Man From Mundania (61 page)

the catch, and it opened. He had nulled the magic that

sealed it. There was the bit of paper. He took it out and

handed it to Ivy.

She inspected it. "Yes, I can see that this is spelled to

be intelligible only to the person who truly needs to see

the Good Magician," she said.

"I can null that spell too," Grey offered.

"No, you can't read Xanthian," she demurred. "The

magic has to remain. But we truly need to see him, so I

am sure it will respond to us." She concentrated on it.

"Yes, it's coming clear now. He is living somewhere in—

in—" She looked up, dismayed.

"Where?" Grey asked, alarmed.

"In the gourd."

There was a moment of silence. Then the dragon van-

ished and Dolph stood in his place. "I can go there!" he

exclaimed.

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Man from Mundania

283

Ivy gazed at him sourly. "But you're grounded, remem-

ber, until you decide between Nada and Electra. I only

got you sprung today because I promised I'd keep a big

sisterly eye on you all the time."

Sylvia Sylph reappeared, leading a pretty child by the

hand. "I will go into the spring now, only I beg of you,

spare my daughter!"

Ivy's head snapped around. "What?"

"My punishment for what I did," Sylvia said. "But

Sylvanie is innocent; please let her go."

Ivy got her composure together; it had showed signs of

unraveling. "Let me explain, Sylvia: you did not deceive

us. We deceived you. We knew about the prophecy trap:

that you had to approach any travelers with a story about

someone like one of them being in trouble so they would

follow you into the goblins' trap. We have been captive of

these goblins ourselves; we know what they are like. But

we needed this paper, so we used you to lead us in. This

is my brother. Prince Dolph, who assumed the form of

the centaur and then the dragon. You know he wasn't

tempted by any lady centaur!"

"Oh, I dunno," Dolph said. "She sounded sorta nice.

I could have ridden on her back and used her long hair for

reins, or maybe just reached around her torso to hang on

while she galloped."

"Shut up." Ivy knew he was teasing her. She refocused

on Sylvia. "So we bear no grudge against you. We saw

how sorry you were to do it. Now you are free to go; you

are captive no more."

The sylph just stood there. "But what I did—I must be

punished."

Grey interposed. "Do you have anywhere to go, now

that your man is dead?"

The sylph shook her head sadly no.

Ivy melted, as he had known she would. "Then you

and Sylvanie will come with us to Castle Roogna."

"But my child is innocent! I beg of you—"

"To decide your punishment," Grey said. "Your

daughter must be with you, but she will not be punished."

"Maybe you could give her your bed," Grey suggested.

Ivy turned to him. "My bed?"

"Sylvanie is a child. She needs a young Bed Monster.

I thought maybe Grabby—"

"Who otherwise doesn't have long to live!" Ivy agreed.

"Yes, of course—Sylvanie gets my bed!"

The child's eyes went huge. "My very own Bed Mon-

ster?" she piped.

The sylph almost dissolved. "Oh, thank you, thank

you!"

Ivy looked over the wreckage that was the Goblinate of

the Golden Horde. "I think it will be some time before

this outfit causes much more trouble," she said with sat-

isfaction.

Then Dolph became a roc. They climbed on his gigantic

feet, clinging to the talons: Grey and Ivy on one foot,

Sylvia and Sylvanie on the other. The wings spread, and

napped, and they lurched into the air.

In a moment they were over the Gap Chasm. Dolph

waggled his wings in a salute to the real Gap Dragon and

flew on. Very shortly they were gliding down to Castle

Roogna.

Grey and Ivy talked privately to King Dor, and he agreed

that he would punish Sylvia Sylph by requiring her to do

service at Castle Roogna as a maid for an indefinite pe-

riod, during which time her child would be tutored by a

centaur. The two would share a room at the castle, and

the child would get Ivy's old bed. Zora Zombie would

instruct the sylph in her duties.

"Such as waxing the floor!" Ivy said, laughing. "That

will be terrible punishment!"

Grey smiled. Evidently the girls did not like the smell

of the wax, though it reminded him of home. Maybe it

was its Mundanish quality that bothered them.

Then they pondered their approach to Good Magician

Humfrey. He was in the gourd; that explained why nobody

had been able to find him, because the tapestry could not

track him there, and the magic mirror was limited. They

were not able to understand the exact address, for the

284 Man from Mundania

regions of the gourd had little revelance to those of waking

life. The full inscription went like this:

DAMESCROFT

SILLY GOOSE LANE

LITTLE HALINGBERRY

BISHOP'S STORKFORD

HURTS

ANGLE-LAND

Grey shook his head. "I'm not sure I'll ever understand

these Xanth addresses!"

"This isn't a Xanth address," Ivy corrected him. "It's

a gourd address. It makes no sense to me either."

"I can find it! I can find it!" Dolph said eagerly. "The

Night Stallion gave me a free pass to the gourd, remem-

ber; any of its creatures will help me if I ask, and none

will hurt me or anyone I speak for."

"You just want to get out of being grounded!" Ivy ac-

cused him.

"Uh-huh! But you need me! You need me in the

gourd!"

Ivy grimaced. It was true: Dolph had a special advan-

tage in the gourd. If they wanted to locate the Good Ma-

gician at all, let alone within Grey's time limit for

settlement with Com-Pewter, they had to use Ivy's little

brother.

So it was decided: Grey and Ivy and Dolph would make

one more excursion together, this time into the devious

realm of dreams. Rather than risk it physically, they would

enter the normal way: by looking into gourds growing right

here at Castle Roogna. That way friendly folk could keep

an eye on them and bring them back if there seemed to be

a need.

Grey felt more positive than he had in a long time. His

father's curse was working; already it had led to the chance

discovery of the address paper, and their acquisition of it;

anything that could go wrong with Com-Pewter's plot was

now going wrong. If that curse held, they would find the

Man from Mundania
       
285

Good Magician and get their Answer, and that could com-

plete the disruption of the plot.

But much Xanth magic did not operate the same in the

dream realm. Could Murphy's curse extend there'? If not

their mission could after all prove in vain.

Man from Mundania
       
287

Chapter 15 • Gourd

•hey set up piles of pillows in the garden, each

before a gourd on a vine. Dolph lay down on the center

setting, with Ivy to his left and Grey to his right. They

linked hands.

Nada turned Dolph's gourd so that the peephole came

to face him. He had to go first to set the scene; it was

individual to each person and remained at the point that

person had last been, until he returned and changed it.

Dolph had a standard setting that he had encountered at

the time he rescued Electra. They would join him there,

if they were in physical contact with him as they entered.

Dolph's eye met the peephole. He froze in place, intent

on what he saw there. He would not move until some

outsider broke the contact by moving the gourd or putting

a hand between the peephole and his eye.

Grey went next. Ivy knew he could null the magic of

the gourd if he chose, and probably he could void it at any

time while he was inside the dream realm. Indeed, he

could have done so during their prior adventure, had they

but known it. Maybe the Night Stallion had guessed at

something of the kind, because he had sheered away from

a confrontation with Grey. Ivy had wondered about that at

the time, but had forgotten the matter in the press of sub-

sequent events; now it made more sense to her. But Grey

286

was not using his talent now; he wanted to find the Good

Magician as much as she did. He froze in place.

Ivy went last. Her mother turned the gourd for her, and

she too froze as her eye locked on the peephole. But she

did not see this; her awareness was now within the realm

of the gourd.

It was a huge building: a palace or castle, with tiled

walls and thick supporting columns. Strange folk hurried

in every direction, each one intent on his or her own busi-

ness, glancing neither to left or right, pausing for nothing.

She was holding her brother's hand, as she had been

before entering the gourd. She let go; once the scene had

been set, they were all right. Grey was standing on the

other side.

"What is this amazing place?" she inquired.

"An airport," Grey said.

"A Mundane bad dream," Dolph said.