Part 36 (2/2)
Lacky approached. ”You have to meet Prince Dolin. Boss thinks he has something for you.”
How did she know what the dog thought? ”But I don't even know Prince Dolin, and I have to be on my way.” She refrained from saying that she had used up more than enough time traveling here, apparently just to find a home for Diamond. Of course that was worth doing, but surely wasn't on the way to Counter Xanth. She suspected she had a long lonely trek back the way she had come. She needed to get moving.
”It's not far,” Lacky said. ”Just a little way north.”
Diamond caught Cube's left hand gently in her mouth, and Boss caught her right hand, tugging her north. But the thread went west.
She blinked. The thread made an abrupt turn north. She was sure it hadn't done that before. It was telling her to go with the dogs.
What could she do? ”Then I suppose I'd better meet the Prince,” she agreed.
”His castle is right this way.” Lacky walked briskly north, and the dogs bounded after her.
Cube caught up to the young woman. ”Why would a Prince have anything for me? I have nothing for him, and I can't stay here.”
”He knows that. He likes Boss, but thought that Boss needed some company of his own kind. So I wrote my note, and you brought Diamond. It must have been some trouble for you; I know this isn't an easy place to reach, from real-time Xanth. He must have told Boss that he would have a reward for whoever brought him company.”
”I'm not looking for any reward! We--I found Diamond, who seemed to be lost, and she was good company, and we didn't even know she would find a home here. It was serendipitous.” Then she explained about the pacifier's magic. After that, Lacky explained how her mother Lacuna, daughter of the original Zombie Master and Millie the Ghost, whose talent was to cause print to form anywhere she chose, had lived a dull life until she got the chance to go back in time, to the year 1078, and propose marriage to the man she liked. It seemed that he had been too shy to propose to her. That had ushered in her retroactive change of life in the year 1090, and suddenly she had three children. Lacky was delivered in 1079.
Cube had heard this story before, but still couldn't quite connect it to her prior experience. ”But then you were a legitimate--I mean regular person,” she said. ”Why are you here?”
The woman shook her head sadly. ”I was the result of Vernon's proposing to Lacuna.”
”But you said he didn't--” Then it came together. ”If he had, then the stork would have delivered you. But because she did it retroactively, and proposed herself, that didn't count.”
”So I was a might-be,” Lacky agreed. ”Like so many others. Of course there's not room in Xanth for all of us. It's not a bad existence. But enough about me; how did you come to be traveling so widely?”
Cube gave an edited account, not mentioning Counter Xanth or the nine Companions. By the time that was done, they had come to a low hill.
”Here we are,” Lacky said. ”The Prince's castle. Isn't it beautiful?” Both dogs wagged their tails.
”But this is just a rounded hill,” Cube said. ”Or maybe a huge fallen tree.” For the slope resembled bark. There was a curlycue pattern of grooves in it, as if some ogre had sc.r.a.ped his fingernails there.
”Well, let's see.” Lacky put her hands to her face, forming a magic funnel, and called ”Prince Dolin! Company!” And Boss added a loud ”Woof!”
After a generous moment a wooden column rose from the slope. Its sides were smooth and polished. It became a small tower about the height of a man, dark on top where the bark was and with lines showing the growth rings of a tree. But it was hardly a castle.
”It gets better,” Lacky said.
A second section rose, around the first, bearing it upward. This was similar to the first, only larger in diameter. When it stopped it was about man-high, with the first column rising another length higher. But it still wasn't a castle.
Then a third segment lifted, bearing the other two upward, followed by a fourth that raised all the others. Several sub-sections also rose to b.u.t.tress the formation. Now it was indeed a castle, albeit not a big one.
”This way,” Lacky said, walking around to the side. Behind was a door, and beyond the door was a flight of steps leading down. Most of the castle was underground. They all trooped down, the dogs leading, and came upon an eight-year-old boy wearing a small crown. Prince Dolin, embracing the dogs.
”The new one is Diamond,” Lacky said. ”And this is Cube, who brought her here. Cube, this is Prince Dolin.”
The boy stood up so quickly his crown fell askew, and he had to straighten it. ”Thank you, Cube! Boss is great, but he needed canine company, and now he's got it. I have a present for you.”
”There's no need,” Cube demurred.
”This whisk broom.” He presented it to her.
Oh--a token gift. She could accept that. ”Thank you.”
He glanced at her cannily. ”It's magic.”
”It is?” The little broom seemed ordinary.
”It sweeps away distance.”
”I don't think I understand.”
”When you have a long way to go, it makes it short. You'll see when you use it. I know you came a long way to bring Diamond; this will make it shorter.”
”That's nice,” Cube said, not sure he was serious.
”You'll see.” Then he returned to playing with the dogs.
”He's a child,” Lacky murmured. ”He has a short attention span. We'll go now.” Then, louder: ”Bye, Prince!”
”Bye,” he said, not looking up.
They exited the castle. ”It was really the Prince who needed more company,” Lacky said outside. ”But I pretended it was Boss. I'm so glad you came.”
”So am I,” Cube said. This had turned out to be worth it after all, making two dogs and a Prince happy. ”Now I should be on my way.”
”Of course. If you see my brother, back in real Xanth, give him my regards.”
”Your brother?”
”His name is Ryver. He has a wonderful talent with water.”
”Ryver!” Cube echoed, stunned. ”I know him!” Vernon and Lacuna were his parents. He had told her. That was why she remembered them.
”You do? That's wonderful! I know his Ptero self, of course, but I've never met the real one. Real folk seldom come here.”
Acting impulsively, Cube put her hand in the pouch. ”Ryver,” she murmured. Then she remembered that this wasn't the real pouch, but just her soul emulation of it. So her Companions weren't in there.
A hand caught hers. Then Ryver slid out and stood beside her. He spied the woman. ”Sis!” he cried, and stepped forward to embrace her.
”Oh, it's so good to see you, Ryver,” Lacky said. ”But what are you doing here? You didn't die, did you?”
”No, I'm traveling with Seren.” He turned to face Cube, who was tongue-tied. ”She's on a Quest, and I'm a Companion. I had no idea she was coming to see you.”
Cube finally untied her tongue. ”Neither did I. It was serendipitous.” As she said it, she realized that this was the work of the pacifier. It had renamed her, again, and was causing her to find more unexpected things.
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