Part 19 (1/2)

Again Irene reacted to what had happened. The Furies had planned to force Xavier into love with a zombie! The sheer evil of it appalled her. Now she was the one remaining to be cursed, and she knew it would be terrible, all out of proportion to her error--and that it would fall again on Zora. There was no way to view it that offered any positive aspect.

They moved on, but now Zora rode behind Irene. The others tacitly agreed that the zombie should not be with Xavier, who could only be embarra.s.sed by her presence.

They came to a region they hadn't seen before, because a number of stone figures decorated it. Perplexed, Chem projected her map. ”No--this is on our route. I thought I remembered it. See, my map shows us right on the dotted line. These statues weren't here before.”

”Could be the work of Maw,” Xavier said. ”She collects strange animals and plants. She never collected no statues before, but she might start.”

”These are very finely wrought likenesses,” Chem remarked. ”Look, there are even a number of insects.” She picked one up and held it in the sunlight. It was a henroach, with every leg and two fine antennae perfectly sculptured in stone. ”A very fine artisan made this.”

”The elves, maybe,” Grundy suggested. ”Some of them are quite skilled. I can ask around--”

Irene spotted a figure walking ahead of them. It looked familiar. It was a tall, rather voluptuous woman. ”I think I have another answer,” she said, nudging Chem to trot closer.

The woman apparently did not hear them. When they were quite close, Irene called: ”Hey, Gorgon!”

Slowly the figure turned. Chem suddenly balked, and Irene had to hold on to keep her seat. Zora, less able to react, started to fall. Irene grabbed her, looking down. The zombie stiffened, her flesh congealing. ”Close your eyes!” Chem cried. ”She's not veiled!” Irene's eyes snapped closed before she raised her head. ”Gorgon!” she cried. ”It's I, Irene! Put on your veil!”

”Why?” the Gorgon asked.

”Because otherwise you'll turn us all to stone!”

”That's right, I will!” The Gorgon agreed, sounding surprised.

”Of course you will!” Irene snapped, shaken by her near escape. She had a.s.sumed--but a.s.suming could be treacherous, as the episode at the love spring had so recently shown. ”Why weren't you wearing your veil? You know you can't go around barefaced!”

”I--forgot,” the Gorgon said, as if remembering something that might have been important a long time ago. ”Very well; I'm veiled now.”

Irene pried open one eye, though uncertain whether this would protect her if she saw the Gorgon's face. Maybe only half of her would turn to stone! But it was all right now; her friend was safely covered.

”How could you forget a thing like that?” Irene demanded, still shaken.

”Well, I was just walking along, looking for something--I don't remember what--when--it's all unclear. I didn't remember you, until--”

”A forget-whorl!” Chem exclaimed. ”We're back in their region! She got tagged by--”

”And forgot her mission!” Irene agreed.

”My mission?” the Gorgon asked, perplexed.

”To find and rescue your son Hugo!”

The Gorgon's mouth gaped under the veil. ”Hugo!”

”And we forgot we were back among the rampaging whorls,” Chem said. ”Between her forced forgetting and our carelessness, we almost came to considerable grief. But her forgetfulness doesn't seem total, because her memory is coming back as we remind her.”

”A glancing blow,” Irene agreed. ”She must have brushed the fringe of it, not getting a full dose. But the encounter was potentially deadly to us! I very nearly was turned to--” She broke off, remembering the zombie behind her. Zora had looked into the face of the Gorgon!

”Zora took your curse!” Chem said. ”She has--”

Xavier and Grundy rode up. ”Lucky you weren't stoned,” the golem remarked. ”I told Xav and Xap to stay clear when I saw what was up.”

”Zora looked,” Irene said dully. ”She suffered the misfortune slated for me.”

Xavier jumped down and lifted the zombie away from Chem's side, where she was half hanging. ”She can't be dead!” he cried. ”She wasn't alive!”

”The seeds of mischief sown by the Furies are deadly,” Chem murmured. ”We sought to avoid their curses, but only transferred them to the most innocent one among us.”

The centaur was being kind. She had not been present, so she shared none of the blame. But the damage had been done.

”Wake, Zora!” Xavier exclaimed, holding the stiff zombie upright. ”You don't deserve none of this! You never harmed n.o.body!”

”Yet there is a philosophical alignment,” Chem continued. ”Xavier's curse and Irene's curse--love and death--visited on the same person. The only cure for the one is the other. Zora isn't suffering now.”

”The h.e.l.l with that!” Xavier cried. ”I won't let her die, not after what she done for me! Zora, come back!” And he took the zombie statue in his arms and kissed her on the mouth.

The others watched, saddened yet fatalistic, knowing that the man meant well but that the woman was doomed--and had been doomed from the time she absorbed the curses. The terrible Furies had had their way.

Then something amazing happened. The statue began to sag.

Irene stared. Stone couldn't sag! Even zombie stone crumbled or flaked away; it didn't really soften, Xavier was still kissing her, holding her against him. The vital warmth of his body was almost tangible. And Zora was returning to her half-life.

”Look at that!” Grundy said. ”The Gorgon can't stone zombies!”

Chem turned her human segment so her eyes could meet Irene's gaze. ”Perhaps it is true. Zora was immune to the stare of the Python. She can't see very well, so perhaps it is like a veil between her and visual magic. She may have suffered only partial petrification--and she was not as solid as we to begin with. But--”

”There--there is a rationale?” Irene whispered numbly. ”If you were stone, or mostly stone, and the man you loved embraced you and kissed you and begged you to return--would you respond?”

Irene thought of herself becoming stone, and her husband Dor kissing her. ”I suppose--if there were any way--any way at all--” Irene agreed faintly. ”Love has power we hardly understand--”

Xavier broke the kiss. ”I told you I wouldn't let her die!” he said..

Zora was flesh again. She stood stiffly, blinking as if her eyelids were heavy. Her body had been too loose before; now it was too firm. But she was more flesh than stone.

They could not argue with Xavier's claim, though Irene was uncertain which explanation had more to do with it. The Gorgon's face turned living people to stone--but a zombie was undead, a different matter. Yet some things did affect zombies, as they had seen.

”But what have you restored her to?” Chem asked. ”A hopeless love?”

Xavier released Zora, who stood without difficulty, looking about her. She seemed more solid now, as if the Gorgon's magic had stiffened her decaying flesh to healthy flesh. She appeared more alive than she had ever been, ironically.

”I've been thinking about that,” Xavier said. ”About the good things she's been doing for us all. I'm not awful smart about women, but it sure seems to me a good zombie is better than a bad woman. This one is awful good--and you'd hardly know she's a zombie now.”

It was true. Zora was still firming. Love and/or the Gorgon's magic had transformed her to something considerably more human than before. Her facial features had become both clear and animate, her body strong. She was indeed a woman, and not an unattractive one.

”But you--” Irene protested weakly. ”You don't love--”

”I know where the love spring is,” Xavier said. ”I know what's right. Nothing to stop me from taking a drink--I was going to do that before. It's supposed to be my curse anyway. I never was one to let someone else pay my debts.”