Vale of the Vole Part 8

"Except that we still don't know what happened to the Good Magician," Chex reminded him. "So we still don't have the Answers we came for."

"Maybe a magic mirror can tell us where he went," Esk suggested.

They located a mirror. But as they approached, it flickered. "Castle Roogna calling Magician Humfrey," it said. "Come in, Humfrey. Over."

"He's not here," Esk said to the mirror.

"Castle Roogna calling Magician Humfrey," it repeated. "Come in, Humfrey. Over."

"How do I turn this thing on to answer?" Esk asked.

The mirror formed an eye and eyed him. "You can't, ogre-snoot," it said. "I respond only to authorized personnel. Tell the Good Magician to get his d.i.n.ky posterior down here and answer the King."

"But the Good Magician's not here!" Chex exclaimed.

"I didn't ask for excuses, nymph-noodle," the mirror retorted. "Just get him here."

"Listen, gla.s.sface!" Esk said, raising a fist.

"Uh-uh, mundane-brain," it said. "I'm worth a lot more than you are. It's a capital offense to break a mirror."

"Just put the King through to us, and we'll tell him what's happening here," Chex said angrily.

"Sorry, you don't have proper clearance, ponytail." And the mirror went blank.

"I can see why mirrors get broken," Esk muttered.

"It's just the perversity of the inanimate," Chex said. "I greatly fear we'll just have to go on to Castle Roogna ourselves, and tell them what we have found here, and see what they can do about it."

"Cavtle Roogna?" Volney asked.

"It may be the only way we can make any progress toward the solutions to our problems," she said.

So indeed it seemed.

Chapter 5. Ivy.

They spent the night in the Magician's castle, and headed out for Castle Roogna in the morning. They brought along a ladder they found in a storage shed; Chex hauled it along by holding one end under an arm and resting the other end on her rump. The ladder interfered somewhat with her tail, so that the biting flies were more of a nuisance than usual, but the distance was not far.

They forged into the mountain of illusion, Volney leading the way. When he announced the chasm, Chex unshipped the ladder and pushed it out over the void. Then she secured one end, while Esk walked across it on hands and feet. At the other end, he sat and held it while Volney crossed. Finally they hauled the ladder the rest of the way across, and Chex made a running leap and hurdled the chasm as before. The whole business was accomplished much more swiftly and comfortably than their prior crossing.

They walked on out the north side and resumed the path. "You know, I wonder how those little smokers got across," Esk remarked. "Could they hurdle that distance?"

"They're pretty active," Chex said. "I suspect they could. Perhaps they charged forward blindly, and some made it while some did not. We don't know how many were in that cage."

He nodded. Her surmise seemed reasonable enough. Perhaps they had been lucky that only a fraction of the dragons had surmounted the hurdle.

Then they came to the lake. "And how did they cross this?" Esk asked. "Do dragons swim, and if they do, does the water monster let them pa.s.s?"

Chex glanced at the open water, where the monster waited, then at the side, where the carnivorous reeds waited. "They must have had some other way."

Volney sniffed the end of the path at the waterline. "If the mountain wav illuvion, could thiv be illuvion too?" he asked. "Or could it be another avpect?"

"Another aspect of illusion?" Chex asked, puzzled.

The vole walked out across the water.

Esk and Chex stared. "It's real!" Esk cried.

Chex slapped her own flank resoundingly. "A one-way causeway!" she exclaimed.

"I think not," Volney said.

But they were already racing for the path. Both stepped on it-and both sank through it and into the muck.

Yet Volney remained above the water. "How-?" Esk demanded, somewhat miffed.

"I keep my eyev cloved," the vole explained.

"Eyes closed?" Chex asked blankly as she hauled herself out.

"If what we vee iv not volid," Volney said, "then vometimev what we do not vee iv volid."

"What we do not see is solid," Esk repeated thoughtfully.

Chex nodded. "Another reversal. The Good Magician seems very fond of that sort of thing."

"Very fond," Esk agreed, in no better mood than she. Had they realized this before, they could have saved themselves an enormous amount of difficulty.

"But if the lake monster should encroach-" she said.

"It iv an enchanted path, iv it not?" the vole asked, proceeding forward.

She nodded. "True-it should be secure. The dragons were on it because they were travelers; the Good Magician let them go home early, for a reason we do not yet grasp. Other monsters should still be barred-and indeed, we have encountered no others on it. So the water monster should be barred." She shivered. "Yet I begin to feel claustrophobic again. I am by no means eager to trust myself on that path blindly, though I hardly relish the mucky trip around the lake."

Esk pondered. "Suppose you earned me, as you did before-and I kept my eyes open? Would the path become illusory because of me, or remain solid because of you?"

She smiled. "Let's find out! I wouldn't do this with just anyone, but I trust you, Esk."

Esk found himself fl.u.s.tered by the compliment. Centaurs were notoriously distrustful of the judgment of others.

Chex closed her eyes while Esk mounted. Then he directed her toward the path. "Straight ahead-no, slightly to your right," he said.

"That's too clumsy," she said. "Just gesture with your knees."

"My knees?"

"Press with the one on the side you wish me to turn from. That's much more efficient."

"Oh." He tried it, and sure enough, she moved quickly in response. In a moment he was directing her wordlessly.

He guided her onto the path, and the path held. It was, indeed, the walker's vision that determined it; as long as she kept her eyes closed, her footing was firm. When she drifted toward one side or the other, he kneed her gently, and she moved immediately back to the center. The lake monster eyed them, but did not approach; the path was indeed enchanted. The trip across was surprisingly easy.

"Well," Chex said as they arrived at the far side. "That is indeed a relief."

Esk dismounted, and they walked on along the path, their spirits restored. Perhaps at Castle Roogna they would discover the answer to the Good Magician's strange disappearance.

But as they drew closer to the castle, Chex became increasingly nervous. "Is something wrong?" Esk finally inquired.

She sighed. "I'm not sure. It is a personal matter."

"Oh. Not my business, then."

"Perhaps it is your business, because it may affect your reception, and Volney's"

The vole's little ears perked up. "There iv trouble at Roogna?"

"In a way. I shall have to rehea.r.s.e some history to make it clear."

Esk shrugged. "We'll listen." He was more curious than he cared to admit; what could bother a creature who was completely open about natural functions?

"I am, as you have noted, a crossbreed," she said.

"So am I," Esk reminded her. "We might even have a common human ancestor somewhere way back."

She smiled briefly. "We might. But the centaur species, whatever its origin, considers itself a pure stock, and does not look kindly on adulteration."

"Oho! So they may not like you much!"

"Some may not," she agreed wanly. "Unfortunately, the ones who may look least kindly on my mixed ancestry are my grandsire and grandam on the centaur side."

"Your grandparents don't know?" Esk asked, surprised.

"My dam, Chem Centaur, did not find a mate of her own species. Centaurs are not common beyond Centaur Isle, so this problem can arise.

She-a.s.sociated with a hippogryph. This is why I have wings. But because she was aware that such a liaison might not be approved, she did not inform her sire and dam of the matter. Only her brother, Chet, with whom she was closer. Thus, to the indiscretion of the liaison was added that of deceiving her sire and dam. Such things are not necessarily light matters, with centaurs."

"But it really was her own business, wasn't it?" Esk asked. "I mean, she wasn't under any obligation to report to her parents, was she?"

"That was Chem's conclusion," Chex agreed. "It is possible that other centaurs might disagree."

"And your-grandparents-are at Castle Roogna," Esk concluded, getting the picture.

"I believe that they are."

"And when they see you, with your wings-"

"I am uncertain of the nature of their reaction."

"Maybe you can wait in the forest, while Volney and I go on in."

She sighed. "No, thank you, Esk. I believe it is time to face the melody."

"If that is the way you want it."

"I believe it is the way it must be. I do not like deception, and to the extent that my very existence represents a deception, I owe it to myself to eliminate it."

"I suppose that makes sense," Esk said. Centaurs were known to have an impervious sense of ethics, which had both advantages and disadvantages for others who dealt with them.

They moved well, encountering no more dragons; it seemed that the little smokers had finally gotten wherever they were going and left the path. As night approached, they judged that they were near Castle Roogna.

They set up an overnight watch system as before, not quite trusting the safety of the path. Nothing happened, and in the morning they feasted on fruits and tubers and resumed walking.

There was the sound of hooves ahead. "That's a centaur!" Chex exclaimed. "Oh, I'm nervous!"

Esk could understand her feeling. He was nervous too, but for a different reason; he had never been to Castle Roogna, and wasn't certain how the King would feel about a human-ogre crossbreed. Of course he was only bringing a message, at this point, about the absence of the Good Magician; still, he worried. Volney Vole did not look any more comfortable.

They drew to the sides of the path, so as to let the centaur pa.s.s if it had a mind to. But now Volney was sniffing the low-lying air nervously. "Ventaur-and dragon," he announced.

Chex immediately unslung her bow and nocked an arrow, and Esk moved to stand before the vole, so that he could say no if the dragon attacked.

"And human," Volney added.

A party of three-centaur, dragon, and human? How strange! Then he realized that their own party of centaur, vole, and human (approximately) was equivalently strange.

The centaur came into sight. It was a stout male, with a little girl on his back. A truly formidable dragon whomped along behind. Esk's nervousness increased; this could be a great deal of trouble!

"Uncle Chet!" Chex exclaimed, delighted.

The centaur slowed, startled. "Graywing!" he exclaimed.

"He calls me that," she murmured, flushing slightly with pleasure. "He doesn't mind my-"

"Who?" the little girl asked, as Chet stopped before them, and the dragon whomped to a halt behind, puffing steam.

"I'll introduce ours, and you introduce yours," Chet said briskly. "I am Chet Centaur, foaled of Chester and Cherie Centaur; this is Ivy Human, daughter of King Dor and Queen Irene; and beyond is Stanley Steamer, formerly known as the Gap Dragon."

Esk almost swallowed his tongue. The daughter of the King, and the Gap Dragon?

But Chex was doing her side of the introduction. "I am Chex Centaur, filly of Chem Centaur and Xap Hippogryph; this is Esk Human, son of Smash Ogre and Tandy Nymph; and this is Volney Vole from the Kiss-Mee River Valley, otherwise known as the Vale of the Vole."

"The Kiss-Mee River!" Ivy exclaimed excitedly. "I'd love to visit that!" She seemed to be ten or eleven years old, pretty in an elfin way, with very little green hair and eyes to match. "Is it really true that anyone who touches its waters gets so affectionate she just has to kiss the first person she meets?"