Geis of the Gargoyle (11 page)

"But you aren't of the naga folk," Gary protested, somewhat confused.

Iris reappeared as the serpent vanished.
 
"How was the dragon to know that? It saw a woman transform into a serpent, as the naga do.
 
I think its conclusion was reasonable."

Her illusion had done it! "You saved us," he said weakly.

"Well, I wasn't going to let the thing chomp us," she said.
 
"What's the use of going on a quest if you just get eaten?"

Gary realized that there might be advantages to having the Sorceress along.
 
Her power of illusion could be as good a defense as real weapons, if the enemy did not know the difference.

They walked on, but another threat developed: a hungry roc bird spied them as they crossed a flat plain.
 
It folded its wings and dived toward them.
 
But a boulder appeared around them.
 
Gary was inside it, yet it looked real.
 
The roc blinked, twitched its beak, and sheered off, thinking it had gotten confused.

"Birds are not phenomenally smart," Iris observed.
 
Gary understood that, but still, had he been a roc, he would have sheered off too, because that boulder was so realistic.
 
Still, he wondered what would happen if some creature called her bluff, and charged on through the veil of illusion.

They continued, entering a deep valley.
 
In its center was a chasm, an arm or maybe a leg of the great Gap Chasm, which had offshoots extending far afield.
 
"How are we to get across this?" Gary asked as they approached the brink.
 
He was feeling less dizzy now, which was just as well, because it would not have been good to lose his balance and fall into the depths of the cleft.

"There must be a bridge somewhere," Iris said.
 
"Is that right, demoness?"

Mentia appeared.
 
"Sure, right beyond that copse to the north."

But then another threat appeared.
 
This was a truly ferocious creature, with the head of a serpent, body of a lion, cloven hooves, and a formidable stinger.
 
It bayed as it spied them, making a hideous noise.

"There's the Blatant Beaste," Mentia remarked, interested.
 
"It has a thousand tongues, and it doesn't let anything stand in its way, not even a naga or a boulder.
 
I wonder what kind of illusion will help you now?"

"We shall see," Iris said.
 
She looked around.
 
"I see that this chasm offshoot is highly irregular."

"That is the nature of gap radiations," Gary agreed, watching the beast nervously.
 
He had never been much concerned about such creatures when he was stone, but now in this feeble flesh manform he felt extremely insecure.

"Let's get beyond that jag," she said.

"Won't it just skirt the edge, as we do, and get at us with only a small delay?"

"Perhaps not."

They walked quickly around the jag, putting its depth between them and the monster.
 
Then they turned to look back.
 
Gary was surprised.
 
He had evidently misjudged the position of the jag, because they had not after all gotten beyond it.
 
"We had better move farther over," he said.

"No, this will do," Iris decided.

"But-"

"Trust me, stone beast."

Gary did not trust her judgment, but since it didn't make a lot of difference anyway, he settled down with her to wait for the arrival of the Blatant Beaste.
 
This was horrible, because of its noise.
 
It really did seem to have a mouthful of tongues, and all of them were shaping piercing screams.
 
It was definitely intending mayhem.

It charged right toward them.
 
Gary gazed desperately around, trying to find something that this puny human body could use as a weapon, but there was only level dirt leading up to the edge of the chasm to the side.

The Beaste's screams became deafening.
 
It was only three bounds and ten paces from them, and there was nothing to stop it, not even an illusion wall.
 
Yet Iris seemed unconcerned.
 
In fact, she even lifted her spread hand, put her thumb to her nose, and waggled her fingers at the creature.

The Blatant Beaste became, if anything, even more baleful.
 
It picked up speed, charging straight across the level sand.

And suddenly dropped out of sight.
 
There were only the continuing sounds of its screams rising from under the ground.

Then Iris banished her illusion.
 
The jag of the chasm reappeared, right where Gary had first thought it was.
 
She had covered it with the image of sand, and the Beaste had been fooled and plunged headlong in.

"Blatant Beastes aren't very smart either," the Sorceress remarked as she resumed walking north.

Gary hadn't been any smarter, he realized.
 
It hadn't occurred to him that illusion could cover up something that wasn't there, as well as making something appear.
 
She had made an illusion chasm to the side and concealed the real one.

As Gary walked, he found that he was uncomfortable in the midsection again, but this time he wasn't hungry, so he tried to ignore it.

Soon they reached the bridge and crossed over.
 
The track continued wending generally west.
 
Apparently they had gotten beyond the dragon path and were now on a more established route.

"I recognize this now!" Iris exclaimed.
 
"It's one of the enchanted paths."

"Yes, we intersected the enchanted network at the bridge," Mentia said.

"And here I was worrying about staving off more monsters.
 
Why didn't you tell us?"

Mentia shrugged.
 
Her shoulders misjudged the range and went on up over her head before she thought to draw them back down into place again.
 
"Why didn't you ask?"

Iris decided to ignore that.
 
"And just where along this is the golem residence?"

"Just north of the Gap Chasm.
 
They live in a club house."

"North of the Gap!" But again, she hadn't actually asked.
 
Gary had assumed, as Iris evidently had, that it was south.
 
Had they struggled to avoid monsters when they might have taken a more direct route and avoided them entirely? Gary made a mental note not to take the demoness on faith; it wasn't worth it.

Meanwhile, Gary's discomfort of the midsection hadn't eased.
 
Maybe his soft human body was just getting tired.

They came to a campsite.
 
"We might as well stop here," Iris said.
 
"The day is getting late."

"Yes," Gary said.

She glanced at him.
 
"You look uncomfortable."

"I am.
 
But I'm not hungry."

Iris considered.
 
"You haven't been a flesh creature before? You didn't have to eat?"

"Yes, I didn't."

"Then maybe I can guess what else you didn't have to do.
 
You had better go to that toiletree over there and do it."

"Do what?" he asked.
 
"I really don't feel up to anything very energetic."

"Precisely.
 
Just go there and maybe you will figure it out." Then she thought of something else.
 
"But maybe you should take off your clothes before you do."

"What has my clothing to do with it?"

She shrugged, and her shoulders stayed in proper place.
 
"Maybe you will have to find out on your own."

So Gary went to the toiletree, stepped behind it, and pulled off his awkward clothing.
 
He still felt quite uncomfortable.

Then he saw something floating by.
 
It seemed to be a dot.
 
It was followed by a second dot, and then a third dot.

•
  
•
  
•

"Are you feeling better now?" Iris inquired as he rejoined her in the main section of the camp.

"Much better." And he did.
 
But the curious thing was that he couldn't remember what had happened by the toiletree.
 
He had seen the three floating dots, and then he was here, dressed and in good order.
 
Apparently those dots had made him forget about whatever happened, if anything had happened.

"Then you must have seen the ellipsis," she said.

"The ellipsis?"

"The three dots.
 
They cover up anything that's unmentionable, such as stork summoning or natural functions.
 
That makes it possible for us to live without perpetually blushing."

That explained it.
 
But now Gary was hungry again.
 
Fortunately there was a pie tree growing at the camp, with many kinds of pies, and there were milkweeds too.
 
They had everything they needed.

As the sun set, they made piles of pillows and blankets harvested fresh from their bushes, and settled down for the night.
 
Gary had never seen the purpose of pillows before, but now that he was flesh he took great comfort in them.
 
He lay relaxed-and found himself in a weird other realm.

"Yo!" he cried, startled.

"What now?" Iris asked sleepily from her bed nearby.

"I was somewhere else, and everything was in fragments and confused."

"Oh.
 
You were dreaming."

"Dreaming?"

"It's what living folk do when they sleep."

"But I was seeing things, and doing things.
 
I was awake."

"You were awake in your dream, but asleep in real life.
 
When you dream, your soul enters the gourd realm and you get the dreams they make for you.
 
Just forget them when you wake."

"Forget them? You mean they don't matter?"

"Not in ways we need to remember.
 
So you can ignore anything that happens while you are sleeping.
 
Most live creatures do."

That was a relief.
 
Gary settled back down on his bed of pillows, and if he dreamed again, he didn't remember.
 
It was possible to get along, as a flesh creature, once he learned the knack of it.

"What was that?" Gary asked, alarmed.

"What was what?"

"That hurtling whatever that just went by."

"Oh, that.
 
Just a time break," Iris explained.
 
"It's so we don't have to go into boring detail all the time.
 
It's like the ellipsis, only moreso."

"Oh." He relaxed.
 
He realized that he had seen similar things before, but hadn't paid attention.
 
Now that he was in vulnerable flesh form, every detail bothered him until he knew it was safe.