Geis of the Gargoyle (39 page)

"Nevertheless, we intend to find it," Gary said.
 
Not only was this his determination, he now knew that it could be dangerous to suggest that they might be leaving at all soon.
 
It was better to make it clear that they would be here for some time, so that the thing behind the illusions did not decide to eat them immediately.
 
"If you illusions do not care to help us, we shall proceed without you."

"We shall be glad to help you try," Desi said.
 
"But you are doomed to failure anyway, because we don't know where it is either.
 
Nobody knows where it is, or if it still exists."

"It exists," Gary said.

Desi turned a disconcertingly intense gaze on him.
 
"What makes you so sure?"

"Because the Good Magician Humfrey told me to get the philter, and he wouldn't have done that if it wasn't possible to get."

"Who is this Good Magician?"

"You don't know that? I thought everybody knew that."

"Not anyone who is an illusion confined to the Region of Madness."

Gary grew canny.
 
"But you know of Hannah Barbarian, who is outside the madness, and of Desiree Dryad, who has spent most of her life outside it."

"We drew these images from your mind."

"You said you drew them from their minds, because they were thinking of us."

"We lied.
 
We can't go beyond the madness, or be aware of anything beyond it, except through the minds of those who enter our region."

"How can an illusion lie?" Hiatus asked.

"We can do anything we find in your minds.
 
The Sorceress Ins knows much of Xanth, and is apt at deception."

"You can read our minds?" Gary asked.
 
"I don't believe it."

"Why don't you?" Desi asked.

"Because if you could, you would know my secret."

"We do know your secret."

"What secret is that?"

"That you are actually a gargoyle transformed into the shape of a man."

Gary saw that the others were as taken aback as he was, "You knew this from the first? Why didn't you say something?"

"What does it matter? It is easier to deceive someone who is practicing deception."

Iris pursed her lips.
 
"She's right, you know.
 
You were concentrating on not letting Hanna know your true nature, while she was concentrating on seducing you."

"But she should have known I wasn't interested!" he protested.

"But she also knew that you lacked experience with the human form," Desi said.
 
"And soon enough she turned that ignorance to her advantage.
 
Had your friends not interfered, she would have had your soul by now."

She was right.
 
Gary was chagrined.
 
The illusions had been outsmarting them all along.

"So why have you illusions been so helpful?" Hiatus asked.
 
"Why didn't you just try to seduce us at the outset?" He glanced across to Surprise, concerned about the devious subject, but the child, bored, had fallen asleep in Iris' embrace.

"We did try," Desi said.
 
"But you were too intent on your mission, and too busy trying to figure out what was what.
 
So we had to put you somewhat at ease, and wait for our opportunities.
 
We almost succeeded."

Right again.
 
"But you won't succeed now," Gary said.

"Because we know what you want, and we won't give you any of our souls.
 
So you might as well go away."

"No, you are interesting folk, the first we have seen in Hinge for some time.
 
We shall continue to associate with you."

"Suppose we don't want you to?" Hiatus asked.

"We're illusions.
 
You can't stop us."

"There is something wrong about this," Iris said.
 
"You illusions had reason to associate with us before, but now you don't.
 
You know you won't get our souls.
 
You don't care whether we're interesting or boring.
 
So you must have continuing reason to be near us.
 
What is that reason?"

Desi shrugged.
 
"I have no answer."

"Obviously whatever is Grafting these illusions is interested in us," Gary said.
 
"So it wants to use them to spy on us.
 
What I don't understand is why it is interested."

"Perhaps we can work it out," Iris said.
 
"Obviously it has been around a long time, because it knows how Hinge was when it was inhabited.
 
It knows about the Interface.
 
What could remain here three thousand years, unaffected by the madness, and still care what a small party of human folk is doing here?"

"I can think of one thing," Hiatus said.

"No," Desi said.

"You read it in my mind," Hiatus said.
 
"And you don't want me to say it.
 
So it must be right."

"What is it?" Iris asked, looking slightly nettled.

"The thing that is making these illusions must be the philter itself."

"The philter!" Iris and Gary said together, amazed.

"No!" Desi cried, and faded out.

"The philter," Hiatus said grimly.
 
"That managed to avoid being incorporated in the Interface, and now wants to avoid being found.
 
Because if we find it, we can recompile the Interface with the philter included, and free the gargoyles and confine the madness."

"But the philter is just a thing," Gary protested.

"No," Mentia said.
 
"He's right.
 
I see it now.
 
The philter is a demon."

"A demon!" Gary was amazed again.
 
"But-"

"Which explains something that bothered me," the demoness continued.
 
"The ability of the illusions to become partly solid.
 
They said it was because of the intensity of the magic, but they were also doing it here in the palace, where the level of magic is ordinary.
 
Illusions can't turn solid, but demons can." She made a huge fist and banged it against the wall, solidly.

"A demon," Iris repeated.
 
"That does make sense.
 
We have been dealing not with two animate illusions, but with a single demon who animates first one and then the other." She pondered a moment.
 
"But there are illusions too; the ogres unhinging the buildings, and the quality of the food served, and the decorations of this palace-I have not been Grafting these appearances." She glanced at Mentia.
 
"Can you do such illusions?"

"Doubtful," Mentia said.
 
"I would have to spread my substance thin." She concentrated, and thinned, and a shape appeared across the room.
 
It formed into an-ogre.
 
But it was translucent.
 
"This is me," the ogre said.
 
"Connected to the rest of me by an invisibly thin thread of my essence.
 
As you see, it's not a really good show." Then the ogre solidified as the female figure faded out.
 
"Unless I get myself all together." The ogre shifted back to female form.

"Then how could one demon handle the rather extensive distant illusions of the ogres in the city?" Iris asked.

"Maybe a screen," Hiatus suggested.
 
"Can you make a screen with images on it, Mentia?"

"Like this?" A wisp of the demoness' substance curled out, spread out, and formed into a vertical screen.
 
On it pictures formed, of buildings and ogres moving among them.

"Yes!" Gary agreed.
 
"That looks just like the scene we saw outside."

"But my powers in this respect are limited," Mentia said.
 
"It divides my attention.
 
And what about the food and beds and pillows here? I can emulate one bed at a time, but I can't change the taste of a whole banquet."

"I think," Iris said soberly, "that the demonly arts may account for some of the effects we have seen.
 
But there must be some substantial illusion along with it, and it must be an extremely powerful demon."

"A demon like none we know," Mentia agreed.
 
"Except-"

"The Demon X(AIN)111," Iris breathed.
 
"And he wouldn't bother.
 
He leaves the creatures of Xanth alone."

"And he's a whole lot stronger than this demon of madness," Mentia said.
 
"No, this is not X(AIN)111.
 
This is some considerably lesser demon.
 
But a greater demon than any ordinary one, with a remarkable combination of powers."

"Because of the madness," Gary said.
 
"It has spent thousands of years in the madness, gaining power.
 
So it has learned illusion, or maybe has the power to make a screen surrounding us with fake illusion.
 
And to pad stones to seem like beds.
 
And to run one imitation person at a time, and make her seem a bit solid at times."

"And to read our minds," Iris said.

"Though that is probably the limit of its strength," Mentia said.
 
"Most of its power is in illusion, and it can't match even me in physical manifestation.
 
So it does a lot of illusion, guided by what it reads in our minds, and buttresses it by just a bit of substance."

"But why does it want our souls?" Hiatus asked.
 
"When we thought we were dealing with mere illusions, their wish for souls to make them become real was understandable.
 
But demons don't want souls."

"I am no longer so sure of that," Mentia said.
 
"When my better half got a soul, she really annoyed me.
 
But here with you folk, and when we are in the ambience of stronger magic and madness, I have been coming to appreciate the virtues of souls.
 
Almost to envy you your qualities of love and conscience.
 
If I had a soul I would become like you in such respects.
 
And if the philter had a soul-"

"It might be able to become enough like a person to be freed of confinement to the Region of Madness," Iris said.
 
"A soul would give it the independence it must crave.
 
Maybe it doesn't realize the significance of conscience; it thinks that its power would be vastly magnified."

"Aren't we conjecturing too much?" Gary asked.
 
"Why should there be a demon in the Interface?"

"The Interface is an extremely sophisticated spell," Mentia said.
 
"To operate properly, it has to assess all things that pass through it, and treat them as they deserve.
 
Living things, too, even people.
 
Only a demon could do that reliably.
 
A demon who could read minds enough to know what folk want without their telling it, and use illusion to see and shape aspects of the Interface and to define and confine the Region of Madness.
 
There must be many specially talented demons bound to it.
 
But one got away."

"But we didn't summon any demons when we compiled it."