This had gone on more than long enough. Forrest opened his eyes. "I think I"m all right," he said. "I-"
"We double-teamed you," Dawn said. "We apologize."
"No!" he exclaimed desperately.
They both laughed. "Not gourd fashion, silly," Eve said. "We"ve already done that." Then they helped him up. They were now in baggy blue jeans and blue plaid shirts that cut their feminine appeal in half.
Since there were two of them, that was still more than enough.
"We thought you were being gallant," Eve said. "Now we realize that you really do like us, as we like you."
"I"m a faun," he repeated. "I like nymphs. Recently I have been learning to like real folk too. But I"m not used to the emotions."
"So we gather," Dawn said. "You have surely had far more physical experience than we, as delicate maidens, would care to imagine. While we have had more emotional experience than you have been equipped to comprehend. It will be fun merging experiences, in due course."
"But it is true that we face what may be a deadly challenge, here," Eve said.
"So while maybe we shouldn"t have teased you," Dawn said, "we do feel that you were being naive about the approach to the Wizard"s castle."
"And while we don"t want to interfere with your role as a.s.signed by the Good Magician," Eve said, "we hope you will reconsider."
"I think I had better," he agreed ruefully. "Suppose we approach the castle cautiously, staying out of sight, and see what we can make of it?"
Imbri returned to the dialogue. She had been so still that he had almost forgotten her. "The girls can explore the castle to a degree without even approaching it."
"That"s better," he agreed. "If we can find someone who goes in and out of the castle, or some object that has been inside-"
"We can watch and see," Imbri said.
So they made their way on toward the castle. Forrest refreshed the blanket of obscurity; that was proving to be a big help, because they might otherwise already have been noticed and surrounded by the Wizard"s minions, if he had minions.
The castle was a huge, grim structure of mottled blue. There was an odor waiting from it. "I know that smell," Imbri said. "I have encountered it on the moon. Blue cheese!"
"But isn"t that squishy?" Dawn asked.
"Not when it"s old enough. The cheese of the moon ranges from almost liquid brie to rock hard cheddar. Any cheese gets firm when exposed to the sun for a few years."
"And magic could stiffen it," Eve said.
A guard marched around the castle. He didn"t see or notice them, thanks to the obscurity and their care in hiding, and pa.s.sed quite close. "Look at that!" Dawn whispered. "His hand is metal!"
"Silly-that"s a hand gun," Eve pointed out. "It makes sense for a guard."
The man marched on past them, and Forrest saw that his hand really was a gun. He wondered what happened when the man wanted to shake hands with anyone.
A light came on at the side door of the castle. It was a special shade of bright blue. "Oh, I wouldn"t want to smear that UltraViolent light bulb," Eve said. "Those are mean when messed with."
Then the door opened and a man emerged. He was carrying a bag of something. He walked to a pit some distance from the castle, and tossed the bag in. Then he returned and reentered the castle.
"Garbage!" Dawn said. "Ugh!"
"But it"s been inside the castle," Forrest pointed out. " So-"
"Ugh!" Eve said.
"Well, maybe it"s not a good idea."
Eve sighed. "No, it makes sense. It"s just not very romantic."
So they circled the castle at a distance, until they came to the pit. It had every type of refuse, and it stank. But they climbed down into it, looking for the most recent bag.
"Ah, here it is," Eve said, putting her hand on it. "Recently carried by Jan Itor. It contains trash and kitchen leavings collected by the night watchman, A. Lert. They are from all over the castle."
"Just what we need," Dawn said. "I know you"ll just love sinking your hands in all that, sister dear."
"With luck, some of it isn"t dead yet, sister dear," Eve agreed, wrinkling her nose. "So you will also have the pleasure." She opened the bag and pulled out a tube. "Toothpaste that pastes the mouth closed. No wonder they threw it out."
Dawn spied a large ant struggling to escape the bag. She let it walk on her hand. "This is a de-odor-ant. It can make a person lose the sense of smell. I guess they threw it out because they like the smell of blue cheese."
Eve pulled out an old pen. "This is what is left of an invisible ink pen," she said. "Originally the pen held several large ugly animals, but each animal used up some of the ink, and the pen gradually shrank, until it was too small to be of use."
"What about the layout of the castle?" Forrest asked. "Is there a secret entrance? Where does the Wizard stay?"
In due course, piecing through the thrown away junk, they were able to work out a fair notion of the castle plan. The Wizard lived in the highest chamber, through which the blue lines pa.s.sed. The lines actually seemed to come from below, however: the dungeon. That was entirely sealed off from outside, and only the Wizard had access from inside. There was no refuse from it; evidently it had its own internal garbage dump. So the riddle of the lines remained.
"We need more information than we can get from outside," Forrest said.
"But if even the servants don"t know what"s in that dungeon, who else will know?"
"Only the Wizard," Imbri said. "And he keeps the secret, so that no one else can steal talents from Ptero and give them away for power."
"But someone else must know," Forrest said. "Because there are three other Wizards with the secret."
"And they used it to make themselves supreme in their triangles," Dawn said.
"And they won"t tell us either," Eve agreed.
"We need a better idea," Imbri said.
Something flirted with Forrest"s attention, and slid away. He pursued it, and managed to nab it before it escaped. It was an idea. "Idea!" he exclaimed. "Ida-her talent is the Idea. Maybe she would have an idea."
"But Ida"s far away," Dawn said.
"That is, her head is-and huge," Eve agreed.
"No-I mean the Ida who must be here. Your world of Ptero orbits Ida of Xanth; this world of Pyramid orbits Ida of Ptero. So there must be an Ida here with another world, and maybe she would know the secrets of the worlds."
The girls exchanged another glance. "This is weird," Dawn said.
"But maybe true," Eve said.
"And worth a try," Imbri said. "If there"s any chance she"s here, and she would know -she"s a nice person, and surely would help us."
They climbed out of the pit and walked away from the castle. They found a lake that didn"t have any objectionable magic and washed up. The girls simply waded in with their clothing on, and after a startled moment Forrest realized that since their clothing was part of their soul-stuff, it didn"t matter.
Then they pondered how to locate Ida. "I can learn much from living folk," Dawn said. "But it"s sort of random; finding out whether they know a particular person could take a long time."
"Same for the inanimate," Eve said. "I could see whether a rock had ever seen a particular person pa.s.s, but first I"d have to go through its entire list of people, which could be hundreds. And it might not recognize a particular person anyway; rocks aren"t very smart."
"Grandpa Dor could make them talk," Dawn said. "That made it much easier."
"Of course we had to watch our skirts when Grandpa Dor was around," Eve said. "Any rock we stepped over would blab about what it saw."
"Unless Grandma Irene was there," Dawn said. "She could glare a rock into silence from far away."
"We miss them," Eve concluded sadly.
. "I think we"ll have to ask someone," Forrest decided. "That means letting the blanket of obscurity wear off."
"Which in turn is risky," Imbri said.
"I know it. So maybe the three of you should remain protected by it, while I stay apart, so I can become evident alone."
"Maybe you should ride me, so that if there is trouble, I can gallop away with you."
Forrest thought of protesting, but realized that she wanted to take the same risk he did. "Good notion." He looked around. It seemed to be getting late in the day. "Let"s find a place to sleep, and in the morning the girls can take the canned blanket spell while we go out."
They looked for a good place to settle. Soon they found a small range of blue mountains. Very small: they were hardly waist high. But the mini-peaks should serve to conceal them from the view of the main path, when they lay down.
But as they approached the range, it got up and walked away. Astonished, they watched it depart. Then Dawn laughed. "A mountain goat!" she said. "I should have recognized it."
They found another place, near blue berry bushes, which made it handy for supper. As they ate, the wind came up, whistling softly through the trees. It made a sad melody. "I always liked the blues," Eve remarked.
But as darkness closed, the temperature dropped. Forrest realized that he hadn"t thought to bring a second blanket. So he dug out the one he had and gave it to the girls. "This will do for the two of you," he said.
They looked at him. "I wish this wasn"t a serious mission," Dawn said.
"Because then we could share the blanket with you," Eve said.
"I"m sorry too," he said. "But I will join Imbri." For Imbri in mare form was both warm and safe. So things worked out after all.
He lay down beside Imbri. "You really are a nice person," she murmured in a dreamlet for him alone.
"No I"m not. I really wanted to sleep with them."
"I know you did. Right between them. Knowing that they would probably dissolve their clothing under the blanket, just as I did. But you refused to do it. That"s what makes you nice, just as you were with me."
"But I should not even be wanting to do such things!"
"You are a faun. It"s your nature."
"And what of you?" he demanded. "What do you think, when you see me reacting to those pretty girls?"
"It makes me feel less guilty for what I did to you."
"You didn"t do anything to me!"
"Yes I did. And I will make it up to you, when I figure out how."
"You know I can"t really do anything with those girls. They"re princesses.
"They are of a slightly different culture than the one we encountered in Xanth. Maybe it"s all right for them to play with fauns, if they want to."
"I doubt their mother would approve."
"Mothers never do. In the old days I delivered thousands of bad dreams to worried mothers. They think their daughters must be pristine and never do what the mothers did when they were young. So the daughters simply don"t tell their mothers." She chuckled, in the dreamlet. "Now that Queen Iris has been rejuvenated to her twenties, she doesn"t tell her daughter Irene, who would Not Approve Iris"s present activities.
Folk seldom approve the fun others have."
"Still-"
"Forrest, those two girls know their own minds, and they know your nature. If they decide to celebrate with you, you should feel free."
"Well, I don"t feel free. I mean, I would love it, but I don"t think it"s proper."
Her dreamlet image shook her head. "Because you have been placed in the role of adviser, which implies parental authority. So you act as a parent would, though you wish you could act as a normal faun would."
"That"s it!" he agreed as a bulb flashed over his head. "How well you understand."
"Well, I have had some experience in dreams, and what you feel for the girls is a dream."
"Thank you, Imbri! You have helped me to clarify my mixed feelings."
"Maybe that"s what I"m here for." The dreamlet image walked across to the fading bulb and planted a kiss on it. Forrest felt the kiss on his face.
He was startled. "Imbri-"
"I will change to maiden form, if you ask me. I know my own mind too."
Suddenly he was horribly tempted. Imbri was definitely of sufficient age and experience, and she surely did know her own mind. But he had to demur. "I- can"t ask you to do that."
"I know, Forrest, I know. You don"t feel free to be a faun, or free to make commitments of that nature, so you are caught in a personal limbo.
I wish I could free you from it. And I will, if I ever find the way.
Meanwhile, I respect your stance, and I respect you."
"Uh, thank you."