"Yes, of course. What are they?"
"We think the Wizard must be hiding in the hills somewhere, in an ugly castle, hating human beings because he"s not pretty like us," Dawn said.
"And he"s casting out margins to hem us in so we can"t escape, so he can destroy us all," Eve said.
" Then we should find him and stop him," Forrest said. "But how?"
"You got through the lines," Dawn said. "So maybe you can take us through, so we can sneak up on him."
"But the lines are one way."
"We can"t be sure of that," Eve said uncertainly. "Maybe it just seems that way."
"But if even Grey Murphy couldn"t dent them-"
"We think maybe the Wizard is watching, and does something to strengthen a margin when one of us approaches it, to make us think we are trapped more solidly than we are," Dawn said eagerly. "Maybe if we could go to a line without being noticed, we could get through it, or do something to it."
"Well, if my blanket of obscurity helps-"
They clapped their hands in perfect unison. "Let"s try it!" Eve said.
"The worst we can do is fail."
"By all means," Forrest agreed, pleased with the progress they were making. The twins were no longer trying to distract him; they were genuinely interested in the project.
They went downstairs and to the front gate. There Forrest brought out the canned blanket and invoked it. Nothing seemed to happen, but he proceeded with confidence toward the margins.
They stopped before the nearest line, which was red. "When Imbri and I came through, the lines were visible, but we couldn"t touch them," he said. "But we didn"t try very hard. If your theory is right, we should be very quiet and careful, because the spell of obscurity may not be very strong. I don"t know how far out it reaches, so we should remain closely grouped, too."
They cl.u.s.tered in close, the twins touching him on either side, but this time they were not trying to tease him. "It might also be that it"s the margins themselves that react when people approach," Dawn said. "So that you got through because they didn"t know you were challenging them."
"That makes even more sense to me," Forrest said. "The lines are here all the time, and if they have any awareness-"
"The inanimate does have awareness," Eve said. "I can talk to it, though not the way Grandpa Dor can. I will try to fathom the nature of the margins, if I am able to get close enough to make contact."
"You couldn"t touch it, before?" Forrest asked.
"It was just a blank nothing," she said. "I reached out my hand, and it stopped as if meeting a wall, but there was nothing there. I can tell anything about anything inanimate, but this wasn"t a thing, it was a force. I couldn"t reach its substance, if it has any."
"Let"s see if we can cross the line," Forrest suggested. "Then let"s explore it from the other side. But if we do succeed in crossing it, don"t make any exclamations of joy or victory, because that might attract the attention of whatever brings down those birds who fly in. We don"t want to be trapped as they were."
The two girls shuddered together. "We"ll be very subdued," Dawn said.
"I"ll go first," Forrest decided. "Then you follow me, Dawn. Then Eve, then Imbri."
"But shouldn"t someone remain on the other side, in case we are trapped?" Eve asked. "So she can tell the others what happened?"
Forrest nodded. "Good point. Maybe Dawn should be last, so that both of you aren"t at risk."
The twins exchanged another glance. Forrest noticed that their glances were identical, except that one was bright and the other dark, and met exactly in the center of the s.p.a.ce between them. Then Dawn nodded.
"When there is something animate to check, I"ll cross first," she said.
Forrest reached across the s.p.a.ce over the line. A faint shadow showed on his arm, but there was no resistance. He stepped across, and stood on the other side.
Eve tried it next. She reached to the invisible wall, and found nothing, so she too stepped across. She looked back at her sister. "Can you hear me, Dawn?"
"Yes," Dawn agreed. "So we"re doing it."
Imbri crossed. "Now let"s see if you can a.n.a.lyze it from this side," she said.
Eve squatted so that she could touch the line on the ground. "It"s still not-wait, it"s very faint, but I can feel something. It"s not the thing, just the energy from it, which piles up at the ground. It-it"s because it isn"t projecting up from the ground, it"s coming down from above.
"Down from above!" Forrest echoed, surprised. "But there"s nothing up there!
Imbri looked up. "Nothing except Xanth. Is this an idea coming from Princess Ida in Xanth?"
"She wouldn"t do anything mean like this," Dawn said. "We know her, she"s nice."
"Then it must be from somewhere else," Forrest said. "Can you trace it?"
Eve moved her hand. "Maybe. It"s energy, but I can feel the slightest tingle. It seems to go straight up from the shadow on the ground.
"If it comes from above, it must come from somewhere," Imbri said.
"Ptero is turning, so shouldn"t the shadow be moving across the ground?"
The other three looked at her. "It should," Dawn agreed. "So maybe it isn"t coming from above."
"But it is," Eve said. "I can tell."
"Maybe not from beyond Ptero," Forrest suggested. "Could it curve or bend?"
"That"s it," Eve said. "I can tell now; it turns a corner. I can feel that much from its nature. A corner that way." She closed her eyes and pointed.
"That"s toward Castle Roogna!" Imbri said.
"The enemy menace is in Castle Roogna?" Dawn asked, appalled. "But that"s us."
"Could you have an enemy in your midst?" Forrest asked, feeling a chill.
"No," Dawn said. "There"s only King Ivy and Consort Grey; they would never betray the human territory. After all, they govern it. There"s mom-she"d never do it either. And Aunt Ida is Ivy"s twin sister; she"d never do it. It isn"t the two of us, either. And there"s no one else in the castle, now; we know."
Forrest got a weird notion. "There could be others."
Eve looked at him. "We have explored every cranny of the castle, with our magic. There"s no one."
"Have you explored Pyramid?"
Both their mouths dropped open. "Pyramid!" Dawn said. "It"s a whole separate world in itself! Anything could be there."
"Including even an evil Wizard," Eve agreed. "We never thought of that."
"It"s Forrest"s business to think of it," Imbri said. "He must be right. We have seen how much there can be on a seemingly tiny moon.
Ptero is such a moon. Pyramid is another, and there could be anything at all there. Including someone who wants to take over Ptero. Your evil Wizard."
"It could be," Dawn breathed. "That would explain everything. But what can we do about it?"
"We can go to Pyramid," Forrest said.
"But can we?" Imbri asked. "You and I came here by leaving our bodies behind, and letting our souls become solid. But our souls wouldn"t fit on Pyramid. And what of Dawn & Eve? Their souls are mostly tied up in their living year in Xanth. How could they go?"
Forrest pondered. "Dawn & Eve must have small soul fragments here-maybe about the same amount as we have, relative to Ptero. Enough to animate their bodies on Pyramid."
"That"s true," Dawn said. "Souls are living, so I know. We have just that much. But what of you two, who are all-soul here?"
"We"ll just have to leave most of our souls behind," Forrest said. "And use just enough for Ptero. It should be similar to what we did in Xanth, leaving our bodies lying in the Tapestry room."
The other three nodded. "I think we shall have to go to Pyramid," Imbri said. "But first we"ll have to tell the others."
"Mom"s not going to like this much," Eve said darkly.
"But she"ll get used to it," Dawn said brightly. "She always does."
Forrest and Eve stepped back across the margin, and the four of them walked back toward Castle Roogna. Forrest was pleased with the progress they had made, but nervous about what might be in store for them. This mission had just become more complicated than he had expected.
"You want to go where?" Electra demanded, appalled.
"Mother, we already explained," Dawn said, as if the woman were slow in intellect.
"It"s the only way to deal with the marginalization," Eve continued.
"The margins are coming from Pyramid, so we have to go there to stop them."
"But it"s just a decoration spinning around Princess Ida"s head!
How could any of you fit there?" But the question was rhetorical, because her next question was "Suppose you don"t return?"
"I fear it is a risk they will have to take," King Ivy said. "The alternative is to allow ourselves to be marginalized out of existence.
Remember, they are going to succeed."
"Forrest Faun will succeed," Electra said. "That says nothing about my daughters."
"But his mission is to advise them how to accomplish it," Grey said. "So if he succeeds, so do they."
"Yes, I"m sure they will," Ida agreed. "And I confess to being curious about who lives on Pyramid."
Electra seemed to have some continuing misgivings, but she knew that the alternative was just as bad. They went up to the Tapestry room with Ida, and the four of them lay down on beds there. "I will guide Dawn," Imbri said. "And Forrest will guide Eve. It will be somewhat strange at first, but that will settle down once we are on Pyramid."
"It should be fun," Dawn said bravely, but she looked a smidgen uncertain.
"If nothing goes wrong," Eve agreed, looking two smidgens uncertain.
Forrest was not at all certain that nothing would go wrong, but he didn"t care to say that. He hoped that Ida"s belief in their success would make it true, but he had not seen her talent in action. So he proceeded with the program. He sat up, dug out his bottle, and took it to Dawn. "Sniff this," he said, hoping that it worked the same way as it did in Xanth. He pulled out the stopper.
Dawn sniffed. A strange look spread across her features. She closed her eyes and stopped breathing.
Forrest brought it to Eve. She sniffed, and faded similarly out. Then he lay back on his own bed, the same one he had used in Xanth, and sniffed it himself.
Soon he was floating, as before. But this time it wasn"t his soul leaving his body, exactly; it was a tiny part of his soul detaching itself from the main ma.s.s, and carrying his awareness with it.
"This way." It was Imbri"s voice, directing Dawn. She had not had to use the elixir, perhaps because she was long accustomed to soul form.
Forrest concentrated, and formed his own eye and ear and mouth.
He oriented on Eve, who was lying there with a haze drifting above her.
Rather, she was the haze, floating above her unused body. The body was dark and lovely, but looked dead. "Form an eye," he told her. "Pull yourself together."
The mist quivered and coalesced. A bulbous eye developed in its top.
"That"s it," he said encouragingly. "Now form a mouth and ear."
Slowly these things formed. "This is weird," the mouth said.
"It will become familiar, once we land on Pyramid," he told her.
"See if you can form your own shape as we go. In a moment we"ll join Imbri and Dawn, and fly to that world."
She shaped up, getting the hang of it, and became a somewhat tenuous naked woman.
"You can use your substance to make clothing," he told her, realizing that she was now going into what amounted to full-soul status. "Just concentrate on it the same way."
"Oh." A clumsy dress formed around her.
"Now follow me." He made sure her eyeb.a.l.l.s were aimed in his direction, and started moving toward Imbri and Dawn.
Dawn had made similar progress. Her form was lighter in color, with an ill-fitting white dress, but her face was recognizably her. When Eve caught up, the two gazed at each other-and burst out laughing.
"Easy," Forrest cautioned them, as they threatened to fragment into cloudlets.
The two managed to stifle their mirth. Actually it was probably a good thing, because it meant they were adapting to their situation.
"This way," Imbri said. She was in her mare form. She started trotting up a steep invisible hill.
They followed, using their legs to run up the same hill. "Make yourselves smaller as you go," Forrest said, doing it himself. "Keep condensing."