Heaven Cent (19 page)

“Now kick me down!” Marrow's skull cried. “And blow harder!”

Nada walked up and made a hesitant kick at a hip bone. This turned out to be enough; Marrow flew apart, and reformed in his natural configuration.

But the goblins were charging back. Nada lifted Dolph and blew as hard as she could. Marrow dived out of the way.

The wind emerged with the sound of thunder. It swept down the tunnel, carrying rocks and sand along. It hurled the goblins so far and hard that they disappeared. Even when Nada's breath ran out, and she paused to gasp in more air, the sound of that gale carried back, rampaging onward down the tunnel.

Nada put the mouthpiece to her mouth—and Dolph reverted to boy form. Suddenly they were embracing and kissing, Nada's hands playing a tune down Dolph's bare back.

“There's no stopping those two!” the King complained, not completely annoyed.

“Ooo, you tricked me!” Nada said, no more annoyed than her father.

“I had to catch up on kisses,” Dolph explained.

“Move out!” the King said. “Those goblins will be after us.”

Dolph and Nada changed to naga form. They slithered toward the water. Then Dolph halted. “But Marrow can't swim!” he said.

“Kick me into a rope, and bite my end,” Marrow said.

“Bite your end?” Nada asked. Then she and Dolph dissolved into laughter.

“I'll do it!” King Nabob snapped. In man form he booted the skeleton; then, as Marrow fell into rope form, the King assumed snake form, and caught the end bone between his teeth. Then he slithered to the water and plunged in.

Already there were stirrings far down the tunnel. The goblins were regrouping! Dolph and Nada slithered quickly after the King. They did not want another session with the goblins!

It was a much harder swim, against the current, but they made it by evening. They collected in the cave where Dolph had started, when Draco brought him. “I believe we have delivered our part of the deal,” King Nabob said gravely. “Now my daughter will travel with you. Prince Dolph, until you come of age.” He paused as if anticipating an objection from Marrow.

But Marrow had seen the two embrace and kiss. He sighed, shaking his head, knowing that it was too late for a protest. The deal had, after all, been for his benefit.

When he shook his head, the two gems within it rattled. “We must settle accounts with the dragon!” he exclaimed, remembering. “We can not steal his gems during the truce!”

“No problem about that,” Dolph said. “He has given them both to us, one for the merwoman, the other for you, for saving his treasure. Keep them in your head until we return to the sea.”

Marrow considered. “Then it seems that all accounts have been settled.” He glanced eyelessly at Dolph. “But your mother will be most perturbed about—”

“Well, she'll have years to get used to it, until I come of age to many,” Dolph said. He had discovered that he rather liked being betrothed. Nada was the first girl he had encountered whom he really liked.

“You must suffer our hospitality for the night,” the King said briskly, pleased that no trouble had developed. “A boy your age needs food and rest.”

Dolph realized how tired he was. “I guess so,” he agreed. “I hope your food is good.”

Nada made a face. “It's yucky!” she proclaimed.

"It's nutritious.” the King retorted firmly.

Dolph sighed. The dread Adult Conspiracy had manifested again. Children were never allowed anything really good.

In the morning, well rested and nutritiously (ugh) fed, Dolph and Nada set out with Marrow. The naga escorted them to a hidden cave aperture at ground level, and Nada bid a tearful farewell to her father, the King. She didn't seem to have a mother; Dolph hesitated to inquire about that. He felt guilty about being responsible for their separation, but reminded himself that it was King Nabob who had insisted on the deal. Dolph might have argued that he would keep his word about the betrothal, so that Nada didn't have to tag along with him until he came of age. But Nada was the first girl or girl creature he had really liked, and he wanted her company. So he was silent, and guilty.

Nada assumed girl form and kicked Marrow in the tailbone. Marrow flew apart, and landed in the form of a globular cage crafted of finely linked bones. Nada opened the door in it and stepped inside, closing and latching the door behind her. The naga handed her a bag of sandwiches and cookies, as well as several balls of green, blue, and orange juice.

The wind was right. Dolph assumed roc form, spread his wings, and lurched into the air. He caught the Marrow cage with his talons and lifted it. Nada waved to the naga below, then exclaimed at the marvels of flight. She had never experienced anything like this before, and was delighted. Everything was new to her. Listening to her exclamations, Dolph felt anew the wonder of it. It was as much fun having her enjoy it as it had been for himself, the first time.

A flying dragon showed on the horizon. It was not Draco; the species differed. It started toward them. “Caw!!” Dolph squawked warningly. The dragon changed course.

Even in dragon country, no one messed with a roc in the air. This was one reason he favored this form, just as he favored the ogre on land.

The high winds shifted to favor him, and he made excellent progress southeast. Each time he used this form, he was better at it, becoming a stronger flier with experience. Surprisingly soon the Gap Chasm came into view.

“Oooo!” Nada exclaimed, awed. “What a crack in the ground! How come I never heard stories about it?”

“There was a Forget Spell on it,” Marrow explained. "It stopped folk from remembering it until relatively recently, and even now the news spreads slowly. For a time parts of it spun off in forget whorls that caused some mischief, but now most of those are gone. Now that you have seen the Gap, you will remember it.”

“Oh, goody! I don't want to forget a thing! I never knew that being betrothed could be this much fun!”

Dolph had not known it either. But he dreaded his return to Castle Roogna, where his mother would certainly have Something to Say. The fact that he liked Nada would probably make the reckoning worse, because children weren't supposed to have fun.

In due course the seacoast appeared. Dolph followed the coast south, flying lower, until he recognized the region where Mela Merwoman swam. He coasted down to the beach. Now how would they get to her underwater lair? They would have to get more air plants, and—

But then he saw two figures wading from the water. Mela, with legs, and Grace’l, with the knapsack. They had of course noted his approach in the mirror, and had come out to meet the party!

Dolph managed to stall out barely above the beach, and he dropped the cage into the shallow water. It splashed, but the water cushioned its fall so that Nada was not hurt. He was getting better at landings, too!

While Dolph changed to boy form, Nada kicked the cage in the hipbone, then changed back to her natural form. Marrow performed introductions, so that Nada, Mela, and Grace’l could tell each other apart. Then Marrow tilted his skull and knocked it with a hand bone, and the two firewater opals rolled out into his other hand.

Mela gaped. “Two?” Evidently she had not seen the action clearly enough through the little mirror to learn of this before. If the Tapestry had been watching Dolph instead of Marrow, the business with the gems might not have been shown.

“Draco Dragon realized that there had been a misunderstanding,” Dolph explained diplomatically. “So he is returning your opal to you. The other—”

“Is its twin, which I am giving to you to redeem Grace’l.” Marrow said. ”The two make a set, far more valuable than they are individually."

"But only one is mine!' Mela protested.

“Both are yours,” Marrow said firmly. “With these you should have no difficulty marrying a suitable merman.” He passed the two gems to her.

Dolph kept quiet. He knew that the second opal was rightfully Marrow's, his reward for saving most of the other gems from the goblins. If Marrow had not been there, the goblins would have taken everything. Dolph had told Marrow about the dragon's misunderstanding about the fire-water-sand contest, and about Draco's inexplicable reluctance to have the nature of that confusion told to Mela. It seemed that Marrow felt the merwoman should have more back than she had lost.

It also meant, he realized as he thought about it, that Mela would have no further interest in Dolph. With two opals, she could probably have her choice of all the available mermen. Since Marrow was trying to protect Dolph from what his mother would call “predatory females” —whatever that meant—this was as good a way as any.

But mainly Dolph kept silent because now he liked Nada Naga better than Mela Merwoman. He wasn't sure why, because certainly Mela's legs were more interesting, and perhaps other parts of her too, but he thought it was because Nada was a child like him, and saw things pretty much his way. Also, he was betrothed to her.

Mela stood dazed for a long moment, perhaps a moment and a half, gazing at the twin opals as they blazed brightly in her hand. Then she flung her arms around the skeleton and hugged him hard. “Oh, Marrow!” she exclaimed. “You are wonderful!”

“Um, uh,” Marrow said, taken aback. “You'll bruise your flesh.”

She let him go and stepped back. Sure enough, there was a skeletal pattern across her front where the bones had dented her generous flesh. “I'll survive,” she said. “Is there anything at all I can do for you?”

“We, as you know, are searching for the Heaven Cent,” Marrow said. “We suspect it may be on a skeleton key. Do you know the nature of the keys farther to the south? Any information would be appreciated.”

“Well, I see them mainly from the underside,” Mela said. “I forget whether any are skeletal, but there are some Isles of Pleasure—no, that's not it. Isles of Happiness—no, that's not it either. I really can't remember—Ah! Isles of Joy! That sounds like it. There are two or three—no, maybe five or six—I forget how many there are, but several, anyway.”

“The Forget Spell!” Dolph exclaimed. “Could some of it have drifted down this way?”

Marrow nodded. “That is possible. That would account for her vagueness about the details.” He faced the merwoman. “We thank you, Mela; we shall investigate those several isles. Perhaps the Heaven Cent is on one of them.”

“I hope so. Don't hesitate to call on me if you need anything!” Mela stepped into the water, and her feet reverted to flukes. Soon she was gone into the sea.

“She has a nice tail,” Nada remarked. Dolph realized that tails were more a part of her life than his, because of her nature. He had always found Mela's legs more interesting than her tail, for some reason, perhaps because legs were more a part of his life.

It was late in the day. Dolph and Nada shared her sandwiches and drink balls, while the two skeletons discussed prospects. “If there is a forget whorl in the vicinity, there could be mischief for us,” Marrow said.

“What is a forget whorl?” Grace’l asked.

Marrow explained about the Gap Chasm and the spell that had been on it. “The original spell was disciplined, causing only the forgetting of the Gap itself, once a person departed from it. But the whorls, though much smaller, can be more intense, and cause other kinds of forgetting. By this time they should have faded in strength; still, they should be best avoided.”

“But Mela suffered only slight loss of memory, about the isles,” Grace’l pointed out. “That should not be dangerous.”

“True. But she might also have forgotten other dangers associated with the isles. If there are dragons there, or tangle trees, or more subtle threats, we would be ill-advised to bring Prince Dolph there.”

“She could also have seen the Heaven Cent there, and forgotten it!” Dolph called. “We have to check!”

“Yes! We have to check!” Nada echoed, picking up the spirit of it.

Marrow exchanged a hollow glance with Grace’l, in the way typical of adults. They were reluctant, but unable to refute this impetuous logic.

Soon the two skeletons formed two bone cabins for the night, one for each child to use. Dolph and Nada protested that they would be happy to sleep together, sharing one larger cabin, but for some reason intelligible only to adults the skeletons refused to hear of it.

Nada made a face and sighed. “1 thought maybe things would be different outside the caves,” she said.

“Adults are adults, all over Xanth,” Dolph said. “I don't know what happens when folk grow up, but it never fails. They stop believing in the Monster Under the Bed, and start believing in nutritious food, and they join the Adult Conspiracy and all that other junk.”

“Maybe something comes and casts a mean old spell over them,” Nada conjectured. “I hope it never catches us!”

“We'll stop it, somehow!” Dolph said fervently.

With that resolution they had to be satisfied. They climbed into their separate cabins and slept.

In the morning Nada turned girl again, for breakfast, and they plucked and ate fresh do-nuts from a nut tree, avoiding the don't-nuts. There was a beerbarrel tree nearby, but true to adult form the skeletons objected. They had to search out wholesome milkweed pods instead, and to finish every last drop of milk in each of their pods. Yuck! Was there no end to this tyranny?

Then Dolph and Nada assumed naga form, and slithered south at a good rate. Marrow wore the knapsack, while Grace’l carried a few extra milk pods for future use. The children agreed glumly that it would have been a different story if the skeletons had had to eat. But the skeletons were independent of food, so had no hesitation in forcing nutritious food on those who knew better.

At noon they came to a signboard posted on the beach. ISLES OF JOEY. They stopped and considered it.

“Is that correctly spelled?” Marrow inquired.

“Looks all right to me,” Dolph said.

“But you spell the way your father does,” Marrow pointed out.

“There is no 'e' in 'Joy,' ” Grace’l said.

“Whoever made that sign must have forgotten how to spell it,” Nada said.

“Because of the forget whorl!” Dolph exclaimed. “That explains it!” He studied the sign again. “If it really is wrong ...”

Grace’l made a rattling laugh. “It really is wrong. Joy is spelled J-O-Y. No extra letters.”

“What about 'He'?” Dolph demanded. “How can it have that V in it? Isn't that wrong too?”

“That's just the way it is,” Grace’l said. “I-S-L-E.”

Dolph gave up. There was no sense trying to talk sense to adults. They were constitutionally incapable of seeing the obvious.

“At any rate,” Marrow concluded, “this does seem to be the region Mela was describing. We shall have to watch for isles, and explore them, cautiously.”

They continued down the beach. Soon the first isle appeared, not far offshore. It looked quite ordinary, almost mundane; there was no sign of enchantment about it.

The two skeletons arranged to be kicked into their boat and sail configuration, and Dolph and Nada got in. There was a brisk sea breeze blowing in exactly the wrong direction, in the mischievous way such juveniles had, but the skeletons used their tacking magic and angled in toward the isle.

They made it safely to the convenient harbor at the north end of the isle. Here were a number of boats—large, small, and tiny. Dolph and Nada disembarked in human form, and delivered two good kicks to the key bones, restoring the skeletons to their natural forms.

They looked around. A sign proclaimed THIEVES' ISLE.

They considered that. “Are we sure we want to be here?” Marrow asked. “We are not thieves.”

“But if there are thieves here,” Dolph said, “one of them might have stolen the Heaven Cent, so this would be the best place to look.”

A man ambled down a path. He was swarthy, and he had only one eye, and that eye flicked shiftily about. He came to the sign and dropped something on it, then approached the group. “Welcome to Honest Island! I am Black Pete, your friendly host. What brings you here?”

“Honest Island?” Dolph asked. “I thought the sign said—” He faltered, unable to remember exactly what the sign had said.

“What sign?” the man asked, his dusky brow furrowing.

The others shrugged. They did not remember any sign.

“We're looking for the Heaven Cent,” Marrow said. “Do you happen to know whether it is here?”

Pete looked more closely at Marrow. “I say, old chap, you could use a good meal! Come to our traveler's hotel. There we shall relieve you of all your burdens.”

Dolph was bothered by something, but could not pin it down. Certainly Black Pete was being nice enough. They followed him up the path to an elegant building almost as fancy as a palace. But as they passed through the gallant front portal, Dolph noticed that the whole front side was no more than a huge facade, a giant wall painted to look like the side of a building, with nothing much behind it. The actual building was a crude structure of logs and dried mud, with packed sand for the floor. He found this very curious, but didn't comment because nobody else did.

“Do you have any valuables?” Pete inquired, walking to the other side of the front desk. “We shall be happy to put them in our safe during your stay.”

“Just the magic mirror,” Dolph said. “But that's small, so there is no need to—”

“Oh? Let me see it.”

Dolph dug in the knapsack and pulled out the minor. Pete dropped something on it—or seemed to, because nothing fell from his hand. “Let me show you to your room,” Pete said, leading the way out the back.

They followed. Dolph was bothered again; wasn't there something—but he couldn't remember what it might be, so he followed the others.