Part 22 (2/2)
Finally she made her plea. The images of flying monsters manifested in the picture, swooping down on the shapes of the demons, harrying them, driving them out of the Vale. Vole shapes appeared, tunneling through the dikes and walls, letting the captive water out, so that the Kiss-Mee could return to its natural state and nourish the Vale of the Vole again.
Now Cheiron's countercase developed. The flying monsters descended on the demons, but the demons fought back, dematerializing and reforming behind the monsters, throwing rocks at them, stabbing them, pulling the feathers from their wings. Soon the poor monsters were in a big pile on the ground, wounded and dying, while the voles remained unable to do their work on the dikes. Then the demons piled brush on the pile of injured creatures and set fire to it.
When Chex had made her presentation, the light about her had expanded, until the whole plateau was illuminated, and the darkness above had diminished. When Cheiron made his response, the darkness grew, reaching down, squeezing out the light. Even the fire in the picture blazed darkly, with the smoke roiling up like a bad dream of the gourd and merging with the darkness. The light remained strong only around Chex herself; she had lost ground.
She tried again. She thought of the way Esk was going to see the ogres, who were his ancestors just as the winged monsters were hers, to ask for the help that his human kind refused to extend. She thought of Volney Vole, tunneling down to visit the most dreaded of his kin, the wiggles, on a similar mission. If either of these agreed to help, then the winged monsters would not be alone, and might after all be able to prevail against the formidable demons.
As she thought, her light brightened and pushed back the darkness, farther than before, and the images in the picture glowed. The marching ogres seemed almost n.o.ble, and the demons looked affrighted as the forces of both ground and air advanced. Victory was possible!
Cheiron's return sally came. The darkness swelled against the bright picture, and the picture grew smaller, as if retreating, until it was tiny and far away. What did the winged monsters care what the land-bound monsters did? The demons were no threat to the creatures of the air!
Chex did not wait for that case to be complete. She surged back with an impromptu thesis of emotion. The winged monsters did care, they had to care, for what harmed one part of Xanth harmed all parts, and what harmed the monsters of the land also harmed those of the air. Human beings might be callous about the problems of a nonhuman region, and centaurs might be indifferent to noncentaur matters, but surely the winged monsters wanted to have a better rapport with other creatures than this!
As she projected those thoughts, the light rallied and pushed back the darkness. But the darkness forged back. There was no point in having the winged monsters be as foolish as the ground-borne monsters; all of them could perish on this foolish quest.
But Chex would not abide that. Even if the quest were hopeless, still it was a worthy one. The deed should be done because it was worth doing, without regard to possible failure. Other creatures might mask their cowardice with expressions of indifference, but this should not be the way of the boldest of all creatures, the winged monsters! Better to die in such an honorable quest, than to live in the dishonor of noninvolvement, the way the humans and centaurs were. Human folk did not seem to care about the plight of volish folk, but other animals should.
Her light brightened and spread with every point, beating back the darkness, until little was left of it except a small cloud. Now secondary sources of light were starting up, like flames ignited by flying sparks. These were from the monsters that rimmed the plateau; they agreed with her!
The dark cloud shrank, until at last the figure hovering within it became visible. And suddenly Chex felt faint.
Cheiron was a winged centaur!
Of course she should have realized that before! She had correctly identified his name as typical of centaurs, but had failed to connect this with the fact that every creature on this plateau was winged. The path she had taken up had been little used, and there had been no centaur prints showing on it. The only way Cheiron could have come here was by flying. This should have been obvious to her instantly; she had blundered personally as well as tactically. She had alienated the only other creature of her precise kind.
The last of the darkness above dissipated, and the sun shone down. But in Chex's heart new darkness was welling. How could she have been so wrongheaded!
Cheiron flew down toward her, and the sunlight highlighted his silver wings and his golden hooves. He was the handsomest centaur she had even seen! He appeared to be of mature age, certainly older than she, well muscled and sleekly structured. And he could fly!
He landed before her and folded his wings, but she was too chagrined to meet his gaze. ”I like your spirit, filly,” he said. ”You fought your way up here, and you fought your way through the darkness I spread. Your sire was right about you: you are worthy not only because you are the only other of my kind in Xanth. I came here from afar when I heard of you, hoping you were worthwhile.”
Timidly, flus.h.i.+ng in the atrocious human manner, she looked at him. He was smiling. ”You-you are not angry that I did not meet you before?”
”Furious,” he said. ”But you are young yet, and cannot be expected to have mastery of all social graces, especially when most centaurs shun you. I know how that is; believe me, I know! At least it gave me the pretext to try your mettle. The winged monsters will travel to the Vale of the Vole; you have persuaded them. And I-”
She gazed at him, smitten the manner of any adolescent in the presence of wonder. What a creature he was! ”And you-?”
”I will welcome you-when you fly to me.” He turned, spread his wings, and took off, leaving her in the downblast of air that was scarcely more tumultuous than her emotions.
She had to learn to fly!
Chapter 11. Ogre.
They walked along the path to Castle Roogna. Chex had promised Princess Ivy that she would send Esk in for a report once she found him, and Ivy had promised in return to dig out something else to help them get help for the Kiss-Mee River. As it was turning out, little Ivy was doing almost as much good for them as her parents might have.
”Who is Ivy?” Bria inquired.
Esk explained, for of course Bria had very little information about the normal Xanth hierarchies.
”Oh, she's Irene's daughter!” Bria exclaimed. ”My mother Blythe knew Irene.”
”She did?” Esk asked, startled. ”How could that be?”
”After your ogre father tore up Marrow's folk, he went on to tear up the bra.s.sies, and he abducted Blythe to this world. There she got to know several interesting people, including your mother Tandy, and later she came to help Mare Imbri rescue your kings.”
”Why didn't you tell me that before?” he asked.
”I didn't think it was relevant. Besides, a girl has to be careful around ogres. Your father put a dent in my mother.”
”He wouldn't do a thing like that! He's always been loyal to my mother!”
”Are you saying it's not true? You embarra.s.s me.”
Esk paused. This promised to become complicated. ”Uh, no, I'm not saying that.”
”Then what are you saying?”
”Just that there must be some misunderstanding.”
”Oh.” She seemed disappointed. ”Anyway, later she married my father, but I think she missed the outside world some. I grew up very curious about it. That's how I got lost; I was looking for a way out.”
Esk smiled. ”Well, you found a way out!”
”No, you found it. I'm not really out, though; I'm trapped here the same way you were trapped inside.”
”You mean your body is still there on the Lost Path?”
”No. But I'm not really out, either, because the moment you go back into the gourd, I'll go back too, or fade out, or something-I don't know exactly what happens, but it isn't good. What I need is a way to get stabilized, so I don't get into trouble here.”
”Chex found a physical way into the gourd!” Esk exclaimed. ”Through the zombie gourd! Maybe if you went back in through that-”
”Going in won't do me any good.”
”But I thought-”
She glanced at him appraisingly. ”You shouldn't try to think, Esk. It's bad for ogres.”
”Well, maybe you could go back in with me, and then go out through that big gourd. Then you'd be out on your own, and not dependent on me.”
”That won't work either. I'm on the Lost Path, remember.”
”Yes, but if we find someone who enters the gourd at your home region, then that person can take you back in, and you won't be lost anymore.”
”But I still wouldn't know where the zombie gourd is. I would just get lost again, trying to find it.”
<script>