Geis of the Gargoyle (26 page)

"Let's save that until we actually spy the philter," she said.
 
"Our first priority is to get the most complete replica of the city that we can, so that we don't miss anything."

She was right.
 
So he worked to complete the description of this region as seen by this stone.
 
Then the two of them went down to the ground and through the illusion, following a green stripe.
 
Sure enough, the buildings were hollow-but it was comparatively easy to fill them in from the spot viewpoints of other stones.
 
It was not necessary to climb them; for this limited purpose the ground views sufficed.
 
It was merely necessary to find projections on the stones that had not been covered by paneling or paint.
 
The views were limited, but adequate.

They worked in their separate fashions all day: Gary reading one stone after another.
 
Iris building the most phenomenal structure of illusion of her oldIyoung life.
 
Hiatus and Surprise eagerly searching every street and building that was sufficiently defined, and Mentia coordinating and guiding all of them.
 
But by the end of the day they knew two things: they had not gotten even a glimmer of the philter, and they were ravenous.

"There aren't any people," Hiatus complained.
 
"We can't see what they're doing, only what they've done."

Gary explained about the need for people to stay in the vicinity of the stone for long enough to make an impression.
 
"Rock pictures usually aren't very good for animate creatures.
 
I might evoke some if I concentrated on exceedingly fine definition, but that would take time and probably wouldn't be as good as the larger view is."

"Let's not bother with that for now," Mentia said.

"When we find a really promising area, then we can do the fine focus.
 
There's no point in wasting the effort randomly."

"I hate to shut down this magnificent restoration after we have made it," Gary said.
 
"But we must rest and sleep."

"I can maintain it," Iris said.

"What, even while you sleep?" he asked, amazed.

"I told you I was good at illusion.
 
Once I have crafted it, I can maintain it with minimal effort."

He shook his human head.
 
"I think I never understood before the power of a Sorceress.
 
I never imagined such a thing."

"Thank you."

"What are you mortals going to eat tonight?" Mentia asked.
 
"We have already foraged for most of the berries and things that grew in this wasteland."

"Eat!" Surprise said, crossing her eyes.
 
Suddenly a barrel of fish livers appeared.
 
It smelled awful.
 
The little girl stared at it, appalled.
 
"But I tried to conjure a huge chocolate layer cake!" she said.
 
"Not codfish! I hate cod liver oil!"

"Your magic got twisted again," Mentia said.

"I'll get rid of it!"

"No!" Mentia said.
 
"Keep it.
 
It is good food for you, and the next thing you conjure might be worse."

"Yuck!" Surprise cried in true child fashion.

The demoness turned to Iris.
 
"Can you spare some illusion for this without losing the city?"

"Some," Iris agreed cautiously.

"Can you make these fish livers look, feel, and taste like chocolate layercake?"

"Yes, I can do that much." Iris glanced at the barrel, and it became a giant cake overflowing with chocolate icing.
 
It looked and smelled as good as the fish livers were awful.

"Wow!" Surprise cried, delighted.
 
"Your magic is pretty good."

"Thank you, dear," Iris said wryly.

Iris made an illusion pavilion for them all, under the shelter of stones that were hinged in an A formation.
 
They gathered dry grass and leaves for beds, and these seemed to become downy mattresses.
 
They slept in comfort, each in his or her own chamber.

At least Gary assumed that the others did.
 
He found himself beset by a growing apprehension, not of something wrong or threatening, just confusing.
 
His dreams got downright weird.
 
He remembered the constellations that had become animated, and feared that they were doing it again.
 
Fortunately the Sorceress' illusion dome shielded him from a view of the night sky, and prevented the constellation merman from seeing him.
 
But the weirdness seeped in anyway.

In the morning they held another conference, and concluded that it was after all time to search out the finer detail.
 
"What we really need are to talk to the people of this ancient hinge city," Mentia said.

"I dreamed I did," Hiatus said.
 
"I asked a man what the city was called, and he said Hinge.
 
He said that when they

shut it down, they called it Un-Hinge.
 
And that strangers called it Stone Hinge."

"I dreamed too," Iris said.
 
"But all I saw were odd crossbreed species, like merchickens and micephants.
 
I asked one about that, and it said it was because they couldn't avoid the love spring."

"I dreamed I was stultifyingly normal," Surprise said, scowling cutely.

"Fortunately demons don't dream," Mentia said.
 
"But that animated constellation gives me the creeps."
 
That made Gary feel less secure.
 
"I think something is affecting us all," he said.

"Well of course it is," Mentia said.
 
"It's the extra wash of madness that flowed through in the night.
 
It's getting to us."

So they found what seemed to be a significant spot in the city, where ancient metal tracks had crossed by a special stone building, and Gary and Iris concentrated on evoking whatever had been there.
 
They were eager to get this job done before the madness infiltrated their bodies too deeply and affected more than their dreams.

But what Gary found was not a picture of a person or people.
 
It was some sort of huge wagon or vehicle, linked to another like it.
 
In fact there seemed to be a chain of them, each as big and blocky as the next.
 
What could this be?

"A train of thought!" Surprise exclaimed, clapping her hands.
 
"I want to ride on it."

"That is not the kind of train you can ride on," Mentia cautioned the child.
 
But then, as the train took shape, she reconsidered.
 
"However, here in the madness, maybe it is possible."

"It's an illusion train," Iris reminded them.
 
"An image from the past.
 
All we can do is look at it."

Nevertheless, as Gary explored its finer detail and Iris improved the picture, it seemed like a very real vehicle.
 
There was an engine steaming in the distance at one end, seeming as hot as the Gap dragon, and a caboose at the other end, with a red light.
 
In the middle was a chain of wheeled cars with lines of windows.

"This is just like the stories some travelers have told of Mundane trains," Iris said.
 
"Trent mentioned seeing one, during his exile.
 
Do you suppose that when such trains died, they went to the Region of Madness?"

"It seems possible," Mentia agreed.
 
"The City of Hinge is a strange place, and so deserves strange vehicles.
 
Perhaps such a train transported the philter somewhere."

"The philter!" Gary said.
 
"Do you really think so?"

"More likely the train carried people to wherever the philter was," Hiatus said.
 
"Or wherever else they wanted to go.
 
I think some zombie animals would have been better for such transport, but they evidently had odd tastes."

Iris' mouth quirked.
 
"Clearly so," she agreed.
 
"Perhaps we can follow this train as it travels, and see if it passes the philter."

"I think I'll ride it," Mentia said.
 
She floated up and toward the entrance steps at the end of the nearest car.

"Me too!" Surprise said, clapping her hands.
 
She ran to the steps and scrambled up them.

"You can't do that!" Iris cried, dashing after the child.

"Nyaa, nyaa, you can't catch me!" Surprise called, running inside the car.

"We shall see about that!" Iris retorted grimly.
 
She charged up the steps after the child.

Hiatus exchanged a heavy glance with Gary.
 
"Of course we know this isn't possible," he said.

"But we had better see that those three females don't get into trouble," Gary agreed.

The two of them followed the others up the steps and into the long car.
 
"This is sheer madness," Hiatus said.

"This is the place for it," Gary agreed.

Iris and Surprise were in the main compartment of the car.
 
The child was running up and down the long central aisle, while Iris was sitting in one of the comfortable redining chairs.
 
She glanced back and saw them.
 
"Sit down, men," she suggested.
 
"If I can walk into one of my own illusions, why not you too?"

They joined her.
 
"You know this is crazy," Gary said.

Mentia appeared.
 
"This is a feature of joint imagination," she said.
 
"I think the madness has lent substance to the Sorceress' illusion.
 
Thus what we are experiencing is a partial truth."

There was a jerk that shook them all.
 
"The train is moving!" Hiatus cried.
 
"We must get off it!"

Iris shrugged.
 
"Why? Since it's all imagination, why not go along for the ride?"

Hiatus looked surprised.
 
"I suppose we can." He peered out the window.
 
"The city is going by outside."

"This will make it easier to search the city," Iris said.
 
"We might as well enjoy it."

They looked out the windows as the train of thought gathered speed.
 
The buildings seemed to be moving back while the train was still, but Gary knew that was just another effect of illusion.
 
Since, as Iris pointed out, it was all just imagination, it hardly mattered.
 
But where did they think they were going?

Gary pondered this, as he watched the buildings thin out, to be replaced by trees and fields, with an occasional small lake.
 
His quest was to find the philter.
 
Would this train of thought take him there-if he thought it should? Once he had the philter, he wouldn't care how it had been achieved.
 
So he concentrated on that: philter, philter, philter.

The train slowed.
 
"We are arriving somewhere," Iris remarked.

Was this where the philter was? Gary kept up his thought, doing his best to train the train to respond.

The train squealed to a halt.
 
"I believe we have arrived," Mentia said.
 
"I am not at all sure we shall be comfortable with where we are.
 
There is entirely too much madness here to suit me."