Part 26 (1/2)
The woman considered further. Then she delved into her purse, brought out a ticket, and gave it to Breanna. She got up and walked away.
Breanna gave it to Jaylin. Jaylin looked at it. It was a ticket to Miami. At that point she began to be a little afraid.
”Is it true?” David asked, sounding awed.
”Yes. We have just saved her life.”
”But how did the demoness know?”
”She went to a woman whose talent is to look forward in time and see the result of a decision. Her name is Ashli. She spent all night looking long-distance at every pa.s.senger on this plane, until she found one who was going to die on it. It was her decision to board the plane that made her fate.”
”That seems like an awful lot of work by Ashli just to help someone she'll never know,” Jaylin said.
”This is an awful important mission. If we don't save the Demon Earth, gravity will fade and all of us will suffer and maybe die within a month.”
”Why not just tell the government and have it look for the Demon Earth?”
Breanna just looked at her, and Jaylin felt stupid. Of course the government wouldn't pay attention. It never did. Even if it believed in magic, which it surely didn't, except when it came to financing the economy. ”I withdraw the question.”
”This is Mundania,” David said. That covered it all.
They boarded the plane without incident. Jaylin was able to trade seats with another pa.s.senger so she could sit with David and Breanna.
About an hour into the flight there was a b.u.mp in the air, and a sudden loss of cabin pressure. They gasped, but in a few seconds the pressure was restored and they were all right. ”Loose hatch,” the captain's voice came over the speakers. ”The automatic seal caught it. We apologize for the inconvenience.” He sounded as if this were routine.
Jaylin began to be a little more afraid. If a woman far away in Xanth could foresee this happening, and in effect act to change the consequences of it, how much worse must be the mission they were on! But that thought evoked another question. ”Why not have Ashli find out where the Demon Earth is hidden?”
”Demons are something else,” Breanna explained. ”Way beyond the power of mortals to affect. The whole of the magic of Xanth is the mere leakage of magic from the body of the Demon Xanth, just as the whole of Earth's gravity is the leakage from the body of its Demon. We are like tiny ants in comparison. We can't even comprehend their natures, let alone control them in any way. That's why we have to have the Swell Foop to rescue the Demon Earth. Only with its mind-boggling power can we hope to accomplish anything.”
”What does it do?”
”We don't even know. Just that each Ring of Xanth has such power as no mortal ever can wield alone, and it takes all six of them together to control the Swell Foop. It hurts my mind just to think about it too much.”
”I'm getting scared.”
”Join the throng,” David said. ”We might as well be fleas on an elephant.”
She took his hand. ”Hi, fellow flea!”
”Actually, more like germs on the flea on an elephant,” Breanna said. ”But it seems it's up to us. Once we get that sixth Ring.”
The rest of the series of flights was uneventful. By the time they arrived in Florida, Jaylin knew both her companions pretty well, and was ready to do more than hold hands with David. She learned how he had sneaked a peek at lovely Chlorine's green panties at age twelve, and the forbidden sight had turned his eyes from brown to green and accelerated his maturation by a year. In the ensuing five years he had realized that there was more to a woman than underwear, but that original green image had never quite faded from his fancy. She made a mental note: When this business with the Swell Foop was all done, and she returned to Mundania, buy a set of green underwear. Even if she didn't care to show it, she wanted to have it.
”Actually, David's decent,” Breanna remarked during one of their rest stops. ”And his family is really nice. A girl could do a lot worse.”
”You act as though I've already decided.”
Breanna gave her another of those looks, and sure enough, Jaylin felt completely stupid. She would have to learn to mask her interests more effectively.
Mrs. Baldwin met them at the airport. ”h.e.l.lo, Jaylin!” she said, as if they had known each other for years. ”Are you okay with this?”
Okay with what? Had the woman already marked her as a future daughter-in-law? No, it must be the dangerous mission. ”I am nervous as bleep,” Jaylin confessed. She was picking up some of Breanna's mannerisms. ”But I'm ready to try my best.”
”You will be suffering jet lag,” Mary said. ”It may be best to go immediately on into Xanth, where they can give you a magic potion to make you all right.”
”I'll take them to the portal,” David said.
He did. He drove them to No Name Key. Then, as they parted, he took Jaylin's hand and gently drew her into him. She yielded, coming to embrace him. They kissed. She floated.
Nothing more was said, but a promise had been made. There would be more to this, by and by. They separated, and she and Breanna entered the compound.
”Funny how things work out,” Breanna remarked. ”It was similar chance when I met Justin.”
”Do things really happen by chance?” Jaylin asked, still fl.u.s.tered by the impact of the kiss.
”I wonder.”
Breanna led them through a picture in a gallery, and suddenly they were on Centaur Isle with a black horse trotting up to greet them. ”This is Putre,” Breanna said. ”He's the zombie dream colt.”
”h.e.l.lo, Putre,” Jaylin said. ”What a beautiful creature you are.” Actually, any horse was beautiful, but she didn't feel the need to clarify that.
A little dark heart appeared above the horse.
”May I hug you?” Jaylin asked. She had a charge of love built up that had to be discharged.
The heart fractured into a cl.u.s.ter of smaller hearts, and these formed into the outline of a larger heart.
She took that as a yes. She went to hug his neck. The hearts fractured again, forming a cloud that enveloped the two of them.
”Now why do I think the two of you will get along okay?” Breanna asked rhetorically.
Jaylin was glad that hearts didn't show in Mundania; she would have embarra.s.sed herself more than once. But it was time to get down to business. ”I don't have much experience riding horses,” she said.
”You can't fall off him if he doesn't want you to,” Breanna said. ”Look-it's really urgent that you get that Ring of Void as fast as you can. Why don't you go after it now, and I'll find my own way back to tell the others?”
”But I'd be lost here without you!” Jaylin protested, suddenly aware of the strangeness of the environment.
”Putre will take good care of you, and he knows where the Ring is, and where to find us once you have it. You can trust him.”
Jaylin believed that. She just hadn't expected to be halfway on her own so suddenly. ”Well-”
”Good enough. I hope you can figure it out quickly.”
Jaylin climbed onto Putre's bare back, and it was surprisingly secure and comfortable. ”You know where it is?” she asked uncertainly.
A speech balloon appeared above his head. ”Only in a general way,” it wrote. ”It is in the Web.”
”The Web?”
”Of the Internet.”