"Petrified? What could scare a sphinx that size?" Chameleon wondered, peering up at Bink"s monstrous face.
But there was business to attend to. "Begone, beastie!" Bink thundered.
The dragon was slow to adapt to the situation. It shot a jet of orange flame at Bink, scorching his feathers. The blast didn"t hurt, but it was annoying. Bink reached out with one lion"s paw and swiped at the dragon. It was a mere ripple of effort, but the creature was thrown sideways into a tree. A shower of rock nuts dropped on it from the angry tree. The dragon gave a single yelp of pain, doused its fire, and fled.
Bink circled around carefully, hoping he hadn"t stepped on anyone. "Why didn"t we think of this before?" he bellowed. "I can give you a ride, right to the edge of the jungle. No one will recognize us, and no creature will bother us!"
He squatted as low as possible, and Chameleon and Trent climbed up his tail to his back. Bink moved forward with a slow stride that was nevertheless faster than any man could run. They were on their way.
But not for long. Chameleon, bouncing around on the sphinx"s h.o.r.n.y-skinned back, decided she had to go to the bathroom. There was nothing to do but let her go. Bink hunched down so she could slide safely to the ground.
Trent took advantage of the break to stretch his legs. He walked around to Bink"s huge face. "I"d transform you back, but it"s really better to stick with the form until finished with it," he said. "I really have no concrete evidence that frequent transformations are harmful to the recipient, but it seems best not to gamble at this time. Since the sphinx is an intelligent life form, you aren"t suffering intellectually."
"No, I"m okay," Bink agreed. "Better than ever, in fact. Can you guess this riddle? What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?"
"I shall not answer," Trent said, looking startled. "In all the legends I"ve heard, some sphinxes committed suicide when the correct answers to their riddles were given. Those were the smaller type of sphinx, a different species--but I seem to have muddled the distinctions somewhat, and would not care to gamble on the absence of affinity."
"Uh, no," Bink said, chagrined. "I guess the riddle was from the mind of the sphinx, not me. I"m sure all sphinxes had a common ancestor, though I don"t know the difference between one kind and another."
"Odd. Not about your ignorance of Mundane legends. About your riddle memory. You are the sphinx. I didn"t move your mind into an existing body, for the original creatures have all been dead or petrified for millennia. I transformed you into a similar monster, a Bink-sphinx. But if you actually have sphinx memories, true sphinx memories---"
"There must be ramifications of your magic you don"t comprehend," Bink said. "I wish I understood the real nature of magic--any magic."
"Yes, it is a mystery. Magic exists in Xanth, nowhere else. Why? What is its mechanism? Why does Xanth seem to be adjacent to any Mundane land, in geography, language, and culture? How is this magic, in all its multiple levels, transmitted from the geographic region to the inhabitants?"
"I have pondered that," Bink said. "I thought perhaps some radiation from the rock, or nutritional value of the soil--"
"When I am King I shall initiate a study program to determine the true story of Xanth"s uniqueness."
When Trent was King. The project was certainly worthwhile---in fact, fascinating-but not at that price. For a moment Bink was tempted: with the merest swipe of his mighty forepaw he could squash the Evil Magician flat, ending the threat forever.
No. Even if Trent were not really his friend, Bink could not violate the truce that way. Besides, he didn"t want to remain a monster all his life, physically or morally.
"The lady is taking her sweet time," Trent muttered. Bink moved his ponderous head, searching for Chameleon. "She"s usually very quick about that sort of thing. She doesn"t like being alone." Then he thought of something else. "Unless she went looking for her spell--you know, to make her normal. She left Xanth in an effort to nullify her magic, and now that she"s stuck back in Xanth, she wants some kind of counter-magic. She"s not very bright right now, and--"
Trent stroked his chin. "This is the jungle. I don"t want to violate her privacy, but--"
"Maybe we"d better check for her."
"Umm. Well, I guess you can stand one more transformation," Trent decided. "I"l1 make you a bloodhound. That"s a Mundane animal, a kind of dog, very good at sniffing out a trail. If you run into her doing something private---well, you"ll only be an animal, not a human voyeur."
Abruptly Bink was a keen-nosed, floppy-eared, loose-faced creature, smell-oriented. He could pick up the lingering odor of anything--he was sure of that. He had never before realized how overwhelmingly important the sense of smell was. Strange that he had ever depended on any lesser sense.
Trent concealed their supplies in a mock tangle tree and faced about. "Very well, Bink; let"s sniff her out." Bink understood him well enough, but could not reply, as this was not a speaking form of animal.
Chameleon"s trail was so obvious it was a wonder Trent himself couldn"t smell it. Bink put his nose to the ground--how natural that the head be placed so close to the primary source of information, instead of raised foolishly high as in Trent"s case--and moved forward competently.
The route led around behind a bush and on into the wilderness. She had been lured away; in her present low ebb of intelligence, almost anything would fool her. Yet there was no consistent odor of any animal or plant she might have followed. That suggested magic. Worried, Bink woofed and sniffed on, the Magician following. A magic lure was almost certainly trouble.
But her trace did not lead into a tangle tree or guck-tooth swamp or the lair of a wyvern. It wove intricately between these obvious hazards, bearing generally south, into the deepest jungle. Something obviously had led her, guiding her safely past all threats--but what, and where--and why?
Bink knew the essence, if not the detail: some will-o"-the-wisp spell had beckoned her, tempting her ever forward, always just a little out of reach. Perhaps it had seemed to offer some elixir, some enchantment to make her normal--and so she had followed. It would lead her into untracked wilderness, where she would be lost, and leave her there. She would not survive long.
Bink hesitated. He had not lost the trail; that could never happen. There was something else.
"What is it, Bink?" Trent inquired. "I know she was following the ignis fatuus--but since we are close on her trail we should be able to---" He broke off, becoming aware of the other thing. It was a shuddering in the ground, as of some ma.s.sive object striking it. An object weighing many tons.
Trent looked around. "I can"t see it, Bink. Can you smell it?"
Bink was silent. The wind was wrong. He could not smell whatever was making that sound from this distance.
"Want me to transform you into something more powerful?" Trent asked. "I"m not sure I like this situation. First the swamp gas, now this strange pursuit."
If Bink changed, he would no longer be able to sniff out Chameleon"s trail. He remained silent.
"Very well, Bink. But stay close by me; I can transform you into a creature to meet any emergency, but you have to be within range. I believe we"re walking into extreme danger, or having it walk up on us." And he touched his sword.
They moved on--but the shuddering grew bolder, becoming a measured thumping, as of some ponderous animal. Yet they saw nothing. Now it was directly behind them, and gaining.
"I think we"d better hide," Trent said grimly. "Discretion is said to be the better part of valor."
Good idea. They circled a harmless beerbarrel tree and watched silently.
The thumping became loud. Extremely loud. The whole tree shook with the force of the measured vibrations. TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP! Small branches fell off the tree, and a leak sprang in the trunk. A thin jet of beer formed, splashing down under Bink"s sensitive nose. He recoiled; even in the human state, he had never been partial to that particular beverage. He peered around the trunk--yet there was nothing.
Then at last something became visible. A branch crashed off a spikespire tree, splintering. Bushes waved violently aside. A section of earth subsided. More beer jetted from developing cracks in the trunk of their hiding place, filling the air with its malty fragrance. Still nothing tangible could be seen.
"It"s invisible," Trent whispered, wiping beer off one hand. "An invisible giant."
Invisible! That meant Trent couldn"t transform it. He had to see what he enchanted.
Together, silently, steeped in intensifying beer fumes, they watched the giant pa.s.s. Monstrous human footprints appeared, each ten feet long, sinking inches deep into the forest soil. TRAMP!--and the trees jumped and shuddered and shed their fruits and leaves and branches. TRAMP!--and an ice cream bush disappeared, becoming a mere patina of flavored discoloration on the flat surface of the depression. TRAMP!--and a tangle tree hugged its tentacles about itself, frightened. TRAMP!---and a fallen trunk splintered across the five-foot width of the giant"s print.
A stench washed outward, suffocating, like that of a stench-puffer or an overflowing outhouse in the heat of summer. Bink"s keen nose hurt.
"I am not a cowardly man," Trent murmured. "But I begin to feel fear. When neither spell nor sword can touch an enemy ..." His nose twitched. "His body odor alone is deadly. He must have feasted on rotten blivets for breakfast."
Bink didn"t recognize that food. If that was the kind of fruit Mundane trees formed, he didn"t want any. Bink became aware that his own hackles were erect. He had heard of such a monster, but taken it as a joke. An invisible---but not unsmellable---giant!
"If he is in proportion," Trent remarked, "that giant is some sixty feet tall. That would be impossible in Mundania, for purely physical reasons, square-cube law and such. But here--who can say nay to magic? He"s looking over much of the forest, not through it." He paused, considering. "He evidently was not following us. Where is he going?"
Wherever Chameleon went, Bink thought. He growled.
"Right, Bink. We"d better track her down quickly, before she gets stepped on!"
They moved on, following what was now a well-trodden trail. Where the huge prints crossed Chameleon"s traces, the scent of the giant was overlaid, so heavy that Bink"s refined nose rebelled. He skirted the prints and picked up Chameleon"s much milder scent on the far side.
Now a whistling descended from right angles to the path they were following. Bink looked up nervously-- and saw a griffin angling carefully down between the trees.
Trent whipped out his sword and backed toward the black bole of an oilbarrel tree, facing the monster. Bink, in no condition to fight it, bared his teeth and backed toward the same protection. He was glad it wasn"t a dragon; one really good tongue of fire could set off the tree explosively and wipe them all out. As it was, the overhanging branches would interfere with the monster"s flight, forcing it to do combat on the ground. Still a chancy business, but it restricted the battle zone to two dimensions, which was a net advantage for Bink and Trent. Maybe if Bink distracted it, Trent could get safely within range to transform it.
The griffin settled to earth, folding its extensive glossy wings. Its coiled lion"s tail twitched about, and its great front eagle"s talons made streaks in the dirt. Its eagle head oriented on Trent. "Cawp?" it inquired. Bink could almost feel that deadly beak slicing through his flesh. A really healthy griffin could take on a medium-sized dragon in single combat, and this one was healthy. He nudged within transformation range.
"Follow the giant tracks, that way," Trent said to the monster. "Can"t miss it."
"Bawp!" the griffin said. It turned about, oriented on the giant tracks, bunched its lion muscles, spread its wings, and launched itself into the air. It flew low-level along the channel the invisible giant had carved through the forest.
Trent and Bink exchanged startled glances. They had had a narrow escape; griffins were very agile in combat, and Trent"s magic might not have taken effect in time. "It only wanted directions!" Trent said. "Must be something very strange up ahead. We"d better get there in a hurry. Be unfortunate if some part-human cult was having a ritual sacrifice."
Ritual sacrifice? Bink growled his confusion.
"You know," Trent said grimly. "b.l.o.o.d.y altar, beautiful virgin maiden ..."
"Rrowr!" Bink took off down the trail.
Soon they heard a commotion ahead. It was a medley of thumps, crashes, bellows, squawks, and crashes. "Sounds more like a battle than a party," Trent observed. "I really can"t think what--"
At last they came in sight of the happening. They paused, amazed.
It was an astonishing a.s.semblage of creatures, ranged in a large loose circle, facing in: dragons, griffins, manticoras, harpies, land serpents, trolls, goblins, fairies, and too many others to take in all at once. There were even a few human beings. It was not a free-for-all; all were intent on individual exercises, stamping their feet, biting at air, slamming their hooves together, and banging on rocks. In the interior of the circle, a number of creatures were dead or dying, ignored by the others. Bink could see and smell the blood, and hear their groans of agony. This was a battle, certainly--but where was the enemy? It was not the invisible giant; his prints were confined to one quadrant, not overlapping the territory of his neighbors.
"I thought I knew something about magic," Trent said, shaking his head. "But this is beyond my comprehension. These creatures are natural enemies, yet they ignore one another and do not feed on prey. Have they happened on a cache of loco?"
"Woof!" Bink exclaimed. He had spied Chameleon. She had two large flat stones in her hands and was holding them about a foot apart while she stared intently between them. Suddenly she clapped them together, with such force that they both fell out of her hands. She peered at the air above them, smiled enigmatically, picked them up, and repeated the procedure.
Trent followed Bink"s gaze. "Loco!" he repeated. But Bink could smell no loco. "Her too. It must be an area spell. We"d better back off before we also fall prey to it."
They started to retreat, though Bink did not want to desert Chameleon. A grizzled old centaur cantered up. "Don"t just meander around!" he snapped. "Get around to the north quadrant." He pointed. "We"ve suffered heavy losses there, and Bigfoot can"t do it all. He can"t even see the enemy. They"ll break through any minute. Get some rocks; don"t use your sword, fool!"
"Don"t use my sword on what?" Trent demanded, with understandable ire.
"The wiggles, naturally. Cut one in half, all you have is two wiggles. You--"
"The wiggles!" Trent breathed, and Bink growled his own chagrin.
The centaur sniffed. "You been drinking?"
"Bigfoot"s pa.s.sage holed the beerbarrel tree we took refuge behind," Trent explained. "I thought the wiggles had been eradicated!"
"So thought we all," the centaur said. "But there"s a healthy colony swarming here. You have to crush them or chew them or burn them or drown them. We can"t afford to let a single one escape. Now get moving!"
Trent looked about. "Where are the stones?"
"Here. I"ve collected a pile." The centaur showed the way. "I knew I couldn"t handle it myself, so I sent out will-o"-the-wisps to summon help."
Suddenly Bink recognized the centaur: Herman the Hermit. Exiled from the centaur community for obscenity almost a decade ago. Amazing that he had survived, here in the deepest wilderness--but centaurs were hardy folk.
Trent did not make the connection. The episode had happened after his exile. But he well knew the horror the wiggles represented. He picked up two good rocks from Herman"s cache and strode toward the north quadrant.
Bink followed. He had to help too. If even one wiggle got away, there would at some later date be another swarming, perhaps not stopped in time. He caught up to the Magician. "Woof! Woof!" he barked urgently.
Trent looked straight ahead. "Bink, if I transform you here and now, the others will see, and know me for what I am. They may turn against me---and the siege against the wiggles will be broken. I think we can contain the swarm with our present creature-power; the centaur has organized the effort well. Your natural form would not be better equipped to wage this war than your present form. Wait until this is over."
Bink was not satisfied with all the arguments, but he seemed to have no choice. So he determined to make himself useful as he was. Maybe he could smell out the wiggles.
As they came up to their designated quadrant, a griffin gave a loud squawk and keeled over. It resembled the one they had directed here; it must have lost sight of its guiding will-o"-the-wisp. But all griffins looked and smelled pretty much alike to Bink. Not that it mattered, objectively; all creatures here had a common purpose. Still, he felt a certain identification. He ran to it, hoping the injury was not critical. The creature was bleeding from a mortal wound. A wiggle had holed it through its lion"s heart.
Wiggles traveled by sudden rushes along wiggle-sized magic tunnels they created. Then they paused to recuperate, or perhaps merely to contemplate philosophical matters; no one really knew the rationale of a wiggle. Therefore the killer wiggle that had gotten the griffin should be right about here. Bink sniffed and picked up its faint putrid odor. He oriented on it, and saw his first live wiggle.
It was a two-inch-long, loosely spiraled worm, hovering absolutely still in midair. It hardly looked like the menace it was. He barked, pointing his nose at it.
Trent heard him. He strode across with his two rocks. "Good job, Bink," he cried. He smashed the rocks together on the wiggle. As they came apart, the squished, dead hulk of the tiny monster dropped. One down!
Zzapp! "There"s another!" Trent cried. "They tunnel through anything---even air----so we hear the collapse of the vacuum behind them. This one should be right about--there!" He smashed his stones together again, crunching the wiggle.
After that it was hectic. The wiggles were zapping determinedly outward, each in its own pattern. There was no way of telling how long they would freeze in place--seconds or minutes---or how far they would zap--inches or feet. But each wiggle went in the precise direction it had started, never shifting even a fraction, so it was possible to trace that line and locate it fairly quickly. If someone stood in front of a wiggle at the wrong time, he got zapped--and if the hole were through a vital organ, he died. But it was not feasible to stand behind a wiggle, for the closer in toward the source of the swarm one went, the more the wiggles were present. There were so many wiggles that a creature smashing one could be simultaneously holed by another. It was necessary to stand at the outer fringe of expansion and nab the leaders first.
The wiggles really seemed to be mindless, or at least indifferent to external things. Their preset wiggle courses holed anything--anything at all--in the way. If a person didn"t locate a wiggle fast, it was too late, for the thing had zapped again. Yet it could be tricky to find a still wiggle, for it looked like a twisted stem from the side and a coiled stem from the end. It had to move to attract attention to itself--and then it might be too late to nab it.
"This is like standing in a firing range and catching the bullets as they pa.s.s," Trent muttered. That sounded like another Mundane allusion; evidently Mundane wiggles were called bullets.
The invisible giant operated beside Bink on the right, as his nose plainly told him. TRAMP!--and a wiggle was crushed out of existence. Maybe a hundred wiggles at once. But so was anything else that got underfoot. Bink didn"t dare point out wiggles for Bigfoot; it would be his own death warrant. For all he knew, the giant was stomping randomly. It was as good a way as any.
On the left side, a unicorn operated. When it located a wiggle, it either crushed it between horn and hoof or closed its mouth over it and ground it to shreds with its equine teeth. This seemed to Bink to be a distasteful and hazardous mode of operation, because if it mistimed a wiggle....
Zzapp! A hole appeared in the unicorn"s jaw. Blood dripped out. The creature made a single neigh of anguish--then trotted along the path of the zap. It located the wiggle and chomped down again, using the other side of its jaw.
Bink admired the unicorn"s courage. But he had to get on with his own job. Two wiggles had just zapped within range. He pointed out the nearest for Trent, then ran to the other, afraid Trent would not reach it in time. His hound"s teeth were made for cutting and tearing, not chewing, but maybe they would do. He bit down on the wiggle.
It squished unpleasantly. Its body was firm but not really hard, and the juices squirted out. The taste was absolutely awful. There was some sort of acid--yecch! But Bink chewed carefully several times, to be sure of crushing it all; he knew that any unsquished fragment would zap away as a tiny wiggle, just as dangerous as the original. He spat out the remains. Surely his mouth would never be the same again.
Zzapp! Zzapp! Two more wiggles nearby. Trent heard one and went after it; Bink sought out the other. But even as they both oriented, a third zzapp! sounded between them. The pace was stepping up as the great internal ma.s.s of wiggles reached the perimeter. There were too many wiggles to keep up with! The complete swarm might number a million.
There was a deafening bellow from above. "OOAAOUGH!" Herman the centaur galloped by. Blood trailed from a glancing wiggle-wound in his flank. "Bigfoot"s. .h.i.t!" he cried. "Get out of the way."
"But the wiggles are breaking out," Trent said.
"I know! We"re taking heavy losses all around the perimeter. It"s a bigger swarm than I thought, more dense in the center. We can"t hold them anyway. We"ll have to form a new containment circle, and hope that more help arrives in time. Save yourselves before the giant falls."
Good advice. A huge print appeared in Bink"s territory as Bigfoot staggered. They got out of there.
"AAOOGAHH!" the giant bawled. Another print appeared, this time in toward the center of the circle. A wash of air pa.s.sed as he fell, heavy-laden with the giant-aroma. "GOUGH-OOOAAAA---" The sound arched down from a fifty-foot elevation toward the center of the wiggle swarm. The crash was like that of a petrified pine felled by magic. WHOOMP!
Herman, who had taken refuge behind the same jellybarrel tree as Trent and Bink, wiped a squirt of jelly out of his eye and shook his head sadly. "There goes a big, big man! Little hope now of containing the menace. We"re disorganized and short of personnel, and the strength of the enemy is sweeping outward. Only a hurricane could get them all, and the weather"s dry." Then he looked again at Trent. "You seem familiar. Aren"t you--yes. Twenty years ago---"
Trent raised his hand. "I regret the necessity--" he began.
"No, wait, Magician," Herman said. "Transform me not. I will not betray your secret. I could have bashed your head in with my foot just now, had I intended you ill. Know you not why I was exiled from my kind?"