Part 27 (1/2)

”Whatever,” the demoness agreed crossly.

”It's not funny hee-hee, but funny realization. Silhouette saw an a.n.a.logy of herself. That amused her.”

”I don't see what's funny about that. Not one of these trees slipped on a banana peel or got a pie in the face.”

”Maybe you have to have the mind for it,” Cube said smugly.

The thread led on through the frightened forest and back to more natural vegetation. Here there was a man with a collection of wood fragments. He was putting his hands on them and concentrating so hard that little clouds were forming and dissipating over his head.

Diamond went up to him, wagging her tail. ”Hi, Di,” he said, smiling.

So Silhouette had met this man too, and must have learned what he was doing. This time Cube did what she should have done before, and checked her memory. For whatever the woman had experienced was in Cube's memory, just as her day in Mundania was in Silhouette's memory. ”h.e.l.lo, Mike. Still changing regular wood into reverse wood?”

”Still doing it,” he agreed. ”There's a lot of demand.”

Evidently so. They moved on. ”So did that make Silhouette laugh?” Cube asked.

”No. She didn't know what reverse wood was.”

”But it's in my memory.”

”She didn't think to look there, and I didn't tell her. I just explained that it reversed magic in what it touched. Since she still wasn't sure she believed in magic, she didn't react.”

”Maybe that was just as well.”

The forest opened into a large glade. Here there was a cla.s.s of some kind in progress. Children were walking carefully, sometimes losing their balance and falling. ”What--?” Cube started, then remembered to check her own memory. ”They're walking on air!” For the children's feet were not quite touching the ground.

”They're happy children,” Metria agreed. ”Their folks don't want them to get hurt, so they're learning how to do it right.”

”That must have interested Silhouette.”

”Yes. She finally believed that there is magic here. She was sorry she couldn't walk on air herself, but was pleased that Diamond managed it.”

”But she's a Mundane dog. She couldn't--” Cube broke off, because there was Diamond with the children, walking on air. She wasn't good at it, and occasionally a foot slipped through to the ground, but she was definitely doing it. ”Then again, maybe she can.”

”It's not a talent so much as a state of mind,” Metria said. ”Children do it naturally, but adults usually forget how.”

”Adults get serious about life,” Cube agreed.

”Next stop is a sad Magician.”

Cube decided not to check her memory, preferring to be surprised. They intersected an enchanted path and followed it a short distance to its end.

Its end? How could an enchanted path have an end? They all went to important places.

There was an old man there, facing the brush ahead. He looked tired. ”Oh, h.e.l.lo Diamond,” he said as the dog joined him. ”I'm sorry I haven't finished this section yet. I can't do it as fast as I used to in youth.”

Cube decided to check her memory after all. There it was: this was Patxi, the Magician who made the enchanted paths. Silhouette had talked with him for some time, learning that he labored continually because of a curse. She had sympathy, regarding herself as being cursed in another manner. They had, in their fas.h.i.+on, hit it off. And Metria had been totally bored, fading out as much as possible until evening came and it was time for Silhouette to return to the inn, lest she miss the return rendezvous. But the woman had, in her fas.h.i.+on, enjoyed the day. ”I wish I could stay here, or at least visit when not a ghost,” she said sadly. ”But of course I can't.”

The thread led right to Patxi and not beyond him. He, like the ghost, was another problem to be handled before she could move on. Cube sighed inwardly.

Now she reviewed the story Patxi had told Silhouette about his curse. She suspected that this related to the thread's interest in him, and that she would have to find some clue therein to her destination. What she had thought would be a simple way to find her destination was instead turning out to be an ongoing challenge of understanding and performance.

Patxi had been a rather wild child and youth. His talent, once he discovered it, was to make an invisible and unfeelable barrier that would stop anyone or any creature from pa.s.sing. No one knew his talent, and he decided not to tell them. He simply went around setting up barriers in awkward places, then hiding and watching the mischief they made. He made one by the village playground so that the other children couldn't reach it. They didn't bang into it, they merely found themselves unable to get there, no matter how hard they tried. It was as if they suddenly couldn't find the way. They got very upset, and some cried, and Patxi had to stifle his laughter lest he give himself away.

He set one up by the pie tree grove, so that the village women could not harvest pies for meals. They could see the pies, and smell them, but not reach them. They were most annoyed. It was hilarious.

He set one up by the village spring, so that no one could get a drink of water. The men had to go to a neighboring village and carry heavy jars of it back. What a great prank!

But it was when he put a wall around the village sanitary trench that the fun really began. No one could dump their slops there. The waste piled up in the houses, and soon an awful stench suffused the village. Patxi found the joke so funny that he rolled on the ground laughing helplessly. That was when he gave himself away, for no one else found the situation remotely humorous.

They asked him nicely to remove the walls. He said no. They explained that he was seriously disrupting village life and causing distress for many people. He said that was their tough luck. They said he would be punished if he did not reform. He formed a wall around himself and no one could touch him. He capered and made rude noises at them, laughing so hard his sides hurt.

That was when they held a village council and decided to take a stronger measure. They sent an emissary to the notorious curse fiends and asked them to put a curse on Patxi that would fix the problem and make him a good citizen instead of a bad one. The curse fiends obliged. They could not take away his magic, but they could govern him through the curse.

They cursed him to use his talent only for good, and to continue until he was formally thanked. After that he would be released, having expiated his obligation.

That was when his laughter stopped. He found himself compelled to remove all the walls he had erected, and to seek ways of using his talent to help others. But the villagers did not need or want any invisible walls on their premises. They just wanted to be left alone so they could get on with their dull lives. Since he could do them no good--and he had to keep doing good until he was thanked--and no one thanked him--he had to leave the village and quest elsewhere. But other villages had heard about him, and wanted none of his help, fearing it would turn to mischief. In that period came the Time of No Magic, which was a horrible disruption for all Xanth, and folk were suspicious that he might have had something to do with it, so they were even more wary of him.

Finally he had gone to the king of Xanth, one Magician Trent, and begged for some a.s.signment that would enable him to do good indefinitely, at least until someone thanked him. And the king pondered and consulted with the Good Magician, and a.s.signed him the ch.o.r.e of making safe paths between all the major places of Xanth. They gave him a map of the places to connect and the various minor obstacles between them, such as the Gap Chasm, and let him be.

He worked diligently, making all the paths on the map, and constantly improving them and making protected camps and way stops too, but no one ever thanked him. The king changed, and it seemed no one even remembered him or his job, but he kept working, because he couldn't quit until thanked. Now it was nigh sixty years later, and he wanted very much to retire, but could not.

Silhouette had wanted to thank him, but she was not a citizen of Xanth, so she kissed him instead. He stared at her, amazed. ”For an instant it seemed I was being kissed by the loveliest woman I ever saw,” he said. ”But--”

”I may be prettier inside than outside,” she said. Then she had left him, regretting that she could do nothing for him. But his plight had moved her, for she knew that every youth had indiscretions, and did not deserve a lifelong punishment for them. She knew from Cube's memory that the enchanted paths had been well done, and were a real service to all of Xanth, because people could travel along them with safety and comfort and not get lost. Surely he had more than repaid his debt. How was it that he had never been thanked?

Now Cube was here in the same body, and she wondered too. But this was simply remedied. She opened her mouth to thank him--and could not speak.

”That curse,” she said after a moment. ”It stops people from thanking you.”

”Yes. I think some might have been inclined, but they can't do it. So I'm stuck.”

”I think I need to try to abate that curse,” she said.

He viewed her with faint hope worn down by decades of disappointment. ”I think others have tried, without success.”

”I may have greater resources,” she said. ”I can't promise success, but I'll try.”

”I wish you well,” he said dully, and returned to his work. It seemed he had to clear the way by hand, then establish the invisible walls to keep all hostile creatures out. It was good work, but tedious.

She retreated a short distance, until she was alone except for Diamond and Metria. Then she put her hand to the pouch and drew out the three Princesses. ”I think I need some help,” she said. Then she explained the situation.

”This should be child's play,” Melody said.

”Which is fine for us,” Harmony agreed.

”Because we're children,” Rhythm concluded.

They focused on the problem, making their music. Soon they had a report: ”This is a complicated curse,” Melody said.