Air Apparent (35 page)

Yet another glance circulated. “With the right souls, and the right appearance, that might be satisfactory,” Sim said. “And it would effectively abate the curse.”

“But we’d always know that the bodies were wrong,” Debra said. “We have gotten along so far, expecting to be on some other world, but here on Xanth it doesn’t seem the same.”

“I wonder,” Wira said. “Would it be possible to negotiate with the Factory to get the curse lifted? Then there would be no need to avoid it.”

“Never,” the Factor said. “The Factory wants to make me a slave to its system, exactly like all the others. You wouldn’t like me then, Debra.”

Debra considered. “Yes. Even though I was crafted to bring you back, I don’t want you that way.”

“So we still don’t have a sure answer,” Sim said.

“Let’s go animate your real bodies,” Wira said bravely. “Maybe we’ll figure out something along the way.”

“Perhaps the children should be allowed to go home,” Ida-Xanth said. “To their families.”

There was a pause. Then Nimbus, the youngest, spoke. “Not until we know they’re our real families.”

There it was. Fray agreed. She did not want to return to some other Fracto and Happy Bottom. She had to be sure they were hers.

“Then perhaps the other Idas can stay and visit with me,” Ida-Xanth said. “I’m sure we have much to compare.”

“We do,” Ida-Earth said. “They think I’m crazy.”

“They don’t even notice me,” Ida-Moondania said. “I’d like to see some real magic before I return to my dull moondane world.”

“That can be readily arranged,” Ida-Xanth said.

Soon Fray, Nimbus, and Wira were on Debra, suitably lightened, while Ilene rode Sim. The two men seemed stuck, not wanting to overload the others, but not able to travel to any particular destination nonrandomly.

“This is our opportunity to demonstrate some magic,” Ida-Xanth said. She snapped her fingers. “Princesses! You may enter now.”

The three eleven-year-old princesses came into the chamber. Obviously they had been listening at the door. Fray admired that.

“These two men need help traveling,” Ida-Xanth said. “Are you willing to help?”

“Sure,” Melody said.

“We’ll help them fly,” Harmony added.

“With winged hats,” Rhythm concluded.

They hummed, played a note on a harmonica, and beat a beat on a drum. Suddenly the two men had winged hats.

“But won’t they fly up without us?” Hugo asked.

The wings on his hat spread and flapped. Hugo rose into the air. The hat did not separate; it remained firmly on his head. Evidently its magic kept it close. It did not even seem to be hauling him up by the head. It simply enabled him to fly comfortably.

They thanked Ida and the young princesses and departed Castle Roogna. Soon they were all in the sky.

When this adventure was done, Fray thought, she’d be glad to return to her natural form and float freely in the sky. But for now she had to keep her condensed state, so as to interact with the others, and because this one wasn’t dependent on random winds to get her places.

Actually it wasn’t bad being condensed. She had gotten to have a marvelous adventure that would wow her cloud parents, and gotten to know solid folk in a way she never would have otherwise. Debra and Wira were nice, and Ilene and Sim. Even the men weren’t bad, and she sort of liked Nimbus. She had kissed him to shut him up, as a threat of punishment, but that had had a backdraft, affecting her more than him. True, he was a mere boy, two years younger than she was. But he was the son of the Demon Xanth, which impressed her, and he had a marvelously confusing talent, and that cute little glow. She would be sorry never to see him again, after this. But of course what would such a boy want with a mere cloud? In time he would grow up and find some distressingly solid girl, who wouldn’t even be jealous of Fray. But right now he was sitting in front of her, and her arms were around him to help keep him steady so he wouldn’t do something foolish like jump off Debra’s back in mid-flight. It was easy to imagine that they were close because they liked each other, though she knew that was only half true.

In two and a half periods of time they reached the pile of ashes that was the men’s burial place. They landed, Sim with Ilene, Debra with the three of them, and the two men in their almost comical winged hats.

Fray let go of Nimbus, and he jumped to the ground. Actually the danger of his falling has been slight, because they all had been lightened for the flight. She followed—and he reached up to catch her and help her down. She was so surprised she didn’t think to protest. “Thank you.”

Then he pulled her close and kissed her, catching her with her astonished mouth open. “Now we’re even,” he said, and giggled.

He walked away, leaving her dumbfounded. Had it been his little joke, or had he really wanted to kiss her back? She was truly confused.

“He likes you,” Wira murmured. “But he’s embarrassed to show it. Boys—and men—are like that.”

Oh. Evidently Wira had had enough experience with men to decode their mysteries.

Meanwhile the men were busy delving into the ashes. Soon they uncovered a trapdoor, opened it, and revealed steps leading down.

And there they were, lying as if asleep. “Now do we take our own bodies?” Hugo asked. “Knowing the risk?”

The Factor considered for a good seven eighths of a moment. “Yes. I’d rather have the risk in my own body, than be forever in yours.” He went to his own body and touched it.

Nothing happened. He was unable to get into it. Hugo tried with his body, with no better success. “So we can’t exchange back this way.”

“It seems we have to return to the bodies we left,” Wira said.

The men shrugged and went to their own bodies. In barely one and a half fractions of a moment they had merged. Now all the members of their party had been restored.

“Now for the curse test,” the Factor said. He approached Debra, who obligingly put on her bra. He removed it with no trouble.

Then it was Hugo’s turn. He approached Debra in the Factor’s body. “No!” Wira cried. “I know it’s going to destroy you! Even if this isn’t the original Xanth.”

Hugo looked at her. “I have a gut feeling you’re right. The curse remains. We don’t dare risk it again.”

“Then maybe Fray’s solution is the best,” Debra said sadly. “We can go to Magician Trent for transformations.”

“This bothers me,” Sim said. “There remain mysteries here. I think we should fathom them before making any significant decision.”

Fray saw the others looking at him warily. Sim was only twelve years old, but he was a very smart bird. “What remaining mysteries?” Wira asked guardedly.

“For one thing, what started the chain of events that brought us here?”

“That’s easy,” Hugo said. “The Random Factor randomly changed himself so he could affect himself, and switched places with me, then with Fracto. That put Wira in motion to find me, and me in motion to escape, and Happy Bottom and Fray in motion to rescue Fracto. One thing led to another.”

“And the Factory crafted me to recover him, the moment he escaped,” Debra said. “Thus the curse, and, incidentally, our love.”

Sim nodded. “That does seem to be where it started. But how was it possible for the Factor to change himself, when he had never been able to before? His randomness never applied to himself until that moment. How could his talent change?”

“That’s true,” Wira said. “Talents don’t change themselves, not even randomly. Something else must have changed him.”

“Not the Factory,” Hugo said. “It doesn’t want him free. Anyway, I don’t know anything that can change a person’s talent, other than—” He halted.

“Other than what?” Wira asked.

“A Demon!” Fray said, seeing it.

“This is my conjecture,” Sim said. “Which in turn raises the question, which Demon, and why?”

Wira shuddered. “We don’t want Demon involvement. They are way too powerful, and way too indifferent to mortal concerns. They care only about their status games.”

“Which suggests that we are participating in a Demon game,” Sim said. “This is what concerns me most. What are the stakes, and what is the bet? Such things may make a difference in our fate.”

Fray feared he was right. She understood that the Demons normally did not interfere in the affairs of mortals, except to use them in trifling ways to settle games. She had heard about the one involving Roxanne Roc, a fine creature of the air, who had been put on trial for saying a bad word in the presence of the Simurgh’s egg she had been incubating for five hundred years. The bet was whether any mortal jury would convict her. Another had involved the Demon Xanth himself, who had to assume the form of a dragon ass, Nimby, and win a single tear of love or grief for him from an unsuspecting mortal. He had won that, and married the one who shed the tear, and Nimbus was the result. But no Demon had interfered after the initial settings; the mortals had had to settle them themselves.

“Let me see if I understand this,” Debra said. “A Demon must have touched Random, and changed the nature of his talent, and the Demons have some sort of bet on where that will lead? And it’s not finished yet? And it won’t be finished until something we do settles the Demon bet?”

“That is my conjecture,” Sim agreed.

“What are the stakes likely to be?” Wira asked.

“They can be anything from a kiss to the destruction of a world,” Sim said. “This is why we have a right to be nervous.”

“And what is the bet likely to be?” Ilene asked.

“It can be anything from whether a given person steps on an ant, to whether the Factory manages to recover the Factor.”

“Or whether we make it back to our original home,” Hugo said.

“Or whether we succeed in returning to our own bodies,” the Factor said.

Fray thought of something. “The Demon Xanth governs the Land of Xanth. The Demon Earth governs the planet Earth. They are next to each other, and folk cross between them all the time. But when we came through the loop, there was another world between: Moondania. And Princess Ida of Obelisk said that Earth was governed by the Demoness Gaia, not the Demon Earth. They don’t match!”

The others gazed at her silently.

“Did I say something stupid?” Fray asked.

“On the contrary,” Sim said. “You just pointed out something we all missed: there is a misalignment. Which suggests in turn that this is not our world of origin. In this portion of the chain of worlds, there is a world between Earth and Xanth, and Xanth is a planet itself. We may have our answer.”

“May?” Wira asked. “Why not?”

“It is possible that we simply have misunderstood the relation of Earth and Xanth. Or that when Ilene made real the illusion planet we crafted, that changed the lineup.”

“So this could be the original Xanth, but a link has been added in the chain,” Debra said.

“And this could be part of the Demons’ bet,” Hugo said. “Like maybe whether we figure out where we really are.”

“Or something entirely different,” Wira said. “And the alignment of worlds is merely an incidental complication along the way.”

“A matter of indifference to the Demons,” Debra agreed.

“I am getting very nervous,” Ilene said. “How can we know what to do that won’t mess everything up horribly?”

Sim’s beak curved into a smile. “We might ask the Demons.”

“Which Demon, dear?” Ilene asked, smiling back.

“I know!” Fray said. “The new one. The Demoness Gaia. We can invoke her.”

Both Sim and Ilene winced. “We were speaking ironically,” Sim said.

“We wouldn’t dare invoke a Demon,” Ilene agreed.

Oh. This time Fray realized she had been stupid. She had misunderstood their adultish humor. She didn’t even know what irony was. “Then not,” she said.

The air shimmered. So did the ground. “Uh-oh,” Hugo said. “Sometimes just mentioning a Demon is enough.”

A form coalesced from the shimmer. It was like a human woman with a head like a cloud, who glowed like Nimbus, only more so. Her bosom was like two boldly shaped mountains, and her limbs were like those of trees, but she was the most beautiful possible creature.

“Hi, Gaia,” Nimbus said. He had evidently seen her around before this adventure, maybe when the Demons held some sort of conclave.

“Hello, Nimbus Xanth-son,” Gaia replied with a voice like windblown mist. Then she oriented on Fray. “Why did you conjure me, cloud girl?”

“I—I didn’t mean to,” Fray faltered. “I thought you could answer our questions, but maybe I shouldn’t have.”

“What questions?” the breath-of-spring voice asked.

Fray wanted to flee, but knew she couldn’t. She had to answer, whether foolishly or sensibly. “Did you—were you the one who—changed the Factor’s talent?”

“Yes,” the trickling-brook voice said.

This wasn’t over. She had to ask the next question. “Why?”

“Why do you think?” the soft-wind-through-fragrant-flowers asked.

“To—to make us—” What was next? “To make us conjure you.”

“Yes!” the dawn-after-horrendously-dark-night voice said. “Earth! Xanth! Show yourselves. Two steps have been accomplished.”

Two more Demons appeared. Fray recognized one as Earth, because his head was a slowly spinning blue-fringed planet. The other was the Demon Xanth, whose head was like a luxuriant peninsula. Then he assumed his dragon ass form, Nimby.

“Daddy!” Nimbus cried, running to him for a hug. He had no fear at all of the dragon, and indeed the dragon accepted his embrace and licked his face.

Demon Xanth looked around. “Have these mortal folk treated you well?” Fray was startled; she had thought the dragon couldn’t talk. She was learning things at a startling rate.

“Oh, sure,” the boy said carelessly. “Ilene made sure of that. She’s on the way to becoming a Sorceress, you know.” The boy frowned. “Her talent’s better than mine.”

“Not necessarily,” the dragon said. “She has worked harder than you to perfect it. Yours will get there when you apply yourself.”

“Oh.” The boy wasn’t much interested in applying himself. That, too, would surely change as he aged. “And Fray’s sorta cute.”

Fray felt herself blushing storm-gray.

Demon Xanth looked at Demoness Gaia. “Clarify the situation.”