Roc and a Hard Place

by Piers Anthony

  As she spoke, the Sorceress Iris animated it, so that the scene in Goblin Mountain appeared. Gwenny Goblin was with her Companion Che Centaur and her friend Jenny Elf, both of whom were now on the Jury. The three of them struggled to grasp the meaning of the requirement, and realized that they would have to somehow find their way to the Nameless Castle in order to fetch the precious roc's egg.

  The scene shifted past the complicated route they took to reach the Nameless Castle. It was in fast forward, so it looked as if they were feverishly dashing across Xanth and scrambling upward toward the Castle. They reached the main chamber where Roxanne sat on the nest. Gwenny used her magic wand to lift the supposedly sleeping bird off the nest, exposing the beautiful crystalline egg. Then Che touched it.

  And Roxanne squawked. “Stop!” Grundy translated.

  “That's the Simurgh's egg!” And on her command the entire castle was suddenly sealed shut, so that the intruders couldn't escape.

  There followed a chase, as the big bird sought to catch and confine the three, and they sought to escape. They managed to get Roxanne into one of Jenny Elf's shared dreams, and had a dialogue with her, and learned how she had run afoul of the Simurgh and lost her power of flight. She had finally petitioned the Simurgh for release from her grounding, and the Simurgh had assigned her to community service in the Nameless Castle, where she had to remain until she hatched the egg stored there. She did not know that she had actually been chosen for this important labor; she thought it was a rebuke rather than a privilege, but she did her best regardless, because she was that kind of person.

  And there she remained for almost six centuries, guarding and warming the egg. She was allowed to eat only those intruders who threatened the egg, and since she didn't want to make a mistake, she was very careful. In this case she had waited until one of the intruders actually touched the egg.

  Then she had acted.

  Metria remembered. She had passed that scene at that time, while on game-duty for Professor Grossclout, and seen Jenny and Che in the cage the roc had put them in. Gwenny Goblin had been fending off the bird with her magic wand, so it was an impasse, but it didn't look good for the intruders.

  “So the Defendant defended the egg loyally,” Ida concluded.

  “Oh, yes!” Gwenny agreed. “She was a terror. But we came to understand that she was just doing her job, and we came to respect her for that. In the end we reinterpreted our requirement, and took one of Roxanne's old shed claws, because it had fallen into the nest beside the egg, so was also between the roc and the hard place.”

  Ida next called Okra Ogress to the Witness Stand. She testified that she and her friends Mela Merwoman and Ida Human had been sent by the Simurgh to rescue the stranded trio, and had done so, with the help of a Seed of Thyme and some negotiation. Because Roxanne had been out of circulation for several centuries, she had not learned that Che Centaur was to be protected by all winged monsters, so that he could in due course change the history of Xanth. Once she learned this, she honored it.

  There was another murmur in the audience as the animation showed Ida herself in the scene, along with two of the members of the Jury and three Witnesses. But an all-purpose glower by the Judge stifled it, as usual.

  Okra agreed that Roxanne had acted in an honorable manner, and had certainly protected the egg to the best of her ability.

  Mela Merwoman, the next Witness, was wearing her legs instead of her tail. She took time to settle her comely posterior in the Witness Chair so that the males in the audience could complete their gawking, then endorsed the ogress' testimony. In the end they had given Roxanne the Seed of Thyme, and the big bird had not used it to destroy them, as she readily could have done.

  “So the Defendant proved to be a creature of her word,” Ida concluded.

  “Yes. She's a good person.”

  Pheira was the next Witness. “So you heard the Defendant squawk, but did not at that time know the meaning of her exclamation,” Ida said. “You were not aware that she said a word that was forbidden in the context she didn't know existed.”

  “Objection!”

  “I'll rephrase. It was just a squawk to you.”

  “Yes,” Pheira agreed.

  “Perhaps an exclamation of surprise or dismay, when she realized that you had arrived there accidentally and that it might be a chore to get you clear of the Nameless Castle.”

  “Yes. That is the way I understood it.”

  “And indeed, that is exactly the way she intended it. She could understand your speech, because most animals take the trouble to learn human speech despite being unable to speak it themselves, in contrast to the ignorant attitude of most humans. Her frustration was that she was unable to explain to you how to return to your home.”

  “Yes.”

  “In fact, she might even have made an analogy to a sock that had been torn, that would need tedious and imperfect mending, because the sock doesn't understand the problem.”

  “Why, yes,” Pheira agreed, brightening. “In that sense, it wouldn't be a bad word at—”

  “Objection!”

  “Sustained. Jury will disregard that comment.”

  The Jury, however, looked as if it wasn't sure it wanted to forget the comment. Ida was doing a remarkably apt job of swaying the members of the Jury, perhaps because of her talent of belief. She probably had the Idea that she could save Roxanne, and what she truly believed always came to pass, because she was a Sorceress.

  “But she did get you safely home, didn't she?” Ida continued.

  “Yes. She had a chip of reverse wood. I held it, then exerted my talent to summon the roc again. It reversed the thrust, and sent me flying right back the way I had come. It was exactly what I needed. In fact, it even helped me get rid of Snide. I'm sorry that I never had the chance to thank her, or to return her chip of wood.”

  “So the Defendant, once she understood the situation, treated you with helpful courtesy.”

  “Yes. She was great. She could have eaten me, but she didn't.”

  Metria could see that this made another impression on the Jury. By rights, Roxanne could have chomped Pheira, for intruding where she didn't belong. But the bird had acted compassionately rather than viciously. But still, she had uttered the bad word.

  Ida was finished with the Witness, and Grey had no further questions; the damage to his case was already quite enough.

  “The Defense calls Roxanne Roc to the Witness Stand.”

  Judge Grossclout spoke. “Are you aware that if the Defendant testifies on her own behalf, she will become fair game for the Prosecution, who may cause her to incriminate herself?”

  “Yes, Your Honor.” Ida's moon looked serious. “But I feel the risk must be taken.”

  “Proceed. The Witness may answer from her present location.”

  Ida faced the other chamber. “Roxanne, please relate what befell you during the Time of No Magic.”

  There was yet another muted murmur. The Time of No Magic had occurred in the year 1043, fifty-two years before, and a number of the participants of this trial had not been on the scene at that time. To them it was History, and therefore boring. What relevance could this have to the present case?

  But Grey Murphy did not object. Either he saw some relevance, or he was curious himself.

  Roxanne began squawking. Grundy Golem translated, and the Sorceress Iris animated the scene. It was of the Nameless Castle on its cloud, floating serenely above the Land of Xanth. Roxanne herself was snoozing, as she sometimes did during the somewhat tedious centuries, and in .that state she looked as if she were a great stone statue.

  Then, abruptly, the magic ceased. This was because Bink Human, participating in an aspect of the Demon X(A/N)th's reality, had given the Demon leave to depart. The Demon had done so in half a trice, going somewhere far from Xanth, and taking his magic with him. For all of Xanth's magic stemmed from the ambience of the Demon, representing that trace that leaked out, much as the heat of an animal's body leaked o
ut to the surroundings. Some magic remained for a while, in the manner of some heat, slowly diffusing from Xanth's larger concentrations, but it was so scant as to be virtually unnoticed.

  Immediately the cloudstuff of which the castle was made began to soften, and the cloud itself lost its buoyancy. It sank rapidly toward the suddenly bleak land. Roxanne had no idea of the background cause, but did realize that the cloud and castle would crash and be destroyed if she didn't do something quickly.

  She leaped off the nest and ran outside. She peered down past the fragmenting brink. There lay Xanth, spread out much as usual, but twice as dreary as usual. It looked almost as bad as Mundania. Not far away was Lake Kiss Mee, looking as if it had been kicked instead of kissed.

  Maybe she could get the castle to splash down into the lake, instead of wrecking on land. It would still be one awful collision, but the cushioning effect of the water might enable her to save the egg. That was all that mattered.

  She dug her talons into the loosening cloudscape, stood up straight, and spread her giant wings. She couldn't fly, because the Simurgh had deprived her of her power of flight for the duration, but her wings still could beat the air and make a strong backdraft. If she could just push the castle toward the lake…

  The castle moved—in the wrong direction. Of course; she was facing the lake. She angled her wings, and caused the cloud isle to spin around until she was facing away from the water; Then she pumped as hard as she could. Already the castle was much lower, because it had continued falling.

  But there was still a chance to slant it down to the lake.

  She pumped until she thought her heart would burst, watching the land rush up beneath her. She couldn't see the lake now; was she going in the right direction? She must be, because forward was the one way she could not see.

  But she couldn't let the egg take the shock by itself; it could be cracked open. So as the tops of the trees loomed close beneath, she let go, turned, and launched herself back into the incubation chamber. She was diving for the nest just as the castle struck the water.

  There was a horrendous swish. Walls of water sailed up all around, visible through the higher windows. The castle came to a sudden but not calamitous partial halt—and bounced back up. It was skipping across the water like a clumsy stone! Because she had succeeded in angling it forward at a faster rate than it was falling. She overshot the nest, because everything but her was slowing down drastically. She scrambled to turn around, so as to get back on the nest and protect the egg.

  The bounce reversed, and the castle descended again. The egg sailed out of the stone nest. Roxanne leaped at it, and caught it in her talons, oh-so-carefully, so that it would not fall back against the stone. But she was falling now, too. So she pushed her wings down, hard, to break her fall and keep the egg clear of the hard nest. Normally the safest place in Xanth was between the roc and the hard place, but not in this circumstance.

  The castle skipped again, rising a second time. It came up hard under her. Her wings took the shock, and she was able to land in the nest and lay the egg gently back in it. But she felt a terrible shock of pain, and knew that one of her wings was broken.

  But she had no chance to be concerned about that. The castle was Still bouncing across the water, in diminishing hops, rattling the egg dangerously. She wrapped her wings down under herself and the egg, cushioning the contacts with the hard nest.

  At last the awful motion ceased. She breathed half a squawk of relief—then realized that there was still some motion. A slow settling. The castle was sinking in the lake!

  She left the egg, secure for the moment, and scrambled back outside. Water was covering the surface of the cloud and lapping at the base of the castle itself. The castle was light, but the cloudstuff was getting waterlogged, so that in the end it would sink to the bottom. How deep was the lake?

  She didn't know, but feared it was way beyond the height of the castle. The egg would drown at the bottom of the lake.

  Unless she could do something to shore it up. If she could make it float—

  She clawed at the cloudstuff of the cloud-island's rim, hauling it up. A fragment tore out, leaving a gap. She quickly jammed it back down, but at an angle, so that part of a rim formed. One advantage of the deteriorating nature of the cloudstuff was that it was now malleable; she could shape it to her whim.

  She moved around the edge, turning it up and jamming it in place. Soon she had a boat of sorts, or raft. But it was waterlogged, and still slowly sinking. So she formed a channel-ramp, low inside, high outside, set herself at the low side, dug in, and began flapping her wings again. Pain shot through her left wing with every stroke, but she gritted her beak and forced the motion through. She was directing her backdraft across the water, by the crude channel.

  As she pumped harder, the wind pushed the water along the channel, and on off the cloudbank. More water seeped in to fill its place, and this, too, was forced along the channel and out. Soon she had a weak fountain of water forming, squirting off the edge of her island, and the level on the island was dropping. As it did, the island became more buoyant, and the castle slowly lifted. She was succeeding in making it float!

  At last the cloud surface was mostly dry, and she was able to relax. Her broken wing was smarting something awful, and the rest of her was almost worn out. But she had succeeded in saving the castle, and with it the egg. That was all that mattered.

  She checked on the egg, and it was secure. She didn't have to sit on it all the time; it was large enough and dense enough to hold its heat for some while. Still, it wouldn't hurt to—

  The castle shook. She scrambled back outside to check.

  There was a ship trying to collide with it! A big boat, filled with annoying-looking people- Its side was banging into the cloudwall, threatening to dent it and let the water pour back in .

  “What are you doing?” she demanded angrily. “Get away from here!” But all that came out, of course, was two squawks, which she knew from experience were indecipherable to ignorant human folk. Indeed, they were standing at the rail of the ship, staring stupidly at her.

  Then she saw the name of the boat: RELATIONSHIP. This was the craft that carried all the relatives! Naturally folk hated to see its approach, because relatives tended to be a pain, particularly those of one's spouse. These were probably kissing cousins, because this was Lake Kiss Mee. Right now they looked quite sour, though, because the magic was gone.

  She braced one foot against the ship, and hooked the other into the cloudstuff, and managed to shove the ship away- It drifted onward, toward whatever fate any relationship was doomed to suffer.

  Now she had time to ponder. Obviously the magic had departed, for what reason she wasn't competent to wonder.

  The Nameless Castle had lost its enchantment, and surely the spell that denied her the ability to fly was also gone—except that the magic of rocs was the ability to fly, because no other creature their size could do it. So the loss of the magic had the same effect on her as the null-spell. And of course, her broken wing would have prevented her from flying anyway.

  The question was, would the magic return? She had to assume that it would, because otherwise she and the castle and the egg were doomed. The proper place for them was in the sky, where it was safe; down here on land or water, it would be only a matter of time before land monsters attacked, or a storm blew it over.

  But she had no control over that. All she could do was wait—and hope. And keep the precious egg warm.

  She went back to the nest and sat on the egg. She tried to sleep, but her wing was too painful. She wished she had access to a healing spring, but realized that the healing elixir wouldn't work without magic. So she simply steeled herself against the pain and waited.

  Every so often she went outside and repaired the deteriorating rim. She judged that if the magic stayed away more than a day, there would be nothing more she could do to preserve the castle, because the cloudstuff continued to sag.

  It woul
d founder, and disappear under the water.

  Unless she could guide the castle to land, so that at least it couldn't sink. Yes—that was her best course.

  She anchored her feet and pumped her wings again. The pain flared awfully, but she kept at it, until at last the soggy floating island bumped up against land. She nudged it as far up as she could, then rested. Now it wouldn't sink, at least.

  She returned to the egg, and sat on it, warming it with her body. It took her a while to snooze, because of her pain and fatigue—and when she did, more trouble came.

  There was a horrible howling near the castle. Some monster was coming; and it sounded dangerous. She scrambled out to assess the situation, because she did not want to be surprised on the nest. The big disadvantage to perching the cloud isle on land was that it was now exposed to the depredations of land creatures, which could be about as bad as the sea creatures. Worse, really, because surely there had been no unfriendly ceatures in the Kiss Mee lake.

  It was something that might once have been a dragon, but now was a crazed obscurity in the night. It snapped at the fringe of cloudstuff, tearing out huge gobs. It lurched toward the castle itself.

  Roxanne gave a squawk for challenge and charged it. She could not let it chew up the softening fabric of the castle and perhaps get at the egg itself. She was in no condition to fight, but she had to protect what remained of her charge, in case the magic ever came back.

  The monster hissed and whirled on her. Its eyes glared balefully. It was confused and maddened by the loss of magic, but it was large and vicious. Maybe it was the remnant of a sphinx. All she wanted was to make it go away, but she feared that it would feel no pain and would not be bluffed.

  She was right. The monster snapped and clawed at her, gouging out feathers and flesh. She retreated—away from the castle. It followed, intent only on viciousness. So she continued to hold its attention, luring it away from the castle.