Isle of View

by Piers Anthony

  "Hello!" Gloha called. "We would like to talk."

  "Go fly through a fire, birdbrain!" a goblin called from the depths.

  Electra became annoyed. "Listen, dope, we came to parlay. You know the winged monsters will destroy the whole mountain if this goes on. Get someone up here to talk."

  "Like who, freckle-brain?"

  Electra stiffened. She did have freckles. So did the elf girl; that was one of the things Electra liked about her. As far as she knew, there was nothing wrong with this. But the goblin made it sound as if it were a crime.

  It was Gloha's turn to be annoyed. "Like Godiva, dimwit!"

  "I'm not Dimwit, I'm Scrounge," the goblin replied.

  "Then tell Godiva, Scrounge," Gloha called.

  "Tell her yourself!"

  "Is she coming here?"

  "Naw! Har, har, har!"

  Gloha looked at Electra. "They are my own kind, but sometimes they get so annoying," she said.

  "Maybe we should go look for Godiva," Electra suggested, though the idea of going unguarded into the mountain frightened her.

  "Maybe so," Gloha agreed. "I know my way around here pretty well, though they're always making new tunnels. I know where she lives."

  "Let's do it!" Electra said, before she could freak herself out of it. She knew that if they did not succeed in negotiating, the attack would resume and there might be no turning back.

  "All right. I'll tell Cheiron." Gloha spread her wings and flew quickly back. She flew like a bird, not like a bug; she moved quickly, because otherwise she would have fallen to the ground.

  In a moment she was back. "He says it's better to take the chance if we're ready for it, knowing the risk."

  Electra wished he hadn't phrased it quite that way, but she kept her doubt to herself. "Then let's go find Godiva!"

  They entered the tunnel. There was a light in its dim reaches, which turned out to be one of the smoky torches the goblins used for light. Electra lifted it out of its socket, so that they could have light where they went. The smoke did its best to choke them, but soon gave it up as a bad job and wrestled its way along the tunnel ceiling, looking for someone else to suffocate.

  "Hey, whatcha doing in here?" a goblin demanded, giving Gloha a good look and Electra a cursory one.

  "We're going to tell Godiva ourselves, Scrounge," Electra said bravely, "just as you suggested."

  Goblins weren't capable of looking disgruntled, but this one made the effort. "Well, see that you do," he mumbled, stepping back.

  They went on, following the tunnel as it wound around and down. "We'll have to change passages at the base," Gloha said. "But any of these will take us to the base."

  Electra was glad Gloha knew where she was going! Electra by herself would have been lost after the first turn.

  "What are you up to?"

  Electra turned, startled. There was the demoness Metria, surely looking for more interesting mischief. It was probably best to answer her question and hope she lost interest. "We're trying to negotiate to get Che and Jenny free. You know how the goblins got them."

  "Yes, it would have been dull if you had won that game! No captivity, no siege of the mountain."

  "It's still pretty dull," Electra said.

  "Oh, I don't think so. You don't have a chance of getting the foal back. So Cheiron will just have to demolish the mountain. That's interesting."

  "Well, we'll see," Electra said shortly.

  "Meanwhile, what about your own situation?" the demoness asked.

  Electra didn't want to answer but still hoped that if she played along the demoness would go away. "What about it? Dolph will choose, and that will be that."

  "But everyone knows he will choose Nada Naga. What happens to you then?"

  "I die," Electra said.

  "You do?" Gloha asked, dismayed. Evidently she had not been aware of that aspect.

  "I have to marry the prince who woke me from my discounted thousand year sleep, or die," Electra said. "I knew that when I got into it. Since he won't marry me, that's it."

  "I'm so sorry!" Gloha said. "I thought I was not well off, with no male of my crossbreed, but your case is worse!"

  Electra really did not want to talk about it, but didn't want to let the demoness know that. "Maybe so."

  "How will you feel, when you see him marry the naga princess?" Metria asked persistently.

  "Glad for her. She's my friend and a wonderful person."

  "But she doesn't love him. Don't you mortals put great store by love?"

  "Yes. But she can take a love potion."

  "How will you die?" "Must we have this conversation?" Gloha demanded, distraught.

  Electra appreciated her support, but knew it would only make the demoness worse. "I don't know," she said, answering both of them. Actually she did know how she would die, but did not like to talk about it.

  "I can show you wonderful ways to die," Metria said. "Suffocation, stroke, rupture of—"

  "I suspect I shall just expire in a maidenly manner," Electra said. "It will be most dull."

  "No, wait, I remember!" the demoness exclaimed. "There was a story—when you went to Mundania, didn't you age rapidly? So probably that's how it will be. You will get older all of a sudden, and become mature, and then a hag, and then a bag of bones, all in a few minutes."

  Electra gritted her teeth, fearing that it would be exactly like that. She was actually around nine hundred years old; only the magic of the enchantment kept her as young as she should be. Once that enchantment was broken, she would revert to her proper age, which was about eight hundred and fifty years dead. But she refused to give the demoness the satisfaction of seeing her faint with horror, no matter what. "You may be right," she said.

  "We've go! to get Dolph to marry you!" Gloha said.

  "No!" Electra protested. "It has to be his choice."

  "I could surround you and give you Nada's aspect," Metria said. "You could marry him, and he wouldn't know the difference until it was too late."

  "No!" Electra was trying not to cry, knowing that the demoness would like that.

  "You would rather die, and see him marry the one who doesn't love him and isn't right for him, rather than do what is necessary?" Metria inquired, interested.

  Electra really didn't have much of an answer for that, but she did the best she could. "I just want him to be happy."

  "How happy will he be, with the wrong woman, even if she takes a love potion?"

  "Nada's not wrong! She's a princess! She was betrothed to him before I was!" Despite her best intention, she was arguing the case and playing into the demoness' trap.

  "If you marry him, and he becomes king, you will be queen," Metria said. "Won't that be right for him?"

  "Only if he chooses it!" she protested, not really absorbing the demonic logic.

  "But he's a boy!" the demoness said derisively. "What does he know about choosing well? He can't see farther than the naga-wo-man's bosom."

  "That's not true!" Electra cried. "He can see to her—" But she realized that she was only getting deeper into trouble.

  "Her panties," Metria finished triumphantly. "He sets great store by those, doesn't he."

  "Well, all men do." But it seemed awfully lame.

  "And after he's finally seen them, what will remain of that marriage for him? Life with an older woman who's a real reptile?"

  "That isn't fair!"

  "And by the time he realizes his mistake and comes to appreciate you," the demoness continued inexorably, "you will be dead. You could hardly have a neater revenge than that."

  "Get out of here, you—" But Electra, being still most of a week under the magic age of consent, did not know the word. "You intemperate complaint!"

  "What?"

  Electra blinked. The demoness had faded away, and she stood before Godiva. She was appalled.

  Gloha stepped in. "The demoness was here, teasing her cruelly," she said. "She didn't mean you, Cousin Godiva."

  Godiva frowne
d. "The demoness. It figures. But what are the two of you doing down here? Don't you know that the mountain is under siege?"

  "We're here to bargain," Gloha said. "We want the violence to stop."

  "Come in," Godiva said, showing the way into her suite. "Gouty is indisposed, so I am handling things for now."

  Inside was a very nice apartment, with tapestries and cushions and daylight from a shaft leading up. There was some rubble and dust in the bottom of the shaft that seemed to be of recent origin, but the goblin woman ignored it.

  They sat on cushions. "I have asked Che Centaur to be a companion for my daughter, Gwendolyn," Godiva said. "He is considering his response. Until he makes it, we can not end the siege, unless the winged monsters withdraw."

  "But Cheiron will destroy the whole mountain!" Electra protested. "He will not let his son be captive!"

  "That is a risk we must take," the woman said evenly. "But I think it will not come to that."

  "But I tell you, Cheiron—"

  "Let me introduce you to someone, so that you can report to Cheiron," Godiva said. She reached up to pull on a tasseled cord, and a gong sounded elsewhere in the mountain.

  "You have other captives?" Electra asked. One thing about this business: it did take her mind off her own problem.

  "No."

  In a short time there was a knock. "Enter," Godiva called, rising from her cushion.

  The door opened, and a man crawled in. No, it was a snake. No, it was—

  Electra's mouth dropped open in amazement. It was a naga!

  "Prince Naldo, meet Gloha Goblin and Electra, who is Prince Dolph's Betrothee," Godiva said. "Girls, meet Prince Naldo Naga, Nada's brother."

  Electra had never met Prince Naldo before, but she recognized the resemblance to Nada. Now he assumed his human form and made a formal little bow. He was almost unbelievably handsome. "I am glad to meet you at last, Electra and Gloha. I have heard much of you, having just been talking with your King Dor and Queen Irene at Mount Etamin."

  Both girls found themselves tongue-tied. This seemed impossible; the naga were hereditary enemies to the goblins.

  "I shall explain," Godiva said. "There are covenants which extend back more than a thousand years, to the years when the war between the monsters of the air and the monsters of the ground was fresh. Anticipating an attack by the monsters of the air, we invoked such a covenant, and summoned our allies. Goblins and naga have differences between themselves, but these are superseded by the covenant. The naga of Mount Etamin are here to support our effort."

  Aghast, Electra finally got her mouth going. "And the—the ground dragons, and—"

  "And the callicantzari," Godiva agreed. The callicantzari were horrendous underground monsters. "And the elves."

  "That can't be!" Electra exclaimed. "I mean, they—"

  "Come with me." Godiva led the way out of her suite.

  "It is true," Naldo murmured. "We can not claim to be delighted by this development, but we are required to honor the covenant and must support the goblins against the winged monsters. The local elves are similarly bound."

  Numbed, Electra followed the goblin woman to a chamber farther down the tunnel. This business had abruptly escalated beyond her worst possible fears! What was Cheiron going to do, when he learned of this?

  Godiva opened the door. This appeared to be an infirmary, with a bed and a goblin nurse. There was a patient on the bed, small and wan. Not a goblin, not a child, but—

  "An elf!" Electra exclaimed. "But his elm must be far away!"

  "Beyond Goblin Mountain," Godiva agreed. "But not far as we think of distance. He prefers to recline, because his strength is low, here, but he is in good health." Then, as they stepped close, she introduced them: "This is Bud, of the tribe of Flower Elves." The elf nodded. "And these are Prince Naldo Naga, Gloha Goblin-Harpy, and Electra, betrothed to Prince Dolph of the human folk." They nodded in turn.

  Bud Elf looked surprised. "The human folk are allied with you too?"

  "No," Electra said quickly. "They aren't in this quarrel, really. Just a few of us who know Che Centaur personally. Gloha and I are here on behalf of Cheiron Centaur to see if we can get Che and Jenny released before the winged monsters destroy the mountain."

  "Who is Jenny?" he asked.

  "Jenny Elf. She's—" Electra paused, realizing that this was another oddity. "She's not from an elm or from Xanth. She doesn't get weak away from her tree. She's twice your size, and her ears are pointed. But she's definitely an elf, I think."

  "I should like to meet her."

  "I will bring her here," Godiva said. She stepped out.

  "How can you help the goblins, so far from your elm?" Gloha asked Bud. "I mean—"

  "I am just here to arrange details," Bud said. "We shall defend one side of Goblin Mountain from intrusion by the winged monsters on that side. That will relieve the goblins of the fear of a flank attack."

  It certainly would! The elves were small, but their strength and expertise near their elm was such that no monsters would pass that way.

  "I never thought the elves would be in this," Gloha said unhappily. "But I suppose elves have to keep their word, and a covenant is a word."

  "You are on the side of the winged monsters?" Bud asked her. "Isn't there a certain ambiguity in your position?"

  "No. Che Centaur is a winged monster, and I am too."

  "To be sure," he said, indulging in the very most circumspect of male glances at her petite body. Electra knew that glance; it was the kind no one directed at her.

  While they talked, Prince Naldo approached Electra. "My sis-ter—where is she now?"

  "Nada's with Cheiron," Electra said. "We joined with him after delivering Che here."

  "You delivered the centaur here?" he asked, surprised.

  "It was a deal. The Goblinate of the Golden Horde was going to cook him, so we joined forces with Godiva to save him. Then we had to decide which group got him, and she won. We don't want him here, but we didn't have a choice. It was—"

  "A matter of honor," he concluded. "How well I understand. Tell me, how are matters between the two of you?"

  "Nada and I get along fine. We just wish Dolph wasn't going to marry her."

  "It was another deal," he said. "A political betrothal. We had thought the prophecy referred to me and the Princess Ivy. We were in error, so Nada took the lead."

  Electra wondered what would have happened had it been Ivy on that quest, instead of Dolph. Ivy might well have married Naldo; he was indeed a prince and a handsome man in his human form. But that would have meant that Ivy would never have met Grey Murphy—and that Dolph would not have met Electra.

  "Well, Nada means to see it through. She doesn't love Dolph, and I do, but it's his choice."

  "It is an irony. My father would direct Nada to break the betrothal, but it is not his right. We have accepted the benefits of the political liaison with Castle Roogna, and can not in honor renege."

  "I know. Just as you can't renege on the covenant with the goblins."

  He grimaced. "Just so. We find both situations awkward, but our course is clear. The Flower Elves are similarly caught."

  The door opened—and there was Jenny Elf. But of course she couldn't be a true elf, really, because—

  "Oh, I'm so glad to see you, 'Lectra!" Jenny exclaimed, running up to give her a hug. Electra was suddenly aware how much they differed in size; Jenny was barely half her height. "Che and Gwenny and I had a Tsoda fizz fight, just the way we wanted to at the lake!"

  Then she became aware of the others, and was abashed.

  "I'd better introduce you," Electra said. "Folks, this is Jenny, from the World of Two Moons. Jenny, this is Gloha, and Prince Naldo, who is Nada's brother, and Bud of the Flower Elves."

  "You can fly?" Jenny asked, looking first at Gloha.

  For answer, Gloha spread her wings and flew toward the ceiling. But there wasn't room to go anywhere, and she landed almost immediately.

  "You must
meet Che!" Jenny said. "He doesn't fly yet, but—"

  "I know," Gloha said. "I came here with Cheiron."

  Then Jenny focused her spectacles on Bud. "An elf?" she asked, looking surprised. "But you're so small!" Indeed, he was only half her height.

  Bud smiled tolerantly. "Just as the human folk have giants, such as the ogres, and the goblins have giants, such as the callicantzari, it becomes evident that we elves also have giants. By the look of you, you are young; others of your kind must be larger yet."

  "Yes, I'm small. Maybe there's a mistake, because my people never called themselves elves. We must be another species, that just happens to resemble yours in some ways."

  Bud smiled. "This interests me. Let's explore it further, if you will." He glanced at the others. "If I am not interfering with business."

  "My business is introducing you to each other," Godiva said. "So that when Electra and Gloha return to the surface, they can made a competent report."

  "So that Cheiron will believe that you really do have these allies," Gloha said. "I suppose that means that you don't intend to give up Che Centaur or Jenny Elf."

  "Jenny Elf may go," Godiva said. "She is not captive." She glanced at the girl. "But I expect you to keep your word."

  "I will," Jenny said. "But I'm not going until Che does." She turned back to Bud. "You really think we are just variants of the same species?"

  "I suspect we are equivalents for our respective lands. Do you have other creatures on yours?" "You mean like trolls?"

  "Ah, you have trolls! Are they point-eared like you?"

  "No, they're round-eared and ugly. They don't stand much taller than we do, but they are way more massive."

  "Interesting. Our trolls are tall and thin. How many fingers on their hands? Ours have five, unless some have been bitten off."

  Jenny smiled briefly. "Four, when they're all there. Yours do sound similar after all."

  Electra listened with growing interest, and realized that the others were doing the same.

  "Are there human beings there?" Bud asked.

  "Some. We really don't have much to do with them."

  "Neither do we. Electra is the first I have had contact with in years. Your humans' ears are pointed?"