The demoness exploded into a generous slew of smoky fragments. "You bleeping mortal! You have aroused my insatiable curiosity. I want to know what I"m missing." The voice came from a fragment that had been left behind.
"Then give me your word."
"Bleep!" The fragment puffed into smoke, which swirled and formed a word: BLEEP! It floated across to touch Cube"s hand. "Here is my word, you conniving creature. I"ll keep the secret."
Score one for the home team. But there was still a possible hurdle. "You will have to travel in this." She brought out the pouch.
"But I can"t get out of that on my own! That"s one of Humfrey"s old magic socks."
"True." Actually Cube hadn"t realized that it would hold demons in too. "You will truly be committed."
Metria sighed. The sound blew the word into tatters of smoke. "All right," a tatter said. "Put me in."
"Not yet. First I need to contact Karia Centaur. Find her and ask her whether she would like to join me in a search for that territory."
"That would blow the secret."
She was right. "Maybe then just whether she would like to join me in an adventure. But don"t speak her name."
The fragment swelled into the form of the demoness. "Does she know how to find it?"
"Probably not. But she can help us search."
"You have got hold of my curiosity, and you are using it to make me cooperate," Metria accused her.
"I thought you understood that when you agreed to join me."
"You must have a bit of demon blood in you."
"Do demons have blood?"
"No." There was a pop as she disappeared.
Cube resumed walking along the enchanted path. She did not know where she was going, but she would get there faster if she kept moving.
In a moderate while--whiles were difficult to measure precisely--the demoness reappeared. "The centaur is on her way. She will meet you at the rest stop closest to the castle."
"Wonderful!" Just like that, she had recruited her first a.s.sistant, or maybe her second if Metria counted. "Now do the same with Ryver, if you can find him."
"Ryver? Isn"t he the water boy?"
"Yes. He gave me a water ball." Cube brought it out.
The demoness popped off again.
Cube continued walking along the path, hoping she had done the right thing. She wasn"t quite sure she could trust the demoness, because demons had no souls and therefore no consciences. But Metria"s help could make a huge difference.
A wisp of smoke formed before her. "Back already, Metria?"
"He wants to know if you are beautiful yet."
Darn! She had forgotten about that. How could she recruit Ryver if he wanted her lovely first? "I guess that"s a no," she said wearily.
The demoness formed, unconscionably lovely. "So it"s like that. I"m sorry."
"You"re sorry? You don"t have human feelings!"
"Yes I do. Ever since I married and got half a soul."
"You have a soul? That means you can be trusted!"
"Half a soul. So you can trust me halfway. Actually a quarter soul now; my baby got half of it."
"You have a child?"
"Yes, after signaling the stork 750 times and serving a summons on it. It used to be that a half-mortal child of a demon with a soul got all of it, but the Time of No Magic must have shaken up the rules, and now it"s just half. Too bad about your boyfriend."
"But if you"re married, how can you join the quest? Don"t you have to tend to your husband?"
"My alter ego Demoness Mentia is doing that, and keeping an eye on my seven-year-old son, Ted. So I"m free to adventure, for the nonce."
"How can a demon have an alter ego?"
"It"s not easy. D. Mentia is a little crazy. So is Demon Ted. But my husband doesn"t care as long as Mentia pretends to be me. In fact he likes a little craziness mixed in with his delirium. And Ted likes my child alter ego, Woe Betide. Those two little mischiefs are trying to figure out how to get around the Adult Conspiracy."
Cube decided not to question that further. What counted was the discovery that Metria could indeed be trusted, at least halfway. That made her feel better. Not enough to compensate for the loss of Ryver, but better than nothing.
"I could cover your face and body with a shroud of myself and make you look beautiful."
For half an instant Cube was obscenely tempted. But then she realized that it was unworkable because Ryver would know, and dishonest if he didn"t know. "No. I"ll just have to do without Ryver."
"Well then, I have nothing to do, so let"s try your pouch."
Cube brought out the pouch and held it out. "Put your foot in it."
The demoness lifted a lovely leg indecently high, and poked an exquisite dainty foot in. Then she slid all the way into the sock and disappeared. All that was left behind was the sound of her voice: "Wheeee!"
Cube returned the pouch to her pocket. It wasn"t any larger than before.
Another person pa.s.sed. Traffic was not thick, but she was meeting more people than she had at home. Was this a prospect to be a Companion? "h.e.l.lo. I"m Cube. My talent is summoning nickelpedes."
"I am Kate. Dupli Kate. I make twins or triplets."
"You mean you get the stork to deliver them?"
"No, I twin or triple grown folk. I could demonstrate on you, if you wish, but you might find it inconvenient to have a twin, and I can"t undo them after they appear."
"Thanks, I"ll pa.s.s that up," Cube agreed hastily. The thought of there being two of her was awful; one was plain enough. She decided not to mention the quest.
Some time later she saw something off to the side, beyond the enchanted path. It was a person sitting on the ground, not moving. Was something wrong?
Cube left the path and went to investigate. It was a woman with a pale yellow complexion and wild hair. She held something in her hand and was staring at it. Some kind of fruit, or-- It was a gourd. A hypno-gourd! The kind with a peephole that sucked a person"s mind inside, locking her in the realm of bad dreams. The woman must have seen the gourd, picked it up, looked at it without realizing its nature, and gotten trapped. She would remain that way until someone else interrupted her line of sight to the peephole.
Cube put her hands on the gourd, blocking the peephole, and lifted it out of the woman"s grasp. The woman blinked, looking around. "What happened?" she asked sourly.
"You were caught by a hypno-gourd," Cube explained. "You would have remained that way until your body died of thirst or starvation. I knew you wouldn"t want that, so--"
"Who the $$$$ are you?" the woman demanded irritably.
"I"m Cube. I was walking along the enchanted path and saw--"
"And I"m Fluorine," the other said wrathfully. "Chlorine"s sister. She got to be beautiful and marry a prince or something, but I got nothing. Her measly talent is poisoning water, while I can practically make water explode. Why don"t you mind your own business?"
There was something corrosive about Fluorine"s personality. "But as I said, you would have remained--"
"I was in a really wild party," Fluorine said angrily. "There was a pool there, with mermaids who had a special aisle leading to Mundania that only they could use, so they were teasing stray Mundane men mercilessly, flashing b.r.e.a.s.t.s and tails, and the stupid men were falling into the water trying to catch them, and almost drowning. Great sport! And you had to come and break it up, you ignorant meddler."
Cube saw that there was no reasoning with this irascible woman. She preferred her bad dream of tormenting men to the reality of her loss of health and life. She certainly was no prospect for the quest. "Sorry I bothered," Cube muttered, and walked away.
"Good riddance!" Fluorine yelled after her.
Only when Cube was back on the enchanted path did she realize that she still carried the gourd. She considered throwing it away, but that might just make mischief for someone else, so instead she put it into the pouch. She would dispose of it somewhere else, or use it to stun some dangerous creature if she had to.
Belatedly she wondered who Chlorine might be, who poisoned water. She had married a prince? That almost gave Cube hope for herself.
She pa.s.sed another woman. She was beginning to lose faith in finding suitable Companions by sheer chance, but some hope remained. "h.e.l.lo. I"m Cube. I can summon nickelpedes."
"I"m Amanda. I can change one kind of plant to another."
Now that might have promise. "You mean, change varieties?"
"Any type to any type." Amanda looked around. "See that cemetree? Now it"s a pie plant."
Cube was impressed. The tree that looked like a gravestone had become a bush bearing blueberry pies. "I wonder if you would be interested--"
"Sorry, I have to get home now," Amanda said, and moved on. "Nice meeting you."
This just wasn"t turning out to be easy.
In due course she reached the camp. Just as she did, there was a sound in the air. She looked, and saw Karia gliding down. That was nice timing.
"Thanks for coming!" she called to the centaur.
"I have not committed to anything," Karia said as she landed and folded her wings. "I hope you are not in trouble."
"You came because you feared I was in trouble? I may be, but not because of any immediate threat. I made it in to see the Good Magician, and he gave me a mission, but I don"t know how to proceed with it."
"You made it in! I envy you."
"I think I have a stronger stomach for puns."
"That must be it," the centaur agreed, smiling. "Meanwhile I regret to say that I seem to have lost the mirror you gave me after all."
"I"m sorry. It seems I can"t give it away."
"What is the mission?"
"That"s awkward. You see, I can"t tell you about it unless you join it, because it"s supposed to be secret."
"I certainly won"t join something blindly," Karia said. "Centaurs are known for logic, not gambling."
"Yes, and I need a logical mind, because I"m not sure mine is up to it. I also need nine Companions, and all I have so far is one."
"Nine! Have you any idea how to get them?"
"Very little. Except that he told me they would be suitably rewarded."
"Rewarded? In what manner?"
"He didn"t say."
The centaur shook her head. "We appear to be at an impa.s.se. You can"t tell me about it unless I commit, and I can"t commit until I know about it, if then."
Cube hadn"t antic.i.p.ated this problem. That of course showed why she needed a good mind along. She wished for the moment that she had the ability of one of the louts in her home village, who could see from any part of his body. He had many points of view. That might enable her to get a different perspective. Then a bulb flashed brightly over her head.
"I saw that," Karia said. "You just had a bright idea."
"Yes. A logical idea. Let me try it on you."
The centaur shrugged, her front moving in a fashion Cube envied. Her own front would never bounce or ripple like that. "Let me have it."
"You were probably the person going to see the Good Magician before me. The questioner."
"The querent."
"Querent?"
"A person who queries."
"Oh. Yes. You were the querent right before me, only you didn"t get through, so then I was the next."
"True."
"So maybe there was just one mission, and whoever came with a Question would get it, in return for her Answer."
"That seems likely."
"The Good Magician told me that when I completed the mission, I would be beautiful. That I would get what I wanted."