Heaven Cent (26 page)

The eye wavered and looked in a new direction. They were finally getting close! But when it showed by its motions that they had found the spot it was eyeing, they were chagrined. There was nothing there but brush and sand.

Dolph walked around and around in a circle, but the eye continued to watch only that one bare place. What could this mean?

They sat in a circle and discussed it. Nada assumed her naga form for this, as it was better in sand. Dolph tried to treat her as before, neither staring at her nor ignoring her, but it was difficult. If only she had been what she seemed to be, a nice girl of his own generation! If only he had not learned, the hard way, that all girls were alike!

“Could the Heaven Cent have been here, and been moved before we got here?” Grace’l asked.

“Then why didn't the watch follow it to its new location?” Marrow asked in turn.

“Maybe it couldn't.”

“Then why does it seem so certain?” Dolph asked. “It seems to think the cent is right here.”

“Maybe—” Nada said, then hesitated.

Dolph looked at her. She was still pretty, in whatever form. He looked away.

“Maybe because you got it in Mundania,” Nada said. “We thought it was using magic, here, but that's really not its nature. If it is still using science—”

“The cent is in Mundania!” Dolph exclaimed. “This part of Mundania!”

“Yes!” she exclaimed. For a moment their eyes met, as they shared the momentary joy of discovery. Then Dolph averted his gaze again.

“That does seem to make sense—uh, to be reasonable,” Marrow agreed. “However—”

“—we may have a problem reaching Mundania from here,” Grace’l concluded. “Perhaps we shall have to seek another Eye Queue vine to enable us to figure out the answer.”

Dolph remembered how Nada had used the vine before. Now he remembered a fact about the vine: it often did not generate true intelligence, but only a pseudo smartness that quickly became evident as worthless. For an example, an ogre who used it might think he was brilliant, but others would still see him as a dunce. One ogre had indeed used the vine to become smart, but that was Smash Ogre, who was actually half human; the vine merely invoked his smarter half, rather than creating intelligence from stupidity. Nada's human heritage had been evident all along; what had accounted for her increased intelligence, then?

He remembered how she had struck him at the time as like his big sister. That had turned him off, but his knowledge that her visit to Mundania would wipe out any magic not inherent had consoled him. Indeed, she had reverted to normal thereafter, becoming nice instead of obnoxious. But now he knew that the vine had in fact invoked her true nature, the know-it-all attitude of the fourteen-year-old girl. He should have taken warning then. But like the child he was, he had ignored the signal, fascinated with the notion of a girl who was not like all the others.

“The answer the last one provided turned out to be risky,” Marrow said. “Only Dolph could go there in his human form, and he did not speak their language. The help Nada could provide in her snake form was limited—”

“In fact I fell into a ditch, and Dolph rescued me,” Nada said. “I was a liability, not a help.”

“Dolph did not mention that,” Grace’l remarked.

“Dolph's a decent person,” she said.

Dolph fought against a surge of appreciation, reminding himself how angry he was with her. “Let's skip the Eye Queue vine,” he said. “We should be able to figure it out on our own.”

They continued to discuss it, but got nowhere. The day was getting late, so they broke to find food.

“I saw a pie tree during our circuit of the isle,” Grace’l said. “I can show you where it is.”

“I'm not hungry,” Nada said.

Dolph wasn't very hungry either, but didn't want to agree with Nada, so he went with the skeleton to find the pies.

“You know, Dolph, Nada didn't want to deceive you,” Grace’l said. “She was very sad about it, but when her father told her she had to marry you—”

“I understand,” Dolph said shortly.

“She cried at night, and pretended to be happy by day. She was never the child you took her for. But she was determined to make you happy.”

“So I wouldn't break the betrothal!” Dolph said, his anger coming to the surface. “I would never have made it in the first place, if I had known!”

“King Nabob knew that. But the Good Magician had told them that one of his children had to marry what the dragon brought, so when you came, they knew they had to do it. Nada believed that an innocent deception for a good purpose was all right, but she would not deceive you about love.”

“She didn't,” he agreed coldly.

“She is in a difficult situation, but she's a good girl.”

“She is a princess.” That said it all.

“She is a feeling creature. You are being cruel to her.”

"What business of yours is it?” he flared.

“You agreed to the betrothal because you needed the help of the naga to rescue Marrow. Marrow was in trouble because he needed the firewater opal to release me from hostage status. Thus you were betrothed because of me. That makes it my business.”

Dolph wasn't sure of her logic, but did not care to argue it. “I have to marry her. I don't have to like her.”

“She had to marry you. She didn't have to love you.”

Suddenly Dolph was crying, without reason, and it did not seem strange at all that Grace’l was holding him. Her bones were rounded so that they did not hurt. But nevertheless there was something strange about it, and in a moment he realized what it was. Her bones were not hard! “You're fleshed!” he exclaimed.

Grace’l looked at herself. “Ugh!” she exclaimed. “I thought we'd left that illusion behind! Some of it must have followed me here!”

“We were talking about deception,” Dolph said, wiping his eyes. “Maybe that attracted it.”

“I must get it off me!” she cried, brushing at herself. The illusion was not quite as comprehensive as before, because it did not include clothing, but that seemed scant consolation to her. “What will Marrow think?”

Dolph could not refrain from smiling. “He has to like you. He doesn't have to look at you.”

“Very funny!” she said severely. “This time it is worse than before; I can feel it as well as see it. Have you any notion what a turnoff something like this is to our kind?”

“About the same kind that five years age is with our kind?” Dolph asked.

“Well, I hope Marrow is more tolerant than you are!” she snapped. Then, immediately, she was sorry. “I shouldn't have said that! I apologize—”

But Dolph, stricken, had to demur. “I shouldn't hold her age against her,” he admitted. “But it sure is hard not to.”

“For her too,” she reminded him. “That's why she can't love you.”

“Yes.” Dolph still did not like the situation at all, but he was coming to accept it.

They found the pie tree. It was a simple cherry tree, with no other kind of pie ripening, but that was good enough. Dolph selected two of the best and picked them. “Let's go back.”

“You aren't eating here?”

“It is better to share.”

“Yes,” Grace’l agreed. “Even when there are problems, it is better to share.”

Marrow and Nada were talking animatedly as they returned, but ceased. Marrow's hollow sockets stared. “What?”

“It's me—Grace’l,” Grace’l said. “With the grace note.” She plinked her finger against her smallest extra rib, and it sounded musical even though the illusion made her look meaty. “I got caught by an illusion whorl and I can't get rid of it.”

“The key of G!” Nada exclaimed. “Could that mean—”

“The skeleton key!” Dolph concluded. "We had it with us all along! Then, as the others stood amazed, he proffered Nada the second pie.

“But—” she said.

“I apologize for treating you cruelly, and ask you to accept this token of amend,” he said in the best princely manner.

Her gaze flicked briefly to Grace’l as she realized the skeleton's part in this. Then she assumed girl form and took the pie. “I accept your apology and the pie, though neither was necessary,” she said in the best princessly manner.

So they had officially made up. But the rift remained. They were incompatible, and no apologies could change that. How he wished it were otherwise!

“But if Grace’l is the skeleton key,” Marrow said, keeping his hollow gaze away from what, to a living man, would have been considered most attractive flesh on Grace’l, “then it is a music note instead of a key for a lock. How can that unlock the Heaven Cent?”

“A magic lock that responds to music instead of to a physical key,” Dolph said. “That must be what the Good Magician's message means. That Grace’l’s grace note in the key of G is what will lead us to the Heaven Cent. There doesn't really have to be a lock, just that key!”

“But if the Cent is in Mundania, Grace’l can't play the note there,” Morrow said.

“We can reach Mundania the same way we did before, through the gourd. Maybe it is the exit from the gourd to Mundania that the note opens.”

“Yes!” Nada exclaimed. “That must be it!”

“But we have no huge zombie gourd here,” Marrow said. “If we made the long trip back to the zombie gourd, and entered that, I still would not know which gourd exited here. If you exited there, you would have to travel alone all the way here, and that does not seem good at all.”

“But there is a gourd just across the water, at the plaque to my grandfather,” Dolph said. “We could use that—” He broke off, realizing that that would be a different matter. He could not physically enter that gourd, which meant that he would have to let his soul enter it alone, while his body remained frozen at the peephole. He did not like mat notion at all.

“Also—” Grace’l began.

“You are forbidden to re-enter the gourd,” Marrow concluded, remembering. “So we can not use your note anyway.”

“But you know, she doesn't look much like herself now,” Nada said. “Maybe she wouldn't be recognized.”

Grace’l shook her head, and her illusion curls flounced. Marrow winced, which was a good trick with his features. Dolph realized that Grace’l was now as distasteful to Marrow as Nada was to him, and for similar reason: too much flesh. But in Grace’l’s case it was illusion, while in Nada's case it was not. “I wanted so much to return to the gourd,” she said. “The thought of continued exile appalled me. I had hoped to find a gourd, enter, and beg for pardon for my crime and try to make amends. But now that I have come to be satisfied with existence out here, and have no further wish to return, it seems that I must. If I am the skeleton key you seek, then I will do what I can to enable you to find the Heaven Cent.”

They pondered, considered, and discussed it, and decided that they would have to make the attempt. Marrow and Grace’l could enter the gourd physically, because they had originated within it; Dolph could enter it nonphysically. They knew where they were going: to Mundania right here. If there was a way through the gourd, they would find it, and the Quest would finally be done. Nada, meanwhile, would stand guard here in Xanth, and snap Dolph out of it if anything threatened.

They made the boat and sailed back to the beach on the mainland. There they went to the King Trent Memorial and picked up the gourd, which really wasn't part of it. Dolph reread the plaque, curious about its references. “By Heaven Sent, Beside this Amaranth ...” They said the spelling of Cent was different, but he wondered. The two terms were very familiar, and the two spots were very close together. The watch had taken them right past this spot. Who had set up this monument? Who had planted the amaranth flower? He could not shake the feeling that they were overlooking something important.

“Does the amaranth grow in Mundania?” he asked.

“Of course not,” Nada replied. “It's magic.”

“But it might grow in Mundania, in a Mundane version,” he persisted.

“It seems pointless to be concerned about it,” Marrow said. “Let's get this gourd across to the isle before darkness falls; we cannot be sure what monsters will appear in the night.” He bent to take hold of the gourd.

There was a sound from the monument, as of a bell ringing. “What is that?” Grace’l asked, startled.

“An alarm!” Dolph and Nada said together. They had learned of this type of thing during their Mundane excursion.

“What would that be for?” Marrow asked.

“To prevent anyone from molesting my grandfather's monument, I think,” Dolph said.

“Then we should have nothing to fear,” Marrow said. relieved.

In a moment there was a stirring in the sea. Something was swimming rapidly toward them. When it came to the shallow surf, it showed as a huge ugly fish, with a tusked, piglike head. Then it heaved itself out of the froth to the sand, and Dolph saw that there were three big eyes set in its side, as well as those of its head. It had four short legs with flippers, and a set of curled horns. It proceeded toward them by bounding with considerable vigor, all four feet together.

“That's an argus!” Nada exclaimed. “We have some in our cave waters. They are mean customers!”

“But if the monument's alarm summoned it, it can't be completely wild,” Dolph said. “I'd better check.” He assumed the form of another argus.

The incoming argus spied him and came to a sand-stirring halt. “Who are you, boar-face?” it demanded.

“I am Prince Dolph, King Trent's grandson,” Dolph replied in its language. “These are my companions.”

“Oh. Then you are not here to molest the monument.”

“No. We admire it. Who set it up, and who maintains it?”

“That is a medium-length story, and probably uninteresting.”

“No, we are interested!” Dolph protested. “I am here on a quest for the Heaven Cent, and did not know of this monument. My grandfather never mentioned it. Please tell me all about it.”

“You are really interested?” the argus asked, amazed.

“Yes. I want to know as much as I can about this region and this monument. Why does it have this amaranth, and why did our touch of the gourd sound the alarm? Surely the gourd is not part of the monument!”

“Surely it is!” the argus countered. “Come, settle in the water where we can be comfortable, and I will tell you everything.”