“That should be effective,” Iris said. “Thank you so much for giving us that lovely notion.” She looked around, as nervous as any of them. But it was the way it had to be.
Where were those two philter figures? Were they planning some special mischief, or was the philter merely resting?
They left the palace. Gary felt the intensity of magic increase as they stepped outside; Hanna and Desi had been right about that. But he could handle it, when there wasn't a madness storm.
He made his way to the charmed inner circle. Then he swam across the pond. In the middle of his swim, Hanna appeared. “What are you up to, Gary?” she inquired, walking on the water beside him.
He glanced up at her—and right up under her flaring skirt, along her legs, almost to her knees. He lost his swimming stroke. There had been a time when he wouldn't have noticed such a display, which display he suspected was not accidental. But he had been in this human form too long, and was reacting as it did. Only when he started to breathe water did he manage to yank his clinging eyeballs away from the sight. But now he couldn't answer, because he was too busy sputtering.
“You poor thing,” she said solicitously, squatting before him. “Let me mop your face.” A handkerchief appeared in her hand, and she dabbed at his watering eyes.
The odd thing was that it helped. In a moment his vision cleared, and he looked—straight between her slightly spread knees. And tried to breathe more water. Only sheer luck and some strategic shadow had prevented him from seeing her panties.
“My, you really have a problem,” she remarked in dulcet fashion. “Perhaps you should get out of the pool before you drown.”
“Just get out of my way!” he gasped, desperately resuming his forward motion.
Unfortunately she did not. She remained squatting on the water, and his face passed right through her flesh, heading for the darkest shadow. Only an emergency clamping of his eyelids prevented him from getting his eyeballs petrified. And of course that was her intention. As a creature mostly of illusion she couldn't do him much physical damage, or perhaps did not want to while there was any hope of stealing his soul, but she could threaten to freak out his mind. Maybe she thought that if he lost his mind, she would be able to get his soul. He wasn't absolutely sure she was wrong.
Yet he knew she did not really exist. She was an animation crafted by a cynical demon. Legs and panties meant nothing to her; they were merely presented to make mischief for him. So why was he taking it so seriously? The answer was that he shouldn't. She hadn't actually shown him anything critical, and whatever she had was not real anyway. After all, he had seen her whole bare body in the bed. Of course that was an important qualification; there had been no panties on it, so his brain hadn't gone into overload. Probably there weren't any on it now; it was all a bluff. Yet considering what Mentia had told him about such things—maybe now that he knew—such a sight would indeed freak him out.
He felt the slope of the center island coming up beneath him. He had made it across. So he put down his feet and opened his eyes, ready to wade out of the pool.
There stood Hanna, garbed only in pale blue panties.
Gary fell backwards in the water, stunned. He had been completely unprepared for such a frontal assault. His eyes were unable to tell the difference between illusion and reality.
Sputtering again, he realized that he had after all survived her worst, or maybe her next-to-worst. She had tried to make him drown, but he hadn't. He crawled up the slope and out of the pool, keeping his eyes peering down.
When he stood on the island and looked around, Hanna was gone. He had defeated her. He knew that if she showed him her panties again, he would be better able to handle it, now that he knew that such handling was possible. She knew it too. All repeated shocks could do was harden him to the sight. He was after all not a true man, so was probably less vulnerable than, say, Hiatus would be.
He tramped on inside, feeling the magic intensify around him. He hoped it would not take long to persuade Gayle to join him. He had of course suggested that he approach her not merely to make a third team, but because he really liked the idea of being with her. Too bad he wasn't in his natural form. But he had to admit that this human form had been useful so far despite its liabilities of soft flesh, hunger, and vulnerability to the sight of panties.
He saw the gargoyle. What a lovely creature she was, from her grotesque face to her reptilian wings! “Hello, Gayle Goyle,” he said, suddenly shy.
She closed her mouth, cutting off the waterspout, and turned her head. “Why hello, Gary Gar. It's so nice to see you again, even in—” She broke off.
“It's all right,” he said. “They know I'm a gargoyle, so I don't need to conceal it any more. I wish I had my natural body back.”
“I wish you did too,” she said. “What brings you here, Gary?”
“I—we are searching for the philter, and I wondered if you—if you would like to—that is—”
Gayle shook her head sadly. “I do not know where the philter is, Gary.”
“If you would like to—to help me search for it. Because we need it. To abate the geis.”
“But I must purify the water here.”
“Why?” he asked. “There have been no people to drink from it for thousands of years. The illusions don't need pure water. We have been using it, but we are merely visitors who won't drink from it while you're away from it.”
“But the geis—”
“Applies to water flowing into Xanth from Mundania.
What you are doing here is merely a service to the inhabitants of the stone city of Hinge, who are long gone. I think you are entitled to a break. And if we find the philter—”
“I hadn't thought of it that way,” she said. “I suppose I can relax for a few hours.” She moved on her pedestal, stretching her lovely muscles. “Yes, I will help you search, Gary Gar,” she said. “But I want you to know it is mainly because I like you.”
“I asked you mainly because I like you,” he admitted.
“Come on. I will carry you out of the strong magic. Your present form is really not adequate to handle it, no offense.”
“Oh, I agree! But when my quest is done, I will be transformed back to my natural shape. That is one reason I hope to conclude it quickly.”
“I hope I can help you to conclude it quickly.” She squatted down, and he climbed on her stone back between her wings and took hold of her mane. It was a joy to be so close to her.
She rose and bounded down the passage, carrying his slight weight easily. She emerged to the pool and leaped in. Of course she sank to the bottom, but he hung on, knowing that she would be across it and back in air very soon.
Indeed she was. “Now where were you thinking of. looking?” she inquired as the water coursed off her sleek stone hide. “No, don't get off; I can readily carry you, and we can move more swiftly this way.”
“I really have no idea,” he confessed, glad to remain on her. “I had thought no further than gaining your company.”
“Does it matter where we look?”
“Since I have no idea where the philter is, a random search is probably as good as a planned one. The others of my party are searching similarly, elsewhere. Do you have any preference?”
“Actually, I do,” she said shyly.
“What is it?”
“For three thousand years I have heard the trains of thought passing close by, and wondered where they go. I would like to follow one. Do you think there's any chance the philter could be where the trains live?”
“Why, I don't know,” Gary said. “I think it could be there as readily as any other place. Perhaps more readily, because we did not search to the end of the line; we merely rode the train here and got off.”
“Then let's intercept the next train, and follow it to its lair. There we can search.”
“We don't need to follow it,” Gary said grandly, suffering a flash of inspiration. “We can ride it there.”
“Oooo, w
onderful!” she cried, delighted.
They went to the station. Soon a train pulled in. On its broad front was a sign that said FUTURE.
Gary got off her. His clothing remained wet, but he knew it would dry in time. “We shall go to the future,” he said.
The train ground to a massive halt. No one got off, so Gary led the way up the steps to a coach. Gayle bounded up after him. She was solid stone, but the train was metal, and did not even settle perceptibly under her weight; They entered the coach.
“Oh, I forgot; these are human seats,” he said. “They won't do for you. Maybe we can find a coach made for gargoyles.”
As they walked down through the coach, the train started moving, at first slowly, then more swiftly.
The second coach was much better. It was open in the center, with seats lining the sides that could be turned around to face out the broad windows. Gary took one, and Gayle lay beside him on the floor, quite comfortable.
The scenery had changed. The stones of Hinge were gone; now there were fields, forests, rivers, mountains, and chasms passing in their separate splendors. When he looked out the other side, he saw that the train tracks were forming a large turn, for they curved before and after, and allowed nothing to make them deviate from it.
Where there was a river, they crossed it with a bridge, where there was a mountain, they bored through it with a tunnel; where there was a forest, they cut a narrow swath through it. They were inflexible about their course.
Gayle was delighted. “Oh, it has been millennia since I have seen scenery like this! What a pleasure it is.”
Gary had thought the sights routine. Now he looked again, appreciating them as she saw them. All of Xanth was open to exploration without limit. Suddenly he wanted to bound out into that scenery and range through it all, with Gayle beside him.
But he was in his human form. If he tried to bound out of the train, he would probably break a limb. So he had become a prisoner of another kind, in a limited body.
“When this is done, and I have my real body back, let's run together through all of this, until we have seen it all,” he said.
“It's a date,” she agreed.
They spied a billboard. WELCOME TO THE FUTURE
“We are arriving,” Gary said.
Some buildings appeared. They were of stone, so it seemed they had circled back to Hinge. Had the train changed its mind about going to the future?
But these buildings differed from those they had seen before. They were sleeker and of odd architectural designs.
Some had grown exceedingly tall, so that their tops scraped against the clouds. Others spread wide, with flying buttresses and projecting ledges, as if determined to cover as much ground as possible.
There was another big sign. HENCE—POPULATION MIXED The train passed a large paved-over field where a house with a pointed dome and tubular foundations squatted.
There didn't seem to be any doors or windows in its sides.
“What a peculiar structure,” Gayle remarked.
“I wish we could tell what it houses,” Gary said.
Hanna appeared, entering the car. “I shall be glad to oblige,” she said. “That is the spaceship of thought, which will take you farther than this train of thought can. It is based here in the great future city of Stone Hence.”
“Hence?” Gayle asked.
“All the ships start here and get themselves hence in a hurry,” Hanna explained.
Gary wasn't pleased to see her. “We're not trying to travel far. We're trying to find your master the philter, and I doubt you have any intention of helping.”
“Her master?” Gayle asked, perplexed.
“We have concluded that the philter is a demon who doesn't want to be found, and that it is using two images to divert us from finding it. So Hanna the Handmaiden is not our friend. Indeed, she has been trying to distract me all along.”
“What did she do?” Gayle asked.
“When I swam across the pool to join you, she showed me her panties.”
“But human girls aren't supposed to do that.”
“Precisely. I almost drowned. If I had been a real man, I probably would have.”
“No, I would have saved you,” Hanna said.
“And taken my soul.”
“Well, it might have come loose in the process.”
“So it was the philter making the illusions,” Gayle said. “I never realized.”
“Because we didn't want you to,” Hanna said.
Gary felt a thought bobbing just below the surface of his mind, and finally it worked its way up. “You mean Hanna was talking to you, before we came along?”
“No, the image was of a gargoyle,” Gayle said. “I was lonely for company of my own kind. But I knew it wasn't real. That's why I asked to verify you. I was thrilled to discover you were real, even if you looked like a man.”
“How did you know him for a gargoyle?” Hanna asked.
“Gargoyles know their own kind. His body was like illusion, but I felt the reality beneath. Just as I knew you were no gargoyle, I knew he was no man.”
“And now you are helping him find the philter?”
“Yes.” Gayle returned her gaze to the window, evidently losing interest in the figure.
“Do you know what they mean to do with the philter?”
“Use it to abate the geis of the gargoyle.”
“But that will make it prisoner in the Interface.”
Gayle shrugged. “We gargoyles have been prisoner of the geis ever since the philter defaulted on its purpose in existence. It is time to correct that situation.”
Hanna frowned. “So you are no friend to the philter.”
“I don't wish the philter any harm,” Gayle said. “I'm just tired of having to do what it was supposed to.”
“As am I,” Gary said. “So it's time to set things right.”
“I thought you gargoyles liked purifying water.”
“We do,” Gary said. “But we have had no time off from it. We would like to be free to explore sometimes.”
“I have an idea,” Gayle said. “Suppose your master the philter purifies the water of Xanth half the time, and we gargoyles do it the other half?”
“No,” Hanna said.
“You won't meet us halfway?” Gary asked.
“No.”
“One quarter of the way?” Gayle asked.
“No.”
“Then how much of the way?” Gary asked.
“No part of the way. The philter isn't interested in being harnessed.”
“Does that seem fair to you?” Gayle asked.
“What does fairness have to do with it?”
“Demons have no conscience,” Gary said. “They don't care what's right or wrong, only what works for them.”
Gayle was outraged. “You mean that for three thousand years I have loyally confined myself and purified the water of the pool of Stone Hinge, because my conscience told me to honor the geis, and the one for whom I was filling in doesn't care?”
“Exactly,” Hanna said. “You have a problem with that?”
“Now I do,” Gayle admitted. “I think I have been a fool.”
“Well, you're an animal, and you have a soul,” Hanna said. “All souled creatures are foolish.”
“Then why do you want my soul?” Gary demanded.
“Don't you know it would make you just as foolish?”
“No it wouldn't. I'm a demon. I know better.”
Gary exchanged a glance with Gayle. “I'd almost like to give her a soul, so she'd find out,” he said.
“Don't do it,” Gayle said. “Demons don't necessarily react to souls the same way as others do.”
“And this is a very hardened demon,” Gary agreed. “It's not worth the risk. Some souled folk are pretty mean, I understand.”
“Yes, there seem to be some degraded souls,” Gayle agreed. “And surely any soul the philter got hold of would soon be degraded. So it mustn't have any of ours.”
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Hanna's eyes narrowed. “So it's like that,” she said grimly.
“I think it always was like that,” Gary said. “You watched Gayle doing your job for three thousand years, and you don't care. You have shown that you are not a worthy creature. So go away and let us continue our search.”
“I will go when I choose to go,” Hanna said. “And I choose to remain, for now. I will guide you through the future.”
“Why should we pay any attention to you?” Gayle demanded. “Since we know you are trying to hinder us?”
“Because you won't be able to ignore me,” Hanna said.
Both gargoyles laughed.
Then Gary's laugh was choked off as Hanna's dress went translucent, showing the fuzzy outline of her panties.
He tried to close his eyes, but they refused to close. They were locked on to the almost vision, as if he were peering into the peephole of a hypnogourd.
After a moment Gayle realized that he had stalled out.
Then she realized why. She bounded between him and Hanna, blocking his view. Then he was able to blink and clear his gaze. He had thought he would have less trouble with such sights, but realized he had misjudged the case.
His human reactions were too strong.
Then Gayle stiffened. Her whole body became as rigid as the stone it was, making her like a statue. What had happened to her? Surely the sight of human panties wouldn't bother her, both because she was inhuman and female.
He needed to find out what Hanna was doing to freak out Gayle. But did he dare risk getting freaked out again himself? He realized he had to, because it was his fault Gayle was here.
He peered around her. There was the image of a pool of water. But it had a hole in it. In fact it was a water hole.
Oh, no! The hole was sucking in the water and making it vanish. That was the bad thing about it: the water around it tried to fill it in, and got consumed, until no water was left. That was an awful sight to a gargoyle, who lived to make good water available to others. Where would the gargoyles be if all the water disappeared into the water hole?
He stepped between Gayle and the image. He was in manform, so not quite as horrified as she was by the sight.
Geis of the Gargoyle Page 23
