Man From Mundania (51 page)

the significance of the color on the screen: it signified the

magic ambience of Xanth, after the blah shades of gray of

the Time of No Magic.

"We did, indeed, dally too long," the man replied.

Oddly, he did not look as unhappy about their dalliance

as might have been expected.

"Much too long," the woman agreed, seeming no more

upset about their folly than he.

"But we can still escape!" he said. "The Brain Coral

should be disorganized for a time, and it can't act directly;

it will have to send a message to recapture us, and that

will be hard to do for a few hours!"

The woman gazed out into the Gap Chasm, at whose

lip they had just summoned the stork. "But it will take us

days to cross this, even if we can get past the dragon at

the bottom. We don't dare use a magic bridge or even a

recognized crossing region!"

"True." He considered briefly. "Perhaps we should foul

up the pursuit by doing the completely unexpected: trav-

eling south, instead of north toward the exit from Xanth."

"But then we won't escape Xanth at all! They will use

magic to ferret us out, and we'll be done for!"

"Maybe not. I can exert my talent to foul up the pur-

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suit, and you can exert yours to reshape some blankets

into clothing for us. We might yet be able to sneak out

before they get truly organized."

"But that means we shall have to stay together!" she

said, expressing a good deal more alarm than she seemed

to feel.

"It is a burden we shall just have to endure," he said,

surprisingly undismayed.

"I suppose so. Just so we don't do any of this again,"

she said, putting her arms around him.

"Or any of this," he agreed, kissing her.

"How fortunate that we understand each other so well,"

she said, with a smile that might have had a hint of wry-

ness.

"Well, we certainly made our attitude toward each other

clear enough," he agreed with even less of a hint of irony.

"When you insulted me by calling my talent Sorceress

level, did you really mean it?"

"Of course I meant that insult!" he said indignantly.

"Do you think I would compliment you?"

She was silent, but there were tears in her eyes. It was

evident that of all the insults he had proffered, that was

the one that had scored most effectively. Perhaps it had

been the one that caused her to make the supreme sacrifice

of dragging him right down to the awful business of sum-

moning the stork. Certainly her revenge had been effec-

tive, costly as it must have been to her self-esteem.

They walked south, away from the chasm, their aversion

for each other manifesting in subtle ways, such as when

he mockingly helped her over a fallen tree or when she

just as mockingly gave him the finest of the yellowberry

pies she discovered. At times they waxed eloquent in their

sarcasm, addressing each other as "dear" or "darling,"

and every so often they kissed again, just to make sure the

revulsion was undiminished. A stranger might even have

been fooled into thinking they felt about each other as

Grey and Ivy did, so perfect was their emulation of that

lamented state. It was a truly amazing performance.

Then they encountered an invisible giant. The monster

was stumbling around, evidently still dazed by the recent

236

Man from Mundania

Man from Mundania

237

absence of magic, and there was no telling where his

clumsy foot would fall next. They fled into a nearby cave

for safety.

GREETINGS, INTRUDERS, a screen printed.

The two halted, there in the cave, drawing together for

mutual protection despite their dislike of each other.

"What are you?" the man demanded.

I AM COM-PEWTER. I GOVERN THIS REGION. YOU ARE

NOW IN MY POWER.

"I have news for you," the man said. "I am a—"

He stopped, for the woman had elbowed him. They were

trying to hide their identities!

"I am about to depart this cave with my, um, wife,"

the man said, choking down the implied intimacy for the

sake of concealing their actual feelings for one another.

"I don't believe in your power." The two of them turned

to go, evidently concluding that the staggering giant was

a better risk than this strange device.

DOOR SLAMS CLOSED, PREVENTING EXIT, the SCreeH

printed.

A door appeared across the exit. It slammed open.

WHAT WENT WRONG? the screen demanded, appalled.

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong," the man

murmured, smiling obscurely.

i HEARD THAT! the screen printed. NOW i KNOW YOU!

YOU ARE MAGICIAN MURPHY, FRESHLY ESCAPED FROM THE

STORAGE POOL OF THE BRAIN CORAL! AN EVIL MAN'.

"Magician Murphy!" Ivy exclaimed. "I thought his tal-

ent seemed familiar!"

Murphy, glancing back, saw the print. "Curses! We

shall have to destroy this thing, lest it give us away."

WAIT! I AM AN EVIL MACHINE! WE MUST POOL OUR RE-

SOURCES FOR GREATER EVIL THAN EVER;

"Now that's interesting," the woman said. "Just what

is a machine? I think I should render it into a topologically

harmless configuration, just to be sure."

AND YOU MUST BE VADNE, EVIL BUT BEAUTIFUL SOR-

CERESS, ALSO ESCAPED FROM CONFINEMENT IN THE POOL.

"That's my mother's name!" Grey exclaimed. "Vadne

Murphy! But she's forty years old! She's no beautiful Sor-

ceress!"

Then he stared at Ivy, the revelation dawning.

"Not in Mundania," Ivy said. "Not nineteen years

later. All that time with no magic, getting worn down by

drear existence ..."

On the screen, Vadne pursed her lips. "Beautiful Sor-

ceress? This thing insults me just as you do! Maybe we

should consult further with this device."

I WILL HELP YOU ESCAPE RECAPTURE IF YOU HELP ME

GAIN ULTIMATE POWER OVER XANTH, the screen offered.

"But we must flee Xanth!" Magician Murphy pro-

tested. "We are fugitives! There is no freedom for us here!

We can not help you at all."

Com-Pewter considered, the screen pulsing gently with

the word CONSIDERING blinking in a comer. Then: i HAVE

THE PATIENCE OF THE INANIMATE. I AM PREPARED TO

DEFER MY AMBITION FOR THE SAKE OF A BETTER CHANCE

OF ITS ACHIEVEMENT. I WILL GET YOU OUT OF XANTH NOW

IF YOU WILL GIVE ME YOUR SON.

"What?" Murphy, Vadne, and Grey asked together.

YOU HAVE SUMMONED THE STORK WITH AN ORDER FOR

A SON, the screen printed. YOU MAY NOT RETURN TO

XANTH, BUT YOUR SON MAY. GIVE HIM TO ME IN EX-

CHANGE FOR YOUR ESCAPE. I WILL ACCEPT HIS SERVICE IN

LIEU OF YOURS.

Murphy and Vadne exchanged a glance and a half. "We

would have to stay together, even in Mundania," she said.

"Can we stand that?"

"Are you implying I can't stand as much as you can?"

he demanded. Then, to Pewter: "We are evil folk; how

can you trust us to keep that pledge?"

YOU MAY BE EVIL, BUT YOUR SON WILL BE GOOD. WHEN

HE LEARNS OF YOUR PLEDGE, HE WILL HONOR IT.

The two considered. Then, reluctantly, they made the

deal. The picture faded out.

It was only a moment, but it seemed like a generation

to Grey, as he oriented on what he had learned. His par-

ents—escaped criminals of Xanth! That explained so

238 Man from Mundania

much, but was also so difficult to accept. How could he

deal with this?

"So you were brought by the Xanth stork," Rapunzel

said. ' 'Your magic talent must have been set by your ori-

gin, even though your parents left Xanth and you were

delivered in Mundania."

"They have a, uh, different way of doing it in Mun-

dania," Grey said. "But yes, I was conceived—uh, sig-

naled for—in Xanth, so that does explain my magic. Aad

having a Magician and a Sorceress for parents meant I had

that level of talent too, just as was the case with Ivy. But

if they escaped at the Time of No Magic, that was before

King Dor was, uh, delivered. So how come I'm not his

age?"

"No problem," Grundy said. "There's a time curtain

at the border. We can step from Xanth into any time of

Mundania, and any place of Mundania too, but Mundanes

have more trouble controlling it. Com-Pewter must have

arranged for them to step into the Mundania of more re-

cent vintage."

i ARRANGED THAT, Com-Pewter agreed. THIS is THE

COMPLETION OF MY PLOT. I WAITED TO BRING YOU TO

XANTH UNTIL THERE WAS AN AVAILABLE PRINCESS FOR YOU

TO MARRY. I ADMIT THAT THERE WAS AN ELEMENT OF

CHANCE WHEN I SENT YOUR PARENTS TO THE CURRENT

TIME, BECAUSE THE FIRSTBORN OF THIS GENERATION

MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN FEMALE. WHEN IT WAS, I KNEW IT

WAS TIME TO ACT. MY QUACKS WERE ALIGNED.

"Quacks?" Grey asked. "Oh, you mean ducks."

"So it was you in Mundania!" Ivy exclaimed.

IT WAS MY SENDING. I COULD NOT GO THERE, SO I SENT

MY ESSENCE. THERE WAS THAT KERNEL OF MAGIC ABOUT

GREY, EVEN THERE, SO IT WAS POSSIBLE TO ANIMATE HIS

MACHINE IN HIS PRESENCE. I DID NOT KNOW WHAT HAP-

PENED THERE, ONLY WHAT ITS CAPACITY WAS. IT WAS TO

ORIENT ON HIM AND MANIFEST ONLY WHEN HE WAS BE-