Part 33 (1/2)

Then he saw, beside the full-sized dragon, the Gorgon. ”Mother!” he cried, waving violently.

From the distance, the Gorgon made a familiar signal. ”Cover your eyes,” Hugo told Ivy. ”You too, Stanley. Do not look. Mother is on the way. She will make everything right.”

Obediently Ivy faced away and closed her eyes, and Stanley relaxed into unconsciousness. He was a tough little dragon, but he was badly hurt.

They waited for some time. Then they heard something like pebbles dropping to the ground. ”Mother's glaring at wiggles,” Hugo said, figuring it out. ”They're turning to stone!”

There was also a whomp-whomp approaching. ”How can the Gap Dragon be big--and small?” Hugo asked, then answered his own question. ”There must be another of the same species.”

”A lady dragon,” Ivy said with female intuition.

The dropping-pebbles sound stopped. ”You may look now,” the Gorgon said. ”I am veiled.”

Ivy opened her eyes and looked. The Gorgon and the dragoness were crossing the greatfruit ramp.

The Gorgon paused to turn and wave to the outer circle. ”I have cleared a channel!” she called.

Another figure detached itself from the circle. It was a centaur, bearing a rider. Ivy knew who that would be.

The Gorgon completed the distance and picked Hugo up. ”You get lost like this again,” she said severely, ”and I'll show you my face!” Then she kissed him through the veil. ”My, aren't you handsome! Whatever happened to you?”

”Aw, Mom, it was fun!” Hugo protested. ”But we've got to help Stanley!”

”Who?”

”Stanley Steamer,” Ivy explained, indicating the little dragon. ”He saved Xanth--but he's hurt!”

”Oh, yes, of course.” But the Gorgon stood aside while the big dragon whomped up, sniffed Stanley, then opened her huge jaws and took him in her mouth. She lifted him down off the nest and set him on the ground.

”But the forget--” Ivy protested.

”She's immune too,” the Gorgon rea.s.sured her.

A monstrous shape glided down from above: the biggest bird Ivy had ever imagined. It banked and flew away. A single feather drifted down.

”Thank you, Simurgh!” the Gorgon called. She picked up the feather, paused, and looked at Ivy through her veil. ”I think it is better if you do this. Ivy,” she said. ”He's your friend, and it will work most effectively for you.” She handed her the feather.

Ivy looked at the feather. It had seemed small in the sky, but it was as long as she was, now that she held it, but not heavy. ”Do what?”

”Touch Stanley.”

”Oh.” Ivy took the feather and touched the tip to the little dragon's nose. ”Like this?” she asked, perplexed.

”Wherever he hurts, dear.”

”Oh.” Ivy stroked the feather across the wound in Stanley's neck--and it healed immediately. ”Oh!” she exclaimed, thrilled. She proceeded to touch the feather to every place Stanley had been holed, and soon the little dragon had mended completely. Once more he was able to hold his head up. ”Oh!” she cried a third time and hugged him joyously.

”Hugo, how were you able to conjure good fruit?” the Gorgon asked her son, though her manner indicated she had an idea of the answer. This was the way of mothers.

”It's Ivy's fault,” Hugo replied. ”When I'm near her, I can do almost anything. I can even think straight. She's a Sorceress.”

The Gorgon studied Ivy through her veil. ”Yes, I believe she is.”