has never done that before."

"Maybe it's because of what Chlorine did with my time."

"Chlorine is involved in this?"

He explained about the lovely woman and the dragon a.s.s, and how it always seemed to be morning when he traveled. "I think she had something to do with it."

Ida nodded. "That would explain it. Nimby has strange powers. She must have asked him to rerun your mornings, so you could travel better. The Tapestry doesn't know how to account for that."

"Maybe if you try someone else's yesterday, like maybe my tree's, it would work better."

She smiled. "Yes, I'm sure it will."

The scene shifted. The trees remained, but now there were fauns and a nymph. Soon the nymph ran away, and one faun chased her off the picture. The other faun retired to the sandalwood tree. "You can see everything!" he said, twice as amazed.

"Yes, if we know where to look. But it is too complicated to try to watch all Xanth through all time, so we look only when we have reason."

She turned to face him. "Ptero is like that, only more so. It would be difficult to explore, and perhaps dangerous."

"But I have to find that faun, or the tree will fade! It was bad enough losing my friend, without losing his tree too."

"Yes, of course. I just want you to understand that this is no ordinary mission. It is stranger than anything you may have experienced."

"Whatever it is, it is better than letting my friend's tree fade."

"But if you should be lost, then your own tree would fade too."

That made him pause. "Do you think that will happen?"

"I don't know. I a.s.sume the Good Magician made sure you were capable of handling the situation, to the extent anyone could be."

"No, he didn't even talk to me," Forrest said crossly.

"Did you go through the Challenges?"

"Yes! And then he refused to hear my Question."

"What were the Challenges like?"

He described them to her, as she seemed genuinely interested, though he saw little point in this. Still, it was best not to be impolite to a princess. As he described each scene, it appeared on the Tapestry, just as it had happened.

"So in each case, there was a physical Challenge," she said, which you surmounted by using the talent of a person who happened to be there."

"Yes, actually. The psychologist, the dot girl, and the wood changing man. I found a way to get them each to help me."

"I think this is the kind of ability that would be required on Ptero," the princess said. "Surely this was the Good Magician's conclusion."

"But he didn't-"

"He always has good reason for his actions, though they are seldom immediately apparent to others. I believe he is trying to help you, in his fashion. He did put you in touch with Mare Imbri, after all."

"Yes. But-"

"Now I think you are ready to see Ptero. It is my moon."

"Your what?"

Then he saw something even more surprising than the Tapestry. A tiny ball was swinging around the Princess' head. It must have been hiding before, because until this time all he had seen was a flicker of something not quite there. It was about the size of a large eyeball. As it came closer to him, it brightened.

"This is Ptero," Ida said. "It orbits my head, and reacts to my moods.

But it is more than just a tiny moon. It is an idea."

"It looks pretty solid to me."

" It is, in its fashion. You see, I am a Sorceress, and my talent is the Idea. Ptero is a condensation of all the ideas of Xanth, as they were too numerous and complicated to fit inside my head. So it would appear that the faun you seek is no more than an idea, not yet formulated in Xanth."

"But how can I find a faun who doesn't exist?"

"He does exist. Just not in tangible form. You will have to locate him, and cause him to exist."