Part 47 (1/2)

”Xanth magic fades when we leave Xanth,” Metria said. ”So maybe this will fade when we leave Counter Xanth.”

”Let's hope so,” Tessa said. ”I don't like being Tall a.s.set.”

Cube made a note on a pad. ”We'll warn the folk back home. Now I'm sure we need to explore farther.”

They walked on, and the terrain was interesting, but there were no further changes.

”Can we go faster?” Melody asked plaintively.

”We're getting bored,” Harmony agreed.

”We can make a fast carpet,” Rhythm said.

They had a point. ”Make your carpet,” Cube said.

In a moment the Princesses conjured a large carpet, and the humans sat on it. The centaur and dragon preferred to move on their own.

The carpet lifted, carrying them to tree-top height. Karia flicked herself and flew up beside it, while Drek moved sinuously below it.

They moved rapidly east, parallel to the mountains. Suddenly things changed again. Karia, flying beside them, changed colors. Now her wings were brown instead of white, and her flank was white.

”Airak!” Cube called. ”Your colors just reversed!”

The centaur did not reply. Instead she folded her wings and floated aimlessly.

”Oh, no!” Cube cried. ”She's carried away! I forgot.”

”We can guide her gently to the ground,” Ryver said. ”Then snap her out of it.”

Cube looked at him. He had been white. Now he was black.

In fact, all of them had reversed their colors, body and clothing. White became black, red became green, blue became yellow, with shades in between.

”And it's c.u.mulous,” Metria said.

”It's what?” Ryver asked.

”Cloudy, vague, nebulous, confusing, misty--”

”You're on the wrong track,” Cube snapped. ”You mean c.u.mulative.”

”Whatever,” the demoness agreed crossly.

”Well, I'm confused,” Ryver said.

”Wonderful!” Metria said, and kissed him so hard that her face sank part way into his face. He looked a quarter stunned.

That irritated Cube, but she didn't say so. Instead she focused on the problem. ”We need to guide the centaur down.”

They did so, flying close and nudging Karia until she touched ground. Then Cube snapped her fingers. ”Wake!”

The centaur's eyes opened. ”Oh--did it happen again?”

”My fault,” Cube said. ”I called your name when you changed color.”

Karia looked at herself. ”Oh, my!”

”Now we have had two reversals, and they're c.u.mulative,” Cube said. ”I think we need to be sure we can eliminate them.”

”Sidestepping should do it, as we surmised,” Karia said. ”I doubt the local magic extends beyond Counter Xanth.”

”We hope so,” tall Tessa said.

Cory and Tessa formed their sidestepping aisle, then brought the others in. As each entered it, he or she reverted to normal. They hugged each other in gladness; it seemed that the changes had bothered them more than they had indicated.

”So now we know we can reverse the reversals,” Karia said. ”So it doesn't matter if they are permanent and c.u.mulative; we can escape them. But colonists will have to keep them. This rather limits the field, I suspect.”

”And we'd better find out what other reversals are here,” Ryver said. ”So we can warn colonists.”

”And take them via sidestepping to only the particular reversals they want to have,” Cube said. ”Some short folk may want to be tall, some may prefer to change colors.”

They set about exploring methodically, flying the carpet in a squared-off pattern across the width of the land. It seemed to be the same general shape as Xanth, but the vegetation and animals were different. They saw what looked like six-legged cows grazing, and four-winged birds flying, and twin-hulled fish swimming. There were occasional clouds of sparkling insects. Nothing seemed friendly or hostile; some looked at the carpet, but without much curiosity. It seemed that they had not seen Xanth folk before, so did not recognize them as friends or enemies. That suggested in turn that it was safe to colonize, especially if the colonists treated the native creatures with respect.

They did encounter other reversals, which they nullified as soon as they understood them, and marked their territories. One section made a smart person stupid, and vice versa; another made nice folk mean, and the opposite; another made happy folk depressed, and the other way around. Strong-weak, big-small, fat-thin, honest-dishonest, healthy-sickly. Most of the effects were moderate, because the members of the exploratory party were in the middle range of most things, but they were able to tell by the s.h.i.+fts in their members. They landed at each site, a.n.a.lyzed them, and Cube made a note. Then they retreated to sidestepping to nullify the change, and emerged to fly on to the next. Thus they were generally affected by one reversal, but not by the prior ones.

Even so, some of the reversals were startling. At one site the people started quarreling violently. Cube felt it too; she hated all the Companions. But she realized that this was not natural. ”Our feelings are changed,” she said. ”Friends have become enemies.”

They hastily returned to the sidestepping aisle, and were friends again. Judging by the power of their mutual dislike before, they had to be excellent friends now.

But there was worse. On another site Cube felt a strange change in her body. She looked around, and found herself surrounded mostly by men, including one floating demon. There was just one woman, a rather pretty one. ”Ryver!” she exclaimed. ”You're a woman!”

”And you're a man,” he/she retorted.

Cube looked at herself. She was male. They had all changed gender.

”You know, you're not bad looking as a man,” the male centaur said. ”Evenness and delicacy of feature doesn't matter as much for a man.”

”I don't want to be a man!” Cube said.

The others laughed. They understood perfectly. They retreated again to the aisle and were restored. Drek had become a female dragon, but the genders of dragons weren't as obvious to human folk.

”But there may be some folk in Xanth who do want such a change,” Metria said.

Cube marked the spot on her map. ”They are welcome.”

Another change was trickier to fathom. The humans didn't change, but there was a fine male centaur who wasn't Karia. ”Who are you?” Cube asked.

”I am Kerd,” he replied.

That would be Drek, backwards. He had changed form. ”Then who is the dragon?”