The monster"s head struck. She heard its teeth clash right behind her. Then they were across, and she felt herself failing, but couldn"t stop.
Edsel caught her and held her up. "We made it," he said. "I don"t think the monster really tried. It knew we had solved the pun."
She just hung in his arms and panted There were times when it was nice to have his physical support. As her bleary gaze wandered across the moat, she saw the monster sink under the water. Its job was done.
Justin, Breanna, and Para crossed the bridge, unmenaced. They were not a true part of the challenge.
Pia caught her breath and her balance, and turned to look at the castle from up close. The detail differed from what she had thought, or maybe it had changed. The stone wall was now rounded, probably circling the castle, and had arched doorways every few feet. This seemed remarkably porous for a defensive rampart.
She looked at the moat. There were docks extending into it all along, as if ready for many boats at once. Some were tall, standing well above the waterline; others were barely above the water. "Why the difference in height?" Pia asked.
Edsel shrugged. "Must be high piers and low piers, for tall and short ships."
"Ships? Here? It"s a moat," she reminded him witheringly.
He nodded. "In any event, we are past the moat, so I don"t think it"s a challenge."
"Maybe the third Challenge is farther in," Edsel said.
"We may be certain that it will manifest in its own manner." Justin said. "I think that Breanna and I had better wait here while you explore."
Pia walked to the nearest archway. As she reached it, a centaur appeared, with a man on his back. The centaur had a bow, and the man had a spear. "You shall not pa.s.s." both said together.
Pia retreated. "I think it just manifested," she said.
"For sure." Breanna agreed.
"Let me try," Edsel said. He walked to the next portal beyond.
There was the centaur, without the man. "I regret to say that you are not permitted to pa.s.s," he said politely.
Pia walked past that one and tried the third aperture. The man appeared. "Forget it." he said gruffly.
"Who are you?" she asked, striking a winsome pose.
"I am Christopher Christopher. And you are?"
"I am Pia Putz." She smiled, and saw him soften. "Are you sure we can"t pa.s.s?"
"Very sure," Christopher said regretfully.
"Not even for a kiss?"
The man looked truly reluctant. "Not even for that."
She walked on to the next portal. There was the centaur again. Or was it really the same one? "Who are you?"
"Cy Clone." the centaur growled. "Now get out of here before I throw you into the moat."
She retreated. The centaur looked the same, but didn"t sound the same as the one who had braced Edsel.
She rejoined Edsel. "There seems to be a man or centaur blocking each pa.s.sage. They look the same, but I"m not sure they are."
"Right. They don"t talk the same. Maybe they"re twins or triplets."
"They don"t attack, they just warn us away." she said. "Maybe we should check the other arches."
"You go one way. I"ll go the other, and we"ll meet on the other side."
She nodded, and set off.
Every portal was blocked. There were two centaurs and several similar men. The centaurs were shy and bold, respectively, or peaceful and violent. Evidently they trotted to whichever portal she was headed for.
Maybe there was just one man, but he was everywhere, either by himself or with a centaur.
She met Edsel on the lar side "All blocked," she said. "More men than centaurs."
"Christopher throughout," he said. "Cy Centaur and Cy Clone, the mean one."
"The same ones I saw," she said. "I suppose the centaurs could alternate sides, but how could the man get around so swiftly? He never looked out of breath."
Edsel was thoughtful. "So is it one man, or several with the same name?"
"And two centaurs, or more than two?"
"I think this is our riddle. Do you think there"s a pun we"re not getting?"
"From what Justin told me, the Challenges don"t have to be puns," she said. "But if it"s not a pun, then what?"
"There must be something about these people we need to understand."
"Like how many of them there are, really."
"Maybe we can narrow it down," he said. "Let"s go until we find two of them together. Then-"
"Got it," she agreed.
They circled together, back the way she had come. When they came to a man/centaur combination, Pia stayed to talk with them, putting on her winsome air and holding their attention. She had always been good at this sort of thing, and with her lovely sixteen year old face and figure, she was better, because she knew exactly how to use these a.s.sets. She had never tried fascinating a centaur before, but they had enough human attributes to be subject to some wiles. She smiled, she moved her hips, she gushed over their masculine appeal, she lifted a leg to adjust her shoe, and leaned well forward, showing just enough thigh and breast to guarantee continued attention. It was a science that worked well enough in the land of magic.
Meanwhile Edsel faded away. She gave him as much time as she could, keeping the two males anch.o.r.ed in place.
Then Edsel returned. She bid the males farewell with a last smile and Jiggle, and stepped back. They departed the archway and were no more.
She turned to Edsel. "What"s the story?"
"There"s another set four arches down. Christopher and Clone."
"The mean centaur," she agreed. "I had the shy one. I almost made him blush, once."
"So there are two different centaurs, and two of the same men."
"We have established a minimum," she said. "Could there be more""
"I think there could be. But how can they be the same?"
Something was nagging at the edge of her mind. Suddenly it connected. "Clone!"
"Clones!" he repealed, catching on. "One centaur, one man, but they can send clones out to intercept any doorway. They might be illusions, looking and sounding just like the originals."
"But they certainly seemed solid." Pia said. "We could walk right through illusions, but I wouldn"t want to try it with solid folk."
"For sure," he agreed with a third of a smile. "I"ll bet the clones cover every portal instantly, then the solid originals come to replace them as we talk. That way. just two can block a hundred entrances."
"So when we see both together, and talk with them, they become the originals?" she asked.
"I think so."
"Then how were we able to talk to both, in two different places, simultaneously?"
He looked at her. "Sometimes I think you"re not a complete idiot." That was his way of saying that she had caught him in an error.
"And sometimes I think you"re not completely ugly," she said, returning t.i.t for tat. "But how do we rise to the challenge?"
"There has to be a way." he said "I think that if we could fix the two originals in one place, we could walk right through the two clones elsewhere. Because they can"t really he in two places at one time. Only the illusion clones can zip instantly to new doors."
"Except that we both talked to them both," she reminded him. "Or can an illusion clone talk?"
"Without a solid mouth or lungs." I doubt it, though with magic anything"s possible. Maybe one of each pair was the original, and the other was a clone."
"I wonder," she said, getting into the problem. She was exercising her intellect, and Edsel wasn"t disparaging it. She liked that. She had never been known or valued for her mind, limited as it was. "You know those old cartoons, where only the person who is speaking or doing something is animated, and the others are just still pictures? Could they be like that? So we can tell who"s the clone?"
"Pia. I"d kiss you, except that you wouldn"t like it by daylight."
He meant when she wasn"t honoring their deal, giving him everything at night in return for his complete support by day. Part of what turned her off was his clear superiority of brain. But now they were thinking together "I"d like it now." she said.
He was wary "What"s different now?"
"You"re treating me like an equal."
He laughed-then quickly sobered, realizing that it wasn"t a joke. "Have I been a fool all this time?"
"t.i.t for tat. You wanted the one without giving the other."
"For sure." he agreed, without any trace of a smile.
She waited, and after a moment he embraced her and kissed her. He didn"t try to grab a feel. She gave back, making him melt.
He released her. "Oh, Pia-"
She liked him a lot better this way. Her emotion was stirring, after being in remission for some time. She had always known that her body was her main appeal, but she didn"t like being considered only a body. However, this was not the time to get into this. "We have a challenge to surmount."
"More than one," he said. He reoriented. "One original, one clone, for each door. Which one were you talking to?"
She focused on the memory of her recent dialogue. Now she realized something she hadn"t noticed at the time. "The man, Christopher. He reacted, he talked. The centaur just stood there. I thought he was reacting, but now I realize he was just there."
"You adjusted your shoe?" He was of course well familiar with the move, and loved it. Sometimes she thought he would rather sneak a peek under her skirt than see her all the way naked.
"Yes. I think my panty showed at one point, but they didn"t freak out."
"They must be immune, for the purpose of this challenge. The Good Magician must have had lovely girls try that dodge before, to get past male defenders."
"But I did hold their attention. The man"s attention, anyway; Cy Clone just kept looking as before. I thought because he didn"t look away, that I was fascinating him, but he was really a cartoon still figure "
"I talked to Cy Centaur. He"s smart, and interested in mundane technology. The man was there, but I don"t think he ever spoke. So I think he was the clone image We each talked to one real person "
"And we could have walked through the clone." she agreed "Except that the real one would have stopped us " But something bothered her. "We figure chances are that the first one we see in a doorway is a clone, and that as we talk, the original comes to take his place""
"That"s my theory. The clones can go instantly, spotting us. Then the real ones come to stop us. Probably, pretty soon, so we couldn"t just walk through the clones."
"But they are responsive from the start Doesn"t that mean that the clones can be animated?"
Edsel paused "May I kiss you again?"
"Kisses for s.e.x appeal I can handle. Kisses for respect I like."
"Then you"ll like this one." He kissed her again, and there was indeed a special kind of pa.s.sion in it.
Then he worked it out "It must be that they can locus on the clones, seeing what the clones see, and making them move and talk. But I"ll bet they can do a meaningful dialogue only through one clone at a time. They must do it while they are closing in on that one, to lake its place "
"And we don"t dare gamble that we"re talking with clones." Pia said. "Lest we get smashed."
"I suspect they wouldn"t smash us, but we"d fail the challenge, and never get in to see the Good Magician. So we don"t want to gamble. Now if we could just attract the originals, then hold them in place while we went through a different door "
"The moment we moved over, so would they." she said. "But I wonder-could they be anch.o.r.ed through their clones?"
"Anch.o.r.ed?"
"Pretend you"re one of them." she said. "When I say "go." You turn around, walk in a circle, or something."
"That"s no problem. But I don"t see-"
"Go." She drew up her blouse, showing her bra.
Edsel stared, as he always did. After a moment, he started to turn.
She leaned forward. He froze. After another moment he tried to turn again.
She lifted a leg. He froze again. When he started to recover, she lifted her leg farther His eyeb.a.l.l.s began to glaze.