Fire Sail

by Piers Anthony

  What did this have to do with her? She was not in denial. She schooled herself to be unremittingly sensible. Yet she was experiencing doubt.

  Meanwhile the current was accelerating, carrying her somewhere she knew she did not want to go. She could not get off the raft safely; she was a good swimmer, but this massive cloudy flow would drown her. What could she do?

  She knew she was here for a reason. Yes, she was dreaming, but as with the dream realm of the gourd, there were fundamental truths to explore. In the gourd she had had to face her worst horror, acrophobia, the fear of heights. Dell had helped her get through it. She really appreciated that. He needed her, yes, but on occasion she also needed him.

  And there was an insight. She was in denial. About herself. About him. She saw him as a likable but somewhat feckless youth who had to have her hold his hand so he could relax enough to sleep. He had to have her advice and support to make key decisions. His worst fear was isolation, as revealed by that same gourd sequence. He had handled it by finding a way to have Nia join him in that dream sequence. He was clever enough, when desperate. The truth was she liked holding his hand, and helping him decide things. She liked being needed by him. She needed to be needed. She had been in denial about that too. Her own family had not needed her, thus vacating a significant aspect of her life. Dell really did need her.

  And when he finally found his perfect woman, as he had almost found Anna, he would not need Nia anymore. Why would they want a dull old grandmother in their exciting young lives? She would be effectively alone again. She dreaded that. Comforting Dell had become her pretext for abating her own threatened isolation. She had not realized it until finding herself on this river to nowhere. De Nile.

  Now this mighty river was coursing to its unknown destination. She realized that her deepest desires were three: a truly worthwhile and fulfilling life project; continued association with the marvelous boat; and to have Dell in her life. Now as the end of their mission approached it was like the Nile carrying her to personal oblivion. Presumably the Good Magician would honor his pledge and find her that project. But what about the other two? She didn’t want to give up either Dell or the boat.

  She was satisfied that she had plumbed the sinister oubliette of her denials. But that did not free her. They were headed toward the final rendezvous, and it would be over. Like the Nile flowing inexorably toward the cataracts, dragging her reluctantly to her doom.

  Dell stirred, waking her. “Nia,” he said, troubled. “Are you crying?”

  She realized that she was. Her tear had fallen on his hand as she held it. No, she would not lie to him. But neither did she need to burden him with her own misgivings. “I had a bad dream.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said sympathetically. “Those can be awful.”

  Little did he know.

  They resumed sailing in the morning in good order, but soon there was a complication. A flight of dragons winded them and came in for mischief, maybe too many for the shield to completely deflect. The boat was too high to get safely to ground or plunge underwater before the dragons attacked. “Bleep!” Dell swore.

  “Maybe I can blow them away,” Win suggested nervously.

  “No, we’d have to let down the shield and be fully vulnerable,” Dell said.

  “Blip!” she agreed.

  “I could make a hole,” Santo said.

  “They could follow us into it.”

  “I could make myself look like a baby dragon,” Squid said. “One they wouldn’t want to toast.”

  “They’ll think we’re holding you captive and be madder than ever.”

  “You’re pretty negative,” the peeve remarked.

  The dragons were now uncomfortably close. “Do you have a better idea?”

  “Plenty. Which one do you want?”

  “Maybe,” Ula said uncertainly. “Maybe turn the heat up?”

  The others looked at her. “What do you mean?” Nia asked.

  “The boat—I was reading the manual, and it said the sail could get really hot. Like a fireball.”

  Dell looked at the peeve. “Do it.”

  Tata’s screen blinked as he communicated with the magic circuits of the boat. Then just as the dragons arrived, jaws gaping, the sail puffed into another magnitude of intensity. It was like a spiked bomb going off, flaring back the surprised dragons. Then the fires spread to the invisible shield, making it a fierce ball of fire whose heat radiated savagely outward but not inward. The crew was comfortable.

  The dragons considered that. Then they turned tail and fled. They were fire breathers, but this was to them as a blowtorch was to a match, way more than they could handle. This was in fact a warcraft, capable of much more than Dell or the others had realized.

  “I love this boat!” Dell said, and the others agreed as the fire faded back to normal. “I don’t want to leave it.”

  That sobered them all, because they knew they would soon have to do just that.

  Ula had been unexpectedly useful again. Nia put her arms around the child and kissed her. “What would we ever do without you?”

  She blushed with pleasure. “I wish—I wish I could stay with you. Here on the boat.”

  “I wish we could keep you,” Nia said. “But we may not have a choice.”

  Ula nodded, understanding. She was not one to make an unreasonable fuss. None of them were. But their pleasant association was about to end.

  Dell said nothing, but he was hurting too. This voyage had been so much more than he had ever anticipated, for the people as well as the adventures. He wished it would never finish. But his honor required that they turn the craft over to the new proprietors, and that he would do, though already it felt like losing love. He knew that Nia felt the same and would do the same.

  They reached the northeast coast of Xanth, then moved a small distance inland. This was an unsettled region, crowded by jungle.

  “Something’s wrong,” Win called. “I can’t steer straight toward the Fountain.”

  “Why not?” Dell asked the peeve.

  Tata’s screen flickered. The peeve translated. “This is a no-fly zone. The Fountain of Youth is protected by a moat formed from its own effluvium. The only way to reach it is by swimming across that moat.”

  “But if that’s made of youth elixir, a person could lose some, most, or all of her life crossing to it,” Nia said. “A young person couldn’t get there at all.”

  “The Fountain doesn’t much like to be disturbed by anyone who isn’t serious.”

  “Like the Good Magician,” Dell said, and they all laughed. But there was an edge.

  “Actually we don’t have to go to the fountain itself,” Santo said. “It’s just the marker for where we are supposed to meet the new proprietors.”

  “Circle it and see if there’s a landing area,” Ula said. It was another of her minor yet unexpectedly useful suggestions.

  They circled it, and found a marked landing field. They set the boat down and got out. Now they could see the edge of the moat, and across it to the high fountain. Water sprayed up in a circle and arced down to the inner edge of the moat. It was an attractive area, with no full-grown trees, just saplings. Evidently plants got youthened too.

  “Better send for Kadence,” Ula said. “She won’t want to miss this.”

  “Uh, yes.” He touched the ring.

  “Wow!” Kadence said, picking up on the situation.

  “Where are the proprietors?” Dell asked. Indeed, there was no sign of anyone else in the vicinity.

  There was a mounted plaque before the moat. They went to it.

  PROPRIETORS: THE PERMANENT KEYS TO FIBOT ARE IN THE FOUNTAIN. FETCH THEM AND BE ON YOUR WAY.

  “That’s a challenge for them,” the peeve said. “But why aren’t they here?”

  “Oh my,” Nia said, looking fazed.

 
“What is it?” Dell asked her.

  “That plaque,” she said. “Obviously it’s magic. It must relate to whomever comes here, for any purpose. Probably there are other messages, for other missions. We’re just one in a series. It refers to Fibot, so it knows who we are. Why would it tell us about the location of the keys when we can’t use them?”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Dell protested. “Unless—”

  “Unless we are to be the proprietors,” she finished with a flash of recognition that lighted the field and reflected off the water. “What about it, peeve? Remember your slip about us getting tested? Was it for becoming the proprietors?” She seemed strangely exhilarated.

  “Yes.”

  Dell pounced on it. “So all those difficult adventures weren’t just make-work! They were to train us in for the job, if we could make it.”

  “Yes.”

  “Bleep, I like that!” Nia said. “Last night I figured out three things I really wanted, and that was one of them: to stay with the boat.”

  Dell looked at her, startled. “When you—” He caught himself, not wanting to embarrass her. “Had the bad dream?”

  “Yes.” There was a tear in her eye now, but not an unhappy one.

  “What were the others? Maybe they’ll come true too.”

  She shook her head. “Leave me my secrets. There’s no guarantee the others will happen.”

  He shrugged. “In any event, we have a problem. We can’t reach those keys.”

  “Except by swimming.” Nia agreed. “And I think the only person who is old enough to spare any years, and who has hands to carry keys, is me.” She glanced at Tata. “Some statistics, please: How much life is lost by immersion in that elixir?”

  The dogfish’s screen flickered. TEN YEARS PER MINUTE.

  Nia contemplated the moat. “I was a great swimmer in my youth. I could have crossed that water in a minute. But that was long ago. It will take me twice as long now. That’s two minutes over, two minutes back, and probably one minute getting into the center of that fountain for the keys. Five minutes. Fifty years.”

  “You’re not thinking of doing it?” Dell asked, alarmed. “Any snag, any confusion, and you’d become a baby.”

  “Yes. I am terrified. But who else can do it?”

  He spread his hands. No one else could. Still, it bothered him. “It’s too big a risk. If all goes well, you’ll still be a girl of ten.”

  “And what’s wrong with that?” Kadence demanded. “I’m nine.”

  “It would leave me as the only human adult on the boat,” Dell said. “Do you really want to risk my preparing the meals?”

  “Oh, ugh!” Win said, putting on a face. Then she degenerated into giggles while the others smiled.

  “As far as I know, youthening affects only the body,” Nia said. “The mind is unchanged. So I would still know how to make meals.”

  “That’s a relief,” Squid said. “Still, we’d rather have you stay adult, no offense.”

  “Maybe I can,” Nia said. “If I hurry.”

  “Maybe we should take a vote,” Dell said uncertainly.

  “No, I think this should be my choice,” Nia said. “It’s my body on the line.”

  They were silent. She had a case.

  “And I choose to do it, for the sake of what’s at stake, personally and for Xanth,” Nia said briskly.

  “It’s your life at stake!”

  She ignored him. “Very well, I will strip for the swim. Any who don’t want to be nauseated may avert their gazes.”

  Dell wrestled briefly with his sensitivities. He had actually seen Nia when she changed in their room. Her older body would not freak out any passing man, not even her panties, but neither was it repulsive. It was her. He feared that if he didn’t look at her now, and she wound up becoming a baby, he would forever regret sacrificing the last glimpse of the dear woman he knew. “I will hold your clothes,” he said.

  “Thank you.” He got the impression that she was gratified by his decision. Did she have a similar concern?

  Nia efficiently removed her shirt and bra and handed them to him. Then her slippers, skirt, and panties. There was no peep from the children. They knew this was not naughty so much as practical.

  She walked to the moat and waded in. The wrinkles in her skin seemed to smooth out immediately, as the elixir worked from the outside in. She dropped into the water and swam across.

  Tata had his timer on, ticking off the seconds and minutes.

  Dell found himself holding his breath. He wished she would go faster, but he knew she had to do it her way, lest she lose her stroke or her strength. She reached the other side in exactly two minutes and waded out, ducking under the falling splay to stand under the dome-like spray of water of the Fountain. Tata’s timer halted. She did look significantly younger, now a well preserved forty instead of sixty. Now her panties would be effective.

  She waved to them, then approached the Fountain, pausing to study it. The conic spray of elixir was taller than she was, and there was no break in it.

  She plunged in. Water splashed all over, surely getting in her eyes. She fumbled around the center column, her fingers scrambling for the keys. They didn’t seem to want to come loose. Then she managed to unhook them and backed out of the Fountain. The timer indicated one more minute.

  Nia came to stand at the edge of the moat. She was now a handsome woman of thirty, her wet hair framing her topside like a blouse. But two more minutes in the drink . . .

  She withdrew from the edge as if hesitant, then charged at a fast run. She performed a flat racing dive through the spray and into the moat, and stroked rapidly across. She was right: she was younger now, and swam much faster. It was impressive to watch.

  She emerged, almost leaping out of the water. Tata’s counter indicated four minutes total. She had shaved a full minute from the return swim, and was now a glorious twenty years old, physically.

  Nia shook herself off. That almost made Dell freak. He was dazzled as she approached him. He had never seen a lovelier young woman. The children seemed similarly awed.

  “Now I know what I will do,” she said, not yet taking her clothes back as she let her body dry in the sun. “I’m going to get me a promising young man with potential, and in the course of the next forty years or so manage him into a great old man. This time I’ll do it right, because I know exactly how. He will never have a complaint. That’s my project.”

  “Project?” Dell asked blankly.

  “That was my second wish, really my first: to have a truly fulfilling project.” She took a stunning breath. “I was a pretty face without much common sense. By the time I learned sense it was too late; I had lost the body. Now I have a second chance. All I need is the right young man. I am choosing him on the basis of character and potential. Yes, I am still old in mind, and won’t hide it, but I will make it easy for him to forget. He will never have a complaint about that.”

  “Oh.” She could of course do what she wished, but he hated the idea of losing her. Who would hold his hand at night? But he would simply have to learn to get along. “Uh, suppose he doesn’t want to be managed?”

  “He won’t have a choice.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I choose you, Dell. That is my third wish: to have you stay in my life. I am number twelve. Kiss me and walk away, if you can.”

  “Uh—”

  “Think of me as my pretty granddaughter, who has learned from her wise grandmother. Your other girls have all had complications, such as a fish tail, or being made of metal, or being a cursed demoness, or having no physical substance. You could have tuned those faults out because they appeared to be pretty girls, and liked you, and were decent people, which is most of what matters for a young man. My fault is my age. Tune it out.”

  “But—”

  She ste
pped into him and kissed him. Little hearts flew out and formed into a big heart that enclosed them.

  At last he knew: not only did he love her now, he had always loved her in a different manner. She was old? Who cared! She was the one who understood him best.

  Walk away? He was rooted to the spot. “I—I never knew,” he said dazedly as the big heart slowly faded.

  “It’s not a river in Africa,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Never mind.”

  “But—”

  “Do I have to kiss you again to shut you up?”

  “Oh, Nia, you could kiss me a hundred times and it wouldn’t be enough!”

  “I will do a good deal more than that. But first we need to set sail. Here is your key.” She handed it to him, then took back her clothing and dressed. She looked just as good clothed as bare; she was spectacular regardless.

  “What about us?” Win asked somewhat plaintively as they returned to the boat.

  “Three of you will be returning to your families after this shakedown cruise,” Nia said, as businesslike as she had been in her old age. “But you will be welcome to return for further cruises when your families deem fit. The fourth—”

  “Yes,” Kadence said a bit wishfully. “I would like to visit when the others do. But you will need to keep Ula with the beat, so I can.”

  “Yes, of course,” Nia agreed. “We’ll informally adopt her. If there’s any trouble, we’ll make it formal. She will not return to the orphanage.”