The Gorgon left the scratched hood on her head, so she could see out without having her deadly face exposed, and hastened to work on Chem"s bonds. Soon the centaur was free. She took her bow and aimed an arrow at the sky; the first harpy who came close enough to lay an egg would be shot down.
Now the Gorgon came to Irene and undid her hands. Their party was ready to move, but Irene was uncertain. "The forest is too open; if we flee, we"ll be vulnerable to attack from the rear. I don"t want any of those eggs coming at my rear! We"d better take cover until it"s safe."
Chem agreed. They moved onto the water table, which was a raised, level plain formed of jellied water with a solid crust. It was a blue-green level surface, and it sank beneath their weight slightly, forming a slow ripple.
On the far side of the table stood the goblin band, armed with clubs and spears and stones and scowls. The harpies were dive-bombing them, but the rain of thrown stones was thick enough to keep them too far away to score. Geysers of water shot up where the eggs missed their marks. The crust of the table was firm and flexible, but the explosions gouged out holes that took a while to reseal.
Three harpies detached themselves from the main formation and zeroed in on Irene"s party. Irene plunged her hand into the seed bag and scattered the seeds she brought out. "Grow!"
The seeds sprouted in air and landed on the water table, where their roots delved down to find plenty of water for rapid growth. Leatherleaf ferns spread their leather across the plain. A gold-dust tree sent out a cloud of glittering gold dust. A foxglove swished its bushy tail and made hand signals with its glove. An amethyst plant grew purple crystals that sparkled in the sunshine. A balloon vine sent a cloud of colored balloons into the sky. A helmet flower produced several fine helmets in a.s.sorted sizes that Irene and the others harvested for immediate use in case an egg exploded nearby. A living fossil plant rattled its bones. And a water-ivy had a field day, spreading so quickly and thickly that it soon covered a sizable portion of the table. The vines and leaves became so big and piled on one another so thickly that they provided good cover for the party. The tabletop had become a thick jungle.
The goblins spied the jungle and charged toward it, recognizing the advantage of its cover. "Uh-oh," Irene said. "I didn"t think of this consequence! Now we"ll have goblins to contend with, too!"
Indeed it was so. When the goblins arrived and discovered that the jungle was occupied, they hurled some of their stones at these new targets. It had turned into a three-way battle.
The thick cover became a mixed blessing. Irene and her friends were hidden from the harpies, who wheeled and screeched their curses from above, ready to egg anyone who responded--but the goblins were also hidden from both Irene and the harpies, and she knew goblins were good at jungle combat.
A goblin appeared before Chem--but disappeared as she swung her bow around to aim at him. The thickly spreading leaves concealed too much!
A harpy spied the motion and zoomed down close and laid her egg. It detonated to the side, blasting out greenery that splatted green all around them.
A dark, gnarly hand grasped Irene"s arm. She jerked around to look, not daring to scream because of the listening harpies, and came face to snoot with an ugly goblin.
The goblin opened his big mouth, showing his sharp yellow teeth. He lunged to bite Irene"s leg.
She twisted her leg away, then kneed him in the ear. Ow! The goblin"s head was undamaged, but Irene"s knee was hurting!
"Don"t hit their heads!" Grundy called. "They"re hard as rocks! Hit their hands and feet!"
Irene stomped on one of the goblin"s big feet, but the ground was so squishy that the foot merely sank into the soft water, unhurt. Then she grabbed one of the goblin"s arms, wrenched it about, and slammed the goblin"s own hand into his head.
"Owww!" the goblin screamed. "My hand"s broken!"
A harpy heard his cry and circled, trying to pinpoint the source. She screeched a corrosive curse. Soon there would be an egg on both their heads! Irene knew she had to dispatch this creature quickly.
Now she moved her captured arm, the one the goblin"s hand was grasping, and jammed that against his rock-head. She knocked the goblin"s hand against his skull, and it was the hand that gave way. That made him let go. Then Chem got there and swept him away with a well-placed kick in the head. It didn"t hurt the goblin the way a kick in the seat would have, but it drove him so far into the foliage that Irene was able to hide herself again.
"We"ve got to get out of this or we"ll all be dead!" Irene gasped. She had not had much experience with this sort of combat and didn"t like it at all.
"I think I"d better use my power," the Gorgon said, touching her head.
Irene sighed. "I suppose we have no reasonable alternative."
Then there was a stir among the wheeling harpies. "It"s him! It"s him!" they screeched.
Irene peered out through the foliage. All she saw was another harpy coming to reinforce the others. Bad news!
"Him?" Chem asked. "The male they thought the goblins killed?"
Now Irene realized the significance of this arrival. "Then they have no cause for war!"
"Oh, they"ll fight anyway," Grundy said. "Harpies and goblins always fight one another when they get the chance."
"Well, they shouldn"t do it while we"re caught in the middle!" Irene exclaimed.
"Perhaps I can arrange a truce," Chem said. "The moment seems propitious, and I believe I have encountered the goblin leader before."
"Anything"s worth a try!" Irene said. Her hands were cold and clammy, and she hoped she didn"t look as fl.u.s.tered as she felt. She just wanted to get out of this battle and back on the search for her child.
Chem concentrated. Her map appeared--this time it was not a scene, but a huge display of letters: TRUCE. Simultaneously, the centaur called: "Gorbage! Gorbage Goblin!"
Few harpies could read, but the leaders were more educated than most. "Truce?" Haggy Harpy screeched, outraged. "Truce? Who says?"
And the goblin leader called back; "Who calls my name?"
"I am Chem Centaur," Chem replied. "I call for this truce because you goblins and harpies have no quarrel, and I want to show you this before you destroy your best chance for peace."
"Peace!" Gorbage and Haggy screeched together.
"We don"t want peace!" Haggy continued.
"We want war!" Gorbage finished.
"But--" Irene protested, bemused.
"The old hen is right," Gorbage said. "We haven"t had a good war in eight hundred years. It"s long overdue!"
"That"s for sure!" Haggy screeched.
The newly arrived harpy male swooped in. Now Irene could see that his face and feathers were clean and that he was, in fact, a handsome half-specimen of a man. "We shall talk peace anyway," he cried, and his voice, too, was unlike the screech of the hens. "We shall make truce and listen to the centaur, for centaurs are known to be fair-minded folk."
The harpy hens fluttered uncertainly, since they could not argue with the precious male. "If you say so," Haggy screeched grudgingly.
"Well, I don"t say so!" Gorbage cried from his cover in the foliage. "I want to exterminate them all--beginning with that birdbrained c.o.c.k!" He pointed at the male harpy.
A lovely female goblin appeared. "Then you"ll have to exterminate me also. Father!" she cried. "I love him!"
A harpy-goblin romance? This was another surprise!
"A goblin tart!" Haggy screeched indignantly. "We"ll bury her in eggs!"
"You certainly will not!" the male harpy cried. "I"m going to marry her!"
Irene was amazed. "It"s true, then! No wonder these creatures are riled up! That"s the most forbidden love, for them!"
"We"d better get a truce!" Chem said. "In a moment there"ll be nothing but feet and feathers."
Irene felt in her bag for seeds. She found what she wanted: several wallflowers. She threw the seeds out in four directions, aiming and orienting each carefully. "Grow!"
They grew. One wall formed just behind Irene"s party, expanding east and west, shoving aside the prior vegetation. Others grew to the sides, extending north and south. A fourth grew to the north, extending east and west. Soon they all intersected at the edges, making corners and forming a roughly square enclosure. Their walls thickened and gained height, with flowers on the top, until no one could see anything but sky from the inside.
"Chem, you face north and have your bow ready," Irene said. "Gorgon, you face south, with your hand on your veil--er, hood, or whatever. I"ll try to watch the sky. Grundy, climb up on the wall and tell Gorbage and Haggy and the two, um, lovers to come in here under truce so we can talk safely. Watch out for thrown missiles."
"Gotcha," the golem agreed. He found handholds and clambered up the south wall.
"I hope you can apply centaur logic to this situation, Chem," Irene murmured. "If you can"t persuade them, we"re still in trouble." Her stomach felt weak; she didn"t like the continuing tension of this situation. She knew her plants had gained them only a temporary reprieve.
"The logic is valid--if they will listen," Chem said. "But neither species is known for listening well."
Grundy reached the top of the wall and stood on it, a tiny Figure. "Hey, stink-snoot!" he cried. "Come in here and show off your ignorance! You too, filth-feather!" Then he ducked as a rock flew by and an egg slanted down.
"I think you chose the wrong diplomat," Chem remarked. "Grundy thinks it"s a challenge to be as foul-mouthed as the others."
"I should have known," Irene agreed ruefully. "I"ll have to mediate this myself."
"You"ll get your head bombed," Chem warned.
"Perhaps we can be of a.s.sistance," a new voice said.
Irene looked around, but saw nothing. "Who spoke?"
"We"re invisible," the voice said. "We don"t want to get shot or stoned."
"Invisible! Well, if you"re friendly, show yourselves; we won"t attack you."
Two figures faded into view--the male harpy and the female goblin.
"The lovers!" Irene exclaimed. "How--?"
"We discovered our magic talent," the girl said almost shyly. She was remarkably pretty. "Goblins don"t do magic, and neither do harpies--not the way human folk do--but together we can become invisible." She moved to rejoin the harpy and they faded out again.
"Recessive genes, maybe," Chem said as the two reappeared. She glanced more closely at the girl; "You look familiar. I"ve seen a goblin girl almost as pretty as you--"
"My big sister Goldy," the girl said. "I"m Glory, the loveliest and nicest of my generation. And this is Hardy, the handsomest and best-mannered of his."
Irene introduced herself and her friends. "We"re looking for my lost daughter--"
"Ivy!" Glory exclaimed. "The cute little child with the bone in her hair!"
Irene was astonished. "You met her?"
"She helped me find Hardy," Glory said. "Now I can see the family affinity. Her hair is a little green, while yours--"
"When she gets jealous, her whole face turns green," Grundy remarked, returning from the wall.
"A bone in her hair?" Chem inquired.
"She said the Cyclops gave it to her," Glory explained. "She was very helpful! She and Hugo and Stanley--"
"Hugo?" the Gorgon asked. "He"s with them?"
"Oh, yes. He has such a wonderful talent!"
"But he can only conjure rotten fruit!"
Glory laughed. "You wouldn"t say that if you knew him!"
"Well, I am his mother."
Glory gazed at her, perplexed. "You must have excruciatingly exacting standards! His fruit certainly seemed good enough to me! And he"s so intelligent--"
"Intelligent?" the Gorgon asked.
"Oh, yes! And handsome--"
The Gorgon shook her hooded head, baffled.
"Stanley?" Irene asked, picking up on the other name.
"Stanley Steamer, the baby dragon. He"s really very nice, too."
"Nice?" Irene repeated blankly. "The rejuvenated Gap Dragon?"
Glory smiled, and the wallflower enclosure brightened.
"You"re being humorous, right?"
"That must be the case," Irene agreed faintly. Something was certainly funny here, but not humorous. "How did you meet them?"
"I was coming south from the Gap, looking for Hardy, and I suppose I was lost, or at least mislaid. But the dragon located the mouth organ for us, and so we found Hardy--"
"And the goblins ambushed us," the harpy continued. "They put me on trial for corrupting Glory, but Hugo"s brilliant defense acquitted me--"
"I just don"t understand," the Gorgon said. "Naturally I want the best for my son, but I simply have to say that he was never brilliant or handsome or well talented. I wish it were otherwise, but--"
"It sounds as if his qualities have been improved," Chem commented.
"Ivy!" Irene exclaimed. "She"s responsible!"
"That was my thought," the centaur agreed. "I suspect that her talent of enhancement is more potent than we knew. She has elevated Hugo to his full potential."
"But the dragon," Irene said. "The dragon should have become even more ferocious by the same enhancement!"
"Not if her talent is selective," Chem pointed out. "If it should, for example, enhance only what she perceives, or chooses to perceive, or wishes--"
"It would require Magician-level talent to make my boy a genius," the Gorgon said ruefully. "For a long time I hoped he would improve as he aged, but now he"s eight years old and has shown no sign--"
"Eight? If he"s not a genius, he"s close to it," Glory said. "He picked up on precisely the right points!"