Part 40 (2/2)

First the group repeated the dance they had done, which was easy, because Karia remembered the calls. Then they became instructors, each taking a Tesseract partner to guide through it, forming two squares. The natives were good at multiplying squares; it was their nature. Cube got to dance as a woman, with a handsome male partner; she loved that. Even Drek Dragon got to dance with a slinky lady dragon, in their fas.h.i.+on, and she loved his perfume.

At last they were able to proceed. The others slid into the pouch, and Cube followed the thread to Princess Ida, whose moon looked like a stylized bug. It seemed that the tour of the moons was not over, because the thread led to it.

”This is Fractal,” Ida said. ”Much of it is invisible from here, but when you go to it you will find that it is surrounded by one or two myriads of threadlike patterns, leading to ever-smaller similar worlds. My next self resides on one of those worlds. I'm sure she will help you.”

”Is there no limit to these moons?” Cube asked. ”Is every one different?”

”The answer seems to be no and yes. We have discovered no limit, and no two worlds similar in shape. Perhaps it is your destiny to reach the end of the line, as it were, and fathom the last of the chain.”

”I don't know,” Cube said doubtfully.

”Neither do I,” Ida agreed.

Cube thanked her, and rode the dogsled to Fractal World. It was as described, replete with many sprouting threads, twisting into intricate diminis.h.i.+ng patterns. Her own thread followed the fractal thread from the nose-point and came to a tiny bug-world hidden there. But of course it seemed full world size when she got there. The Ida there was hospitable, and helped her on her way to the next moon.

And the next, and the next. It became a blur, and Cube regretted that she could not linger to admire the truly different worlds she saw in pa.s.sing. But she had somewhere to go, and she wanted to get there.

Then she came to Zombie World. It looked like a moldy apple, and she hoped she would not remain there long. But as fate would have it, this was the one she had to explore.

The thread did not lead her to a zombie Princess Ida, but past rotten trees and decaying people to a crumbling castle surrounded by a stinking moat. ”Oh, no!” Cube breathed. ”Castle Zombie.”

So it was. Cube knew that most of the zombies had retired to their own world, along with the original Zombie Master, and that there was now a replacement couple in Xanth proper. That was all she knew; she had not been curious about the affairs of zombies, preferring only that they be elsewhere. Now it seemed she would be learning more, though not by choice.

The dogsled stopped at the moat. The drawbridge was down, but looked too decrepit to sustain the weight of even one loaded sled. Yet the thread continued on into the sagging castle.

Cube sighed. ”You stay here,” she told the dogsled. ”Maybe my weight won't be too much for it.”

The dogsled looked relieved. She wondered how there could be danger, here on the tiniest part of the tiniest world, but it did seem like full size, and she felt as solid as she had on Xanth. Magic didn't have to make sense except on its own terms.

Now what about the pacifier? This time she put it into the pouch. That should stop it from doing anything weird while she was dealing with the Zombie Master.

She put a tentative foot on the derelict bridge. The wood looked rotten, but was actually firm under a squishy surface. She let her weight come down on it, and it held. She took another step, and then walked on out over the moat. It seemed that the rot was mostly for show. If the rest of the castle was that way, it was safe.

Just when she was halfway across, a bilious dripping head rose out of the green soup that was the moat. The moat monster! It opened its festering mouth. It was going to eat her!

Almost without thinking, she put her hand to the pouch. ”Drek!” she said.

The dragon emerged so quickly he missed the bridge and dropped down into the moat with a great gooey splash. He wasn't pleased; an absolutely putrid stench wafted up.

The moat monster sniffed, sneezed, and recoiled. It seemed that even a zombie had limits.

Cube held her breath and hurried on across. ”I'm okay, Drek!” she called. ”Come on back.”

The dragon shook his head. She knew why: he didn't want to stink up the pouch.

”Very well; I'll return for you when I'm done in the castle. See if you can find a place to clean up.”

Drek nodded. She turned to face the castle, musing how the folk in the pouch always emerged in proper scale for the world they were in. Maybe her soul management, as she shucked off most of it each time she went to a smaller world, applied to the pouch and its contents, so that the process was automatic. She was just glad that her Companions were still with her, when at one point she had feared they weren't. Their souls had after all come along in the soul pouch. Again, magic was wonderful.

She knocked on the great sagging door, hoping a zombie wouldn't answer. She was in luck: a lovely elderly woman was there. Even old women looked better than Cube did, of course. ”Yes?”

”I'm Cube, from Xanth proper. I--I'm here on a Quest, and it led me here.”

”Why come in, dear,” the woman said. ”I am Millie the Ghost.”

”A ghost!”

Millie laughed. ”So-called because I was a ghost for eight hundred years. I was a restored-to-living woman for more than fifty years before retiring here to Zombie World with my husband, the Zombie Master. I'm so very glad to see you; you're just in time.”

”In time?” Cube asked blankly.

”I will fetch her. Meanwhile make yourself comfortable.” Millie hurried off.

Fetch who? Cube wasn't sure there wasn't a misunderstanding of some sort. But she saw the thread moving on down the castle hall, so she made herself comfortable by following it. It led to a stairway, which was in good order, as was the hall; there was no trace of zombie rot here.

At the top of the stair was a raised alcove, and in it was a ma.s.s of fur or wild hair. The thread stopped at the fur.

Cube picked it up. It seemed to be a cap, or perhaps a wig. She set it on her head, and felt a strange surge of emotion. She had been entirely too nice; it was past time to do something for herself, and to h.e.l.l with the consequences.

Alarmed by the unaccustomed thought, she swept the wig off her head. It landed back in the alcove, askew. ”What is that thing?” she demanded, fl.u.s.tered.

”That is the h.e.l.l Toupee,” a man's voice answered. ”It makes its wearer evil.”

That explained it. Cube turned to face the man, who had come along a side hall. He looked cadaverously old, but otherwise healthy. ”h.e.l.lo. I'm, uh, Cube.”

”And I am the Zombie Master. My wife said you were here. She is fetching the baby.”

”The baby!”

”Isn't that why you are here?”

”I know nothing about any baby. I'm on a--a private Quest, which just led me to--to the h.e.l.l Toupee.”

”I see. But I am not at all sure why you would wish to have that artifact. Even the zombies won't touch it. We have left it alone, pending some decision on its disposition.”

”I don't know why either, but it seems I'm supposed to take it. Maybe I don't have to wear it.”

”Perhaps it is your destiny to deliver it where it belongs.”

”Maybe that's it.” She put the toupee into the pouch.

”Cube!” Millie called from downstairs. ”Where are you?”

”That's my wife,” the Zombie Master said. ”We must discuss this matter of the baby.”

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