Heaven Cent

by Piers Anthony

  It also meant, he realized as he thought about it, that Mela would have no further interest in Dolph. With two opals, she could probably have her choice of all the available mermen. Since Marrow was trying to protect Dolph from what his mother would call "predatory females" —whatever that meant—this was as good a way as any.

  But mainly Dolph kept silent because now he liked Nada Naga better than Mela Merwoman. He wasn't sure why, because certainly Mela's legs were more interesting, and perhaps other parts of her too, but he thought it was because Nada was a child like him, and saw things pretty much his way. Also, he was betrothed to her.

  Mela stood dazed for a long moment, perhaps a moment and a half, gazing at the twin opals as they blazed brightly in her hand. Then she flung her arms around the skeleton and hugged him hard. "Oh, Marrow!" she exclaimed. "You are wonderful!"

  "Um, uh," Marrow said, taken aback. "You'll bruise your flesh."

  She let him go and stepped back. Sure enough, there was a skeletal pattern across her front where the bones had dented her generous flesh. "I'll survive," she said. "Is there anything at all I can do for you?"

  "We, as you know, are searching for the Heaven Cent," Marrow said. "We suspect it may be on a skeleton key. Do you know the nature of the keys farther to the south? Any information would be appreciated."

  "Well, I see them mainly from the underside," Mela said. "I forget whether any are skeletal, but there are some Isles of Pleasure—no, that's not it. Isles of Happiness—no, that's not it either. I really can't remember—Ah! Isles of Joy! That sounds like it. There are two or three—no, maybe five or six—I forget how many there are, but several, anyway."

  "The Forget Spell!" Dolph exclaimed. "Could some of it have drifted down this way?"

  Marrow nodded. "That is possible. That would account for her vagueness about the details." He faced the merwoman. "We thank you, Mela; we shall investigate those several isles. Perhaps the Heaven Cent is on one of them."

  "I hope so. Don't hesitate to call on me if you need anything!" Mela stepped into the water, and her feet reverted to flukes. Soon she was gone into the sea.

  "She has a nice tail," Nada remarked. Dolph realized that tails were more a part of her life than his, because of her nature. He had always found Mela's legs more interesting than her tail, for some reason, perhaps because legs were more a part of his life.

  It was late in the day. Dolph and Nada shared her sandwiches and drink balls, while the two skeletons discussed prospects. "If there is a forget whorl in the vicinity, there could be mischief for us," Marrow said.

  "What is a forget whorl?" Grace’l asked.

  Marrow explained about the Gap Chasm and the spell that had been on it. "The original spell was disciplined, causing only the forgetting of the Gap itself, once a person departed from it. But the whorls, though much smaller, can be more intense, and cause other kinds of forgetting. By this time they should have faded in strength; still, they should be best avoided."

  "But Mela suffered only slight loss of memory, about the isles," Grace’l pointed out. "That should not be dangerous."

  "True. But she might also have forgotten other dangers associated with the isles. If there are dragons there, or tangle trees, or more subtle threats, we would be ill-advised to bring Prince Dolph there."

  "She could also have seen the Heaven Cent there, and forgotten it!" Dolph called. "We have to check!"

  "Yes! We have to check!" Nada echoed, picking up the spirit of it.

  Marrow exchanged a hollow glance with Grace’l, in the way typical of adults. They were reluctant, but unable to refute this impetuous logic.

  Soon the two skeletons formed two bone cabins for the night, one for each child to use. Dolph and Nada protested that they would be happy to sleep together, sharing one larger cabin, but for some reason intelligible only to adults the skeletons refused to hear of it.

  Nada made a face and sighed. "1 thought maybe things would be different outside the caves," she said.

  "Adults are adults, all over Xanth," Dolph said. "I don't know what happens when folk grow up, but it never fails. They stop believing in the Monster Under the Bed, and start believing in nutritious food, and they join the Adult Conspiracy and all that other junk."

  "Maybe something comes and casts a mean old spell over them," Nada conjectured. "I hope it never catches us!"

  "We'll stop it, somehow!" Dolph said fervently.

  With that resolution they had to be satisfied. They climbed into their separate cabins and slept.

  In the morning Nada turned girl again, for breakfast, and they plucked and ate fresh do-nuts from a nut tree, avoiding the don't-nuts. There was a beerbarrel tree nearby, but true to adult form the skeletons objected. They had to search out wholesome milkweed pods instead, and to finish every last drop of milk in each of their pods. Yuck! Was there no end to this tyranny?

  Then Dolph and Nada assumed naga form, and slithered south at a good rate. Marrow wore the knapsack, while Grace’l carried a few extra milk pods for future use. The children agreed glumly that it would have been a different story if the skeletons had had to eat. But the skeletons were independent of food, so had no hesitation in forcing nutritious food on those who knew better.

  At noon they came to a signboard posted on the beach. ISLES OF JOEY. They stopped and considered it.

  "Is that correctly spelled?" Marrow inquired.

  "Looks all right to me," Dolph said.

  "But you spell the way your father does," Marrow pointed out.

  "There is no 'e' in 'Joy,' " Grace’l said.

  "Whoever made that sign must have forgotten how to spell it," Nada said.

  "Because of the forget whorl!" Dolph exclaimed. "That explains it!" He studied the sign again. "If it really is wrong ..."

  Grace’l made a rattling laugh. "It really is wrong. Joy is spelled J-O-Y. No extra letters."

  "What about 'He'?" Dolph demanded. "How can it have that V in it? Isn't that wrong too?"

  "That's just the way it is," Grace’l said. "I-S-L-E."

  Dolph gave up. There was no sense trying to talk sense to adults. They were constitutionally incapable of seeing the obvious.

  "At any rate," Marrow concluded, "this does seem to be the region Mela was describing. We shall have to watch for isles, and explore them, cautiously."

  They continued down the beach. Soon the first isle appeared, not far offshore. It looked quite ordinary, almost mundane; there was no sign of enchantment about it.

  The two skeletons arranged to be kicked into their boat and sail configuration, and Dolph and Nada got in. There was a brisk sea breeze blowing in exactly the wrong direction, in the mischievous way such juveniles had, but the skeletons used their tacking magic and angled in toward the isle.

  They made it safely to the convenient harbor at the north end of the isle. Here were a number of boats—large, small, and tiny. Dolph and Nada disembarked in human form, and delivered two good kicks to the key bones, restoring the skeletons to their natural forms.

  They looked around. A sign proclaimed THIEVES' ISLE.

  They considered that. "Are we sure we want to be here?" Marrow asked. "We are not thieves."

  "But if there are thieves here," Dolph said, "one of them might have stolen the Heaven Cent, so this would be the best place to look."

  A man ambled down a path. He was swarthy, and he had only one eye, and that eye flicked shiftily about. He came to the sign and dropped something on it, then approached the group. "Welcome to Honest Island! I am Black Pete, your friendly host. What brings you here?"

  "Honest Island?" Dolph asked. "I thought the sign said—" He faltered, unable to remember exactly what the sign had said.

  "What sign?" the man asked, his dusky brow furrowing.

  The others shrugged. They did not remember any sign.

  "We're looking for the Heaven Cent," Marrow said. "Do you happen to know whether it is here?"

  Pete looked more closely at Marrow. "I say, old chap, you could
use a good meal! Come to our traveler's hotel. There we shall relieve you of all your burdens."

  Dolph was bothered by something, but could not pin it down. Certainly Black Pete was being nice enough. They followed him up the path to an elegant building almost as fancy as a palace. But as they passed through the gallant front portal, Dolph noticed that the whole front side was no more than a huge facade, a giant wall painted to look like the side of a building, with nothing much behind it. The actual building was a crude structure of logs and dried mud, with packed sand for the floor. He found this very curious, but didn't comment because nobody else did.

  "Do you have any valuables?" Pete inquired, walking to the other side of the front desk. "We shall be happy to put them in our safe during your stay."

  "Just the magic mirror," Dolph said. "But that's small, so there is no need to—"

  "Oh? Let me see it."

  Dolph dug in the knapsack and pulled out the minor. Pete dropped something on it—or seemed to, because nothing fell from his hand. "Let me show you to your room," Pete said, leading the way out the back.

  They followed. Dolph was bothered again; wasn't there something—but he couldn't remember what it might be, so he followed the others.

  They found themselves outside, on a winding path. Pete led them along this, until they came to the harbor. "So nice to have had you here," he said. "I hope you enjoyed your visit. You must come again real soon." He made a little bow, then turned and departed.

  Marrow looked at Dolph, perplexed. "Are we going already?"

  "We must be," Grace’l said. "For here we are at the water."

  Dolph and Nada kicked the skeletons, and they became the boat and sail. Soon they were on their way out of the harbor, carried by a favorable wind.

  "Ahoy!"

  Dolph looked to the sound. There was Mela Merwoman in her fish tail, waving from the wave. "What are you doing here?"

  "Something bothered me about your journey, so I came down to see whether I could help. Do you still have your mirror?"

  "Mirror? What mirror?"

  Mela grimaced prettily. "Follow me to shore. I think I can help you get it back."

  Perplexed, they followed her swiftly swimming body to the main beach. There she put on her nice legs and joined them on land. "There is some reverse wood here; I saw it the other day. Ah, here it is! Pick it up, Dolph, but don't do any magic."

  Dolph picked up the bit of wood she indicated. "Of course I know better than to change form while holding this!" He exclaimed. "It would reverse whatever I tried!”

  "What about the magic mirror?" she asked again.

  Dolph's jaw dropped. "I left it on the desk at the hotel on the isle! At Thieves' Isle!"

  "That's what I thought," Mela said. "I knew there was something funny about that isle, but I couldn't quite remember what it was. There have been rumors—" She shrugged. "Maybe you had better take that wood over there and see what you can do."

  "Maybe I had better," Dolph agreed. He passed the wood around, and as each of the others touched it, faces lighted. Now they all understood what had happened.

  "They used forget magic," Marrow said. "Black Pete dropped a bit of it on the sign, and then on the mirror, and we forgot all about them."

  "But then how could Black Pete remember about mthe mirror?" Nada asked. "I mean, if the spot spell makes everyone forget about objects—"

  "It was only a tiny bit of forget, left over from the great old Forget Spell," Marrow concluded. "Just enough to make us forget one thing for a few hours. That mirror is probably still sitting on the counter, until the forget wears off. Then Pete will find it and pick it up. It's the perfect theft! By the time we remembered it, ordinarily, we would have been so far on our way that it wouldn't have been worthwhile to return for it."

  "And if we did," Grace’l added, "he would just use the spell again. What a thief!"

  "But why does he have that sign out at the harbor?" Dolph asked. "That could give him away at the start!"

  Marrow pondered. "Perhaps that is his way of testing travelers. If they forget the sign, then he knows the spell is working on them, and he can use it to rob them. Very crafty."

  "Well, let's go back and fix him!" Dolph said. "I'll hold the reverse wood, so it won't interfere with the rest of you; as long as I remain in my natural form, it won't affect me. Then I'll give it to one of you, and—" He found himself too angry to finish his thought, knowing that it wasn't a very nice thought.

  "Good luck!" Mela said, returning to the water. "I'm glad I was able to help you, after the way you helped me."

  Dolph nodded. Sometimes it did pay to do nice things for other folk, even when a person did not expect any return. He had not really understood that before, but it was quite clear now.

  They resumed their sea-crossing group, and returned to the isle. By the time they got there, Dolph had cooled a bit, and decided to keep the reverse wood. He could probably do more with it in his natural form than he could as a vengeful dragon.

  There was the sign: THIEVES’ ISLE. In a moment, Black Pete reappeared. He looked surprised when he saw them. "Back again so soon? What can I do for you?" He dropped another invisible thing on the sign.

  "Oh, we'll think of something," Dolph said, keeping tight hold of the reverse wood.

  They followed Pete up to his mock office. There lay the mirror on the counter, as Dolph had left it the hour before. He picked it up and put it back in his knapsack. Then he touched the reverse wood to Black Pete. "What are you?" he asked.

  Pete looked startled. "I am the worst thief and rascal of these here parts," he said. "I steal from everybody who comes here, by making them forget their valuables."

  Dolph nodded. The wood had reversed the man's nature, making him completely honest. His talent, obviously, was dishonesty; the man was an accomplished liar and thief. Had this not been his magic, the reverse wood would not have worked, for it had no effect on mundane things. Dolph was honest, but the wood did not make him dishonest because no magic was involved in his character. Now Black Pete was unable to conceal what he had done, because his own magic worked against him. "What of the others?"

  "There are no others; I work alone."

  "But there are many boats in the harbor!"

  "I made their owners forget them, and now they are mine."

  Which meant the prior owners must have had to swim ashore, not remembering that they had boats. Some might have drowned or been caught by sea predators. Black Pete deserved no mercy!

  But he realized that there would be almost no way to return all the stolen things, for their owners were long gone. All that could be done was to post some kind of notice of warning about this isle, so that other travelers would know its nature and stay away. Or else kill Black Pete. Dolph couldn't stomach that.

  "Do you have the Heaven Cent here?" he asked.

  "No."

  Since the man had to tell the truth, that was that. But Marrow had an idea. "We must get some of those bits of forget. They could be useful."

  "Give us some forget bits, and tell us how to use them, and we shall leave you alone," Dolph said.

  "Gladly!" Black Pete agreed, aware that he was getting off lightly. "I found a bunch of mustard seeds that had soaked in a forget whorl a long time. Whenever I drop one of them on something, it becomes forgettable for several hours. It doesn't affect me, because the forget spell only comes out when jogged by the fall. Here is a package of the seeds." He brought out a little square envelope.

  "Thank you," Dolph said, taking the package.

  They departed. Back on shore they set up a sign saying

  BEWARE OF THIEF ON ISLE—USE REVERSE WOOD. They left the reverse wood beside the sign. Dolph hoped that helped. It would if the travelers passed this way first, and if Black Pete didn't cross to the mainland.

  They proceeded south. Soon they spied another isle offshore. For some reason isles were always offshore, never onshore where it would have been easy to reach them. Dolph wished they had the rev
erse wood with them, because he was now wary of these isles. Still, at least he knew to be careful.

  They sailed across. There was a sign on the shore saying BEAUTY ISLE. Indeed, the isle was incredibly beautiful. It was covered with the loveliest ornamental trees and plants, and in its center was a perfectly conical mountain that shone in the sunlight. The top rose into the deepest blue sky Dolph had ever seen, and was shrouded by a mist that sported the colors of a rainbow. Dolph and Nada simply stared at it, overwhelmed by its luster.

  "I do not trust this," Marrow's skull said. "Anything that pretty is bound to be an illusion."

  But it was no illusion. They landed and changed forms and inspected the isle from several views. It was just exactly as beautiful as it seemed.

  "A tangle tree can be pretty too," Marrow warned. "Until it attacks."

  "If we find a tangle tree, I'll turn into something worse," Dolph said. But the notion bothered him, for not many things were worse than a tangle tree.

  Then something worse appeared. It looked like a cross between a roc and a tangle tree, for it was huge and had giant wings and many tentacles. It charged down on them.

  Dolph's mind went blank. What could he become that would scare this off?

  "A wall-nut tree!" Marrow cried.

  Dolph became a wall-nut tree. Suddenly his body was like a big wall formed of hardwood, with a few branches and leaves at the top. The monster smashed into this solid wall and fell flat. Little stars and planets spun in the air around its snout, showing that it had been knocked silly.

  Dolph assumed the form of a similar monster. "Is the Heaven Cent on this isle?" he asked.

  "There are one hundred and one and a half monsters, each worse than the last," the creature said as the stars and planets cleared. A squiggly spiral line hovered a little longer, showing that it was still disoriented. "But no Heaven Cent."