"They are said to live in the Atlas Mountains," Dawn said, reading her tree.
"Which are beyond the tropical depression," Eve said, reading her ground.
"Are they within ready crawling distance?"
"Yes, if we go straight there," Dawn said.
"Which means going through the depression, which isn"t fun," Eve said.
"We aren"t here for fun," Forrest said.
They started crawling in the indicated direction. Imbri, who just couldn"t crawl well, decided to wait where she was; they would arrange to pick her up later.
Soon the ground sank lower as they entered the depression. Exotic warm weather plants grew in it. But Forrest started feeling extremely sad.
Was any of this worthwhile? Or would it be better just to quit trying?
"Oh, I"m depressed!" Jfraya complained.
"That"s because of the tropical depression," Eve said. "Just crawl on through it."
Forrest was glad he hadn"t spoken. He had a.s.sumed that it was just a warm low place. Now he knew better.
Beyond the depression rose the peaks of mountains, shown outlined against the dimly illuminated sky. Then they reached the base of the first mountain-and discovered that it consisted of piled books. Atlases.
What else had he expected?
"Watch out for the bookworm," Eve warned.
They paused in their crawling as a large worm crawled across their route. Its segments consisted of books.
At last they reached the centaur village. Centaurs came bearing torches. "Don"t you folk of the red face know you can"t travel readily here?" one demanded. "You"re just not red-dy for the blue."
Forrest dispensed with explanations. "We need to be carried to the gray face," he said. "There is also a mare who will require several to carry her."
"Are you asking for favors?"
"Yes."
"And you know the consequence?"
"Yes."
"Then we are glad to help. I am Chaz Centaur." He looked around.
"Chalice-you take the faun."
An earthy brown-blue mare trotted up. She was as well endowed as the usual centaur filly, which was impressive by the standards of lesser females. Forrest tried to mount her back, but couldn"t; his angle was wrong. Finally she picked him up with her arms, pressed him to her ample bare bosom, twisted him around, and plopped him on her back. Once firmly set there, he was able to hang on and maintain his position.
"Chafe and Chide-take the girls."
Two sneering young stallions trotted up. The sneers faded when they got two good looks at the girls. Then they became very helpful. One picked up Dawn and set her on the other"s back; then the other picked up Eve and set her on the first one"s back. The girls, quickly zeroing in on the situation, were very appreciative and flattering. Two males who might have been annoying were quickly being tamed.
"Checkers-take the green lady."
A dappled stallion trotted up, and managed to get Jfraya on his back.
Chaz looked around. "Is that all?"
"No," Ghina called. She donned her red cloak so as to become partly visible. "I am a winged goblin girl from the red face."
"Chenille-take her."
A centaur filly trotted up, and managed to get Ghina aboard.
"Now where is this mare?"
"Across the tropical depression, toward the Blue Wizard"s castle,"
Forrest said.
"We"ll go around that." The centaurs got moving, while their pa.s.sengers hung on. Soon they reached Imbri. "Chicory, Chiffon, Chime, Chip,"
Chaz said, and four more centaurs trotted up. "Chenille, sew a sling."
Ghina"s filly brought out cloth, and with magical speed formed a sling suitable for a horse. The four other centaurs lifted Imbri onto it, then picked up the four corners, which had been fashioned into harnesses. These harnesses went over their heads and around their human torsos, so that they did not need to use their hands to hold on. They took up their positions and stretched the harness taut. Imbri was hauled into the air.
"To the Gray border: march," Chaz said. All ten centaurs set off in perfect step.
They were on their way. But Forrest felt lighter; he and the others were paying a price for this invaluable a.s.sistance.
"How is it that a red faun is traveling here?" Chalice asked him.
"My companions and I are trying to carry out an important mission," he explained. "Several of us are actually from another world."
Then, to divert her attention, he asked about her. "Where I come from, not all centaurs have magic talents. Do-"
"Certainly. My talent is with pottery. I can fashion blue-brown clay into excellent utensils. The other centaurs have talent too. You saw Chenille"s ability as a seamstress. Checkers has great ability with board games. Chicory is a herbalist. Chiffon can make things transparent. Chime is an excellent minstrel. And Chip can shatter objects. He"s my foal," she added proudly. "We discovered his talent at the expense of a vase."
Thus the time pa.s.sed amicably enough. Soon they came to the edge. "You know, it"s cold around the corner," Chaz said. "Would you like warm garments?"
Forrest looked at the bleak landscape beyond. "Yes, I think we had better have that favor too," he agreed with resignation.
In moments Chenille had made warm caps and jackets and trousers for all of them, including Imbri. The six members of their party were surely slightly smaller, because of this favor, and Chenille became the largest of the centaurs. "Thank you," Forrest said.
"You are all welcome," Chaz replied. Then he produced a horn from his pack. "Here is a bull horn. If you return this way and need more favors, blow it."
"A bull horn summons centaurs?"
"No. It summons bulls, of course. They graze at the bull market. But we will hear the stampede of their hoofs, and come to investigate. You would not want to ask favors of the bulls."
"Are bulls bad folk?"
"No worse than the bears, generally. But these ones can be. Edi and Para Bull are all right, with their food and stories, but Stum is clumsy, Trem is fearful, and you wouldn"t want to encounter Trou or Terri. You wouldn"t believe Incredi Bull."
"Surely not," Forrest agreed.
They bid parting to the centaurs, and crawled over the edge onto the gray face. Immediately a chill wind rose, stirred by their presence, and blew snow in their faces. They were at a different angle here, but it was no better than the other angles; they were unable to walk. They could slide somewhat on the snow, which facilitated things, but this promised to be a difficult journey.
"Do you think we could get more help traveling?" Forrest asked. "I fear we"ll never make it, at this rate."
"I"m checking the snow," Eve said. "But it"s freshly fallen, and doesn"t have much experience of this region."
"And there don"t seem to be any living creatures or plants here," Dawn said.
So they slogged on. They found that they could slide Imbri across the snow, especially if they braced each other so as to get good temporary footholds. So progress improved. But it was still too slow.
At last, as the day faded, worn out with the struggle, they had Jfraya open a door into an isolated cave. It was blessedly warm, and they were able to stand comfortably on the walls, but Dawn and Eve were doubtful.
"There are mites," Dawn said. "Stalag mites."
"And they stop anyone from using this cave," Eve added.
"Too bad," Forrest said. "We need to rest here. We"re protected by our clothing." For all of them were wearing closely fitting jackets and pants that kept them warm despite the weather. They did not remove them right away, preferring to be sure the cave was safe.
Forrest looked at the stone spikes hanging from the cave ceiling, and rising from the floor. "What are these called?"
"Stalact.i.tes and stalagmites," Eve said, touching them. "The first descend from the ceiling, and the second rise from the floor."
"How can we keep that straight?" Jfraya asked. "They sound so much alike."
Suddenly Forrest jumped. "Something bit my leg!" he said, trying to scratch at it through the tight trousers. It was not a problem he had had before, because he normally did not wear clothing on his tuffed lower half Then the twins jumped. "ooo!" Dawn cried. "Something bit my calf."
"And something bit my thigh," Eve said. "It"s the mites. They are crawling up under our tights."
Then all of them were jumping and trying to scratch.
"We have to get them off," Jfraya said, yanking down her own pants.
Forrest turned away from her, as a matter of courtesy, but that turned him toward the twins, who were yanking down theirs. Their bare legs were astonishingly nice, but he tried not to notice. In any event he was busy pulling down his own, so as to be able to get at the biting mites.
In two thirds of a moment all of them were bare-legged and scratching off the mites. Then Ghina managed to fill the cave with her sleep spell, and the remaining mites fell asleep and dropped off. However, the spell also affected the rest of them, though more slowly because they were more ma.s.sive. So they lay down to sleep.
The last thing Forrest remembered was Imbri"s dreamlet. "Now we know how to remember the stone columns," she said. "when the mites go up, the t.i.tes come down." He groaned and tried to forget it.
After some time, he woke, and so did the others. The mites seemed to have given up, or maybe they remained stunned by the sleep spell. But it was time to resume travel. So they pulled their leggings back on, tightened their jackets, and braved the snow above.
It wasn"t as bad as they remembered it. It was worse. The snow had piled up until it was chest high on Forrest, and it was dense and hard.
This promised to be absolutely awful.
"Say," Imbri said in a joint dreamlet. "Why can"t we use the snow the same way as we do the cave walls?"
The others turned to her, not understanding. But then she made a dreamlet picture, showing a path being trampled into the snowsidewise.
So that five of them could walk on it, sidewise, and the sixth, Jfraya, could walk on the other side of it.
Suddenly it made sense. Jfraya and Dawn held each other, their heads going in opposite directions, and used their feet to stomp banks of snow to either side. When they tired, Eve and Forrest tried it, she using her feet to stomp while using her hands to hold him in place so he could use his own hands to beat the snow into shape on the other side.
It worked, to a degree: Imbri was able to walk on the sideways path, her body sc.r.a.ping the snow of the center. But it was too slow. They needed not merely to use the path quickly, but to make it quickly. So they simplified it. Since only Jfraya faced the other way, her path was for her alone, and she hardly needed it once she had made it. So she became a brace instead, stabilizing the others without wearing herself out.
That allowed the others to take turns, with one tramping out the path while the others followed, walking normally.
So their progress improved. Still, they had a long way to go, and the terrain was rough, and their time was limited. They needed to reach the Gray Wizard"s castle by dusk, to be sure of their success. When they encountered steep hills, they were able to tramp their sidewise path more readily. When they came to a frozen lake, they slid rapidly across it. But as the day pa.s.sed, it slowly became clear that they were not going to make it in time.
Worse, Jfraya slipped and injured one foot. Now she had to hop, following the path at the rear, and leaning on Imbri for support.
"So do we plow on through the night, hoping the Wizard has not gotten the word about the other Wizards?" Forrest asked. "Or do we take our time, recover our strength, and hope we can handle him anyway?"
The others exchanged a circular glance. "We plow on," Jfraya said.
Since she was the injured one, that was enough.
They plowed on, and in the night they finally spied the gray light of the Wizard"s castle. It was surrounded by snow-covered trees and looked peaceful. "Maybe he doesn"t know," Eve breathed.
But as they made their way to the castle"s outer wall, pa.s.sing the ring of trees, Eve stiffened. She signaled Dawn, who brushed by the tree Eve had just touched. Then came a joint dreamlet: "Those are ore trees."
Forrest felt a chill not of the landscape. Ore trees were actually huge vicious animals that resembled trees only when in repose. They were the most dangerous of guardians. They might be snoozing now, but if they came alert, they might pounce too suddenly for Ghina to put to sleep. It would be impossible for them to flee these monsters at any speed, because of their sidewise orientation. The party had to hope that the ores were not alert. So far that seemed to be the case.
They fetched up against the castle wall, at last able to stand almost normally. What a relief that was!
Eve touched the stone with a finger. "There is no disturbance within," she announced via dreamlet. "A number of living creatures are on the other side."
Forrest nodded. Jfraya drew a door on the base of the castle wall, and opened it. They entered the dark chamber. It looked as if they were going to win after all. They found an inner wall to stand on, Jfraya still leaning on Imbri.
Suddenly lights came on. They were surrounded by creatures, and none of them looked friendly. It was a trap.
"So you come at last, my pets," a huge dark woman said. "But where is your last member?"
This must be the Wizard-or Wizardess. It hadn"t occurred to Forrest that the Wizard could be female, but of course it was possible. More than possible. It hardly mattered; they had walked into a trap, with the ores outside and the Wizard"s guards inside. All the Wizard had had to do was wait.
"Last member?" Forrest asked blankly.
"It was reported that there were six in your party. Where is the last one hiding?"
"No one is hiding," Forrest said. "We are all here." For Ghina was visible, in her heavy winter clothing.
The huge woman frowned. "So you think to deceive me. We shall see about that. Cerci!"