Part 15 (2/2)
He looked around, and saw the gigantic head of Princess Ida, about which this whole world orbited. He went for it, still expanding. The other clouds paced him.
They came to their sleeping bodies. Three were in one room, and one in another room. But where was the Ring?
Then he felt a tingle at his diffuse finger. The soul of the Ring knew where its body was. That would guide him.
They reached their bodies and dived in. It took two and a half moments to recover full alertness.
”Oh, that was wonderful!” Princess Ida said. ”For the first time I experienced Ptero myself! I must do it again soon.”
Unpun stirred. ”I must find Punny.”
”And I must find the Ring of Idea,” Justin said.
”This way, I'm sure,” Ida said, opening a door.
In the chamber beyond was a young woman just sitting up. Unpun hurried to help her. Justin focused on his finger, and it guided him to the pallet on which the woman sat. Underneath it, in a clump of dust that had evidently been undisturbed for a long time, was the Ring. He picked it up, brushed it off, and put it on.
”Now do me physically,” Unpun said, and Justin realized that he was a zombie again. So he quickly repeated his directive, with the Ring in mind, and Unpun made the same transformation he had on Ptero.
”Thank you,” the fully living Unpun said.
Justin nodded. But privately he was amazed at the power of the Ring. It could actually restore a zombie! That was surely not the limit of its power. Yet it was one of six required merely to locate and control the Swell Foop. What a device that must be!
CHAPTER 6: RING OF WATER.
Cynthia saw the others pairing off and departing, so she looked for her own zombie. She spied one sitting in a pool of stagnant water. She was female, according to her upper torso, but her legs seemed to be fused. A zombie mermaid!
Cynthia was mildly partial to crossbreeds, having become one herself, so she approached this one. ”You know of a Ring of Xanth?”
”Yez.”
”I am Cynthia Centaur. Who are you?”
”Zilche Zzombie.”
”I was once human. You were a mermaid?”
”Yez.”
”What Ring do you know of?”
”The Ringg of Washer.”
”The Ring of Water,” Cynthia repeated, getting it straight. ”Where is it?”
”Ze pulsh ze zing.”
Cynthia had to ponder that for much of a moment. Then she got it. ”The pool's the thing?”
”Nosh eggazly.”
Cynthia pondered again. ”Or more precisely, the Brain Coral's Pool,” she concluded. ”The Brain Coral might reasonably be construed as governing the Region of Water, so that makes sense.” She looked down at the zombie. ”But that's still very general. I will need your help to locate its specific site. I will have to carry you. Let's see how that can be done.”
She looked around, and spied some netting. It had probably been used to bring the mermaid here. She picked it up and fas.h.i.+oned it into a bag. She tied the bag to her body, so that it was against her right side: The mermaid could ride side-saddle. It would have to do.
”I will carry you to the pool,” she said. ”The trip will not take long, so your tail should not get too dry.” She put her hands under Zilche's arms and lifted her up to the net bag. The zombie fit there comfortably enough, a.s.suming that zombies were capable of discomfort.
Then Cynthia flicked them both, spread her wings, and took off. In a brief duration and two moments she was flying above the trees. She oriented, and headed for a little-known mountain.
”Wwhare?” Zilche asked.
”Oh, you are wondering how I expect to reach an underground pool by flying through the air? That is an excellent question. You see, I was confined in the Brain Coral's Pool for seventy-two years, ashamed of my condition, having been human for the first sweet sixteen years of my life. For most of that time I was unconscious, by my own choice, though on occasion I did circulate and make some friends among the other detainees. I noticed that there was an air pocket above the pool, and I wondered how it remained fresh. So later, when I was studying centaur information, I researched that, and learned that there is an air pipe leading from the pool to the surface. Very few folk know of it, but I ferreted out its location, and now I shall use it to descend to the pool.” She was rather pleased with herself for finding a use for what had seemed to be useless information.
The flight was not as easy as she had hoped, because she encountered cross winds. They irritably buffeted her back and forth, so that she had to descend to tree level to avoid them. She came perilously close to a tangle tree, and even brushed its tentacles, but they did not grab her. That was a relief, but odd.
Then she saw that there were no bones around the tree. It was a faux tangler-an imitation, innocuous, but safe from predation because of its protective camouflage. Good for it! She made a mental note of its location, because if she ever needed a safe place to sleep in this area, this was it.
Then she saw a sign: SUN GLARE AHEAD. Sure enough, in a moment the sun formed a face and glared villainously at her. Fortunately that didn't last; once she got past that section, the sun returned to its normal favor.
She had gotten past the cross winds, so was able to rise back above the forest. That was really more comfortable. Had she had the magic talent of her friend Daniel, she would have been able to talk to the wind and have it obey her wish. But of course she would never trade that for her ability to fly.
They flew over one of her favorite regions: the retreat for centaur crossbreeds who were excluded from a.s.sociation with normal centaurs. They had made their own home, and their population was growing. There were centaurs with the bodies of felines, deer, zebras, oryx, and others; there seemed to be no limit to their variations, and each was beautiful in his or her own right. She waved and dipped her wings, and several of them waved back; they knew she accepted them.
She came to the obscure mountain, and circled until she spied the truly obscure peak that concealed the pipe: Pipe's Peek. She descended rapidly toward it.
”Crazs.h.!.+” the zombie exclaimed, alarmed.
”By no means. Pipe's Peek is illusion, invisible from the air.” She continued her descent, dropped into the surface of the mountain, and pa.s.sed through the illusion into the air pipe. Now they were in a vertical tunnel, still dropping. Little illusion glow-worms lined its sides, so that it was easy to follow; the Brain Coral had taken this intelligent precaution to ensure that the air did not get lost.
Way, way down in the depths the air pipe opened onto the deep subterranean lake that was the Brain Coral's Pool. Cynthia felt two tingles and a twinge of nostalgia for this familiar locale. She had come here for oblivion when she thought herself transformed into a monster. But seven decades of consideration had reconciled her to her situation, and now she was happy to be a winged monster, and wouldn't trade it. In fact, straight human people seemed somewhat inadequate, with their small physiques and lack of wings, not to mention their limited intellects and hang-ups about natural functions. But of course she wouldn't say that to any of them; it would not be polite. After all, some of her best friends were human. She thought of Magician Trent, and that brought two-thirds of a tremor of wistful longing. She had had more than half a crush on him at one time, as had her friend Gloha Gobliness; he was a fine man, and extremely attractive in his rejuvenated state. Oh, she loved Che Centaur, she truly did, but if by some misadventure she were ever to find herself fully human again and alone with Trent, in some dark cave with survival uncertain, and no one would ever know . . . she would refuse responsibility for any consequences.
She landed on a little rocky beach and folded her wings. There stood a handsome oxlike antelope with a big nose. ”Cynthia!” he exclaimed, recognizing her.
She sighed inwardly. This was another friend, Watt's Gnu, who was nice enough, but very nosy. He always had to learn of everything that had happened in the past day, and would not relent until he had it. But he didn't remember anything beyond a day. She didn't have time for that right now. So she did something a trifle unkind. ”My friend Zilche will catch you up in just a moment.” Then, to the mermaid: ”Just tell him all about our mission.”
Now how would she locate the Ring of Water? It would be useless to search for it by herself; the pool was larger than it seemed, and crowded with guests (few could leave by choice, but they weren't exactly prisoners), many of whom would not care to cooperate. The Sea Hag, who had escaped the pool last year, was not the only obnoxious denizen in cool storage there. She could search for half of forever before finding it. So she would have to ask someone. The Brain Coral itself was not much of a talker, but she had friends here. Who would be likely to know?
A watery bulb flashed over her head. ”Jackson!” she exclaimed. He was the official inventory taker for the Brain Coral, so knew where everything was.
In a moment a head broke water. ”Cynthia!” he exclaimed. ”Are you giving up on worldly Xanth?”
”Jackson! How are you? No, I'm here on brief business.”
”Pleasure before business,” he said. ”Come in and give me a hug, you fantastic creature.”
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